Sea Change

Interlock’s Director, Jonathan Schwartz, has recently returned from the village of Anilao. It is located three hours south of Manila in the Philippines, carved into the hillside outside of the port town of Batangas. He was conducting location research in an area dubbed the Su Sulawasi Seascape at the invitation of Suzette Cody, Green Mango Productions. The on-location research was for an intended series on oceans and coastal folkways, highlighting positive local responses to overfishing, pollution, and climate change.

The area is the site of radically innovative marine science being conducted on one the most biologically diverse areas of the world (despite its proximity to coastal industries ). Massive efforts are underway to put much of the stewardship of the bays and reefs in the hands of local fisherman and village leadership. It is a banner story that must be told.

Romeo Trono, the dynamic Executive Director of Conservation International in the Philippines. does a phenomenal job in the ecological hot spot they call the Coral Triangle. His teams efforts extend clear through to Turtle Island off of the coast of Sabah, Malaysia. Schwartz would potentially direct the piece in co-production with Green Mango.

Schwartz’s explorations set out from both above, in remote island villages, and underwater, where reefs are threatened by dynamite and cyanide fishing. He accompanied armed patrols in traditional fishing boats who navigate monsoon ripped waters to confront poachers, foreign trawlers, and even pirates.. This represents a new trend in 21rst century conservation where pristine is not always the order of the day. Imagine eco-system restoration and community based socio-economic initiatives working together!

Landmarks Foundation

Interlock has begun fostering collaboration with the Landmarks foundation, whose mission is to protect sacred sites globally and bolster religious tolerance and traditional folkways by doing so.

Most recently, the foundation was involved in the restoration of the Slat al Qahal Synagogue in Morocco. Other sites are located in Easter Island, Bhutan, Bolivia, Costa Rica.

The Blue Way: Paddling the Charles

Interlock is wrapping up a 20 minute video for a consortium of organizations promoting recreational access to the Charles River.

Our work is aimed to inspire populations such as new immigrants,seniors, and inner-city residents who historically have not utilized this New England gem. This video also detailed how individuals with disabilities can access canoes and kayaks through training and adapted technology. The history, and natural history, of the Charles is also highlighted.

The recent publication of “My Green Manifesto” by David Gessner, lends increased significance to our work.


Upcoming, stand by for exciting news for

Faith in the Big House and Parts Per Million

Sustainable Industries Television SITV

Interlock's film crew just returned from a shoot for SITV's pilot episode at InterfaceFLOR, a carpet manufacturer in LaGrange, GA. We went in to investigate their claims of sustainable business and we must say we were impressed. InterfaceFLOR has taken a historically toxic industry and cleaned it up with some heady philosophies and some practical technology.

We'd like to send a warm thanks the employees working at the reclamation and manufacturing plants who welcomed us with some honest to goodness Southern hospitality.

The pilot is now in the editing room being cut for marketing as we seek to add a conservationist flavor to the "How it's done/ How it's made" genre of reality TV.

Who will be next to come under the great investigative eye of Interlock Media?

Vinca Jarrett at Cannes

Bonjour to our own Vinca Jarrett, board member and attorney extraordinaire! Vinca is currently being wined and dined at the Cannes Film Festival where she is spreading the good word about Interlock. Until we meet again, ma cheri! Bonsoir!

Spring 2011 Updates

Having Faith

This anthropologically-informed social comment on the tug of war between secular and faith-based rehab in America’s prisons is now in picture lock. We were lucky enough last week to house a brilliant Nucoda Film Master, one of a handful of high end systems that color corrects footage and much more to give films their polished look. We will be using these systems to color grade Faith in the Big House.

Editing “ExPass”

Our crew of 3 editors is plugging away in the A suite, cutting ExPass and working towards an editing script with the recent collaboration of Eleanor Beaton, who spent a decade working with George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound.


SITV: Enterprise and the Environment

Interlock will soon be shooting a pilot episode of “Sustainable Industrial TV” (SITV). The pilot will be shot at Ray Anderson’s Interface Flor, a recycled carpet producer headquartered in Lagrange, Georgia. The “how-to” format show will feature a pair of comedic hosts and a “green” scoreboard to rate Interface against other companies.


The Urban Waterway

Charles River Recreation (CCR) offers affordable outdoor activities on the historic Charles River for busy city and metro dwellers. Interlock’s video will capture the natural beauty of the Charles and feature the efforts of CRR to make its resources available to persons with disabilities and to inner city youth.


Other developments... We are in the start up phase of “Tell Tale Signs,” a project from Board member Neil Smith. The 30-minute online weekly TV program will focus on corporate responsibility and sustainability. Smith and co-host Elsie Maio will provide candid, provocative commentary on domestic and global business, as they analyze what companies say and actually do for the environment and the communities in which they operate.

Recent News for 2010

Special thanks to Anna Lockwood for hosting Interlock’s Board of Directors Summer Summit on the banks of the Merrimack in Newburyport.

Lockwood’s lovely home shouldn’t fool you. For years she slept in tents, for months at a time, making blue-chip natural history films on tigers and monsoons prior to her post as Senior Manager, Professional Services Consulting, for the Americas at Avid.

In other recent news, Faith in the Big House had it’s first pre-release screening at a high tech cinema in Orlando. The feedback was invaluable; we’ve been in the cutting room since.

The piece is tantalizingly close to “ picture lock”, and the final soundtrack for Big House is being prepared by Frank Cunningham, a master PBS-WGBH re-mixer,and we’re moving into the very last scene tweaks and engineering. Many thanks to Board Members Peter Reilly and the Dumonds for their special help and encouragement.

The astounding, and intertwined paths of nineteenth century critic/ feminist Margaret Fuller and abolitionist/ author Thomas Wentworth Higginson are coming to life as a script/ treatment. It’s the brain child of former Interlock Treasurer Peter Reilly and shows promise as a dramatic narrative.

We’ve been demoing high-end color correction and visual fxs hardware, including the two systems considered the best in the world. This is to explore the possibility of becoming the first long-form feature-only finishing house in New England. The business concept is built mainly on providing theatrical quality color matching and mastering, some of it taking place during the shooting itself, for a better Indy film outcome.

The idea was inspired in part by conversations with Board Members Vinca Jarrett and David Kleiler; and of course, by the Massachusetts film tax credit incentive system. The first feature film we tackled, Oxymorons underwent a miraculous theatrical grade second pass color correction in our facility. It’s a mean streets biopic starring and produced by Johnny Hickey.

Set in Charlestown , it deconstructs the Oxycontin trade, an opioid more available and often more devastating than Heroin. Hydraulix (Avatar, 2012) is finishing the special fxs work with Bolden and Buhl who are now on site, and Finish and Heart Punch provided the rest of the post-production support. It has been an adventure.

The scenes that comprise The Extraordinary Passage of the Great White Hunter have been shaped. This impressive work remains in need of narration, segment integration, graphics and polish. It has been our longest project to complete and next to wrap on the heels of Faith in the Big House’s completion. It has attracted a measure of controversy before its release, with its frank portrayal of post- WWI racialism, eugenics and the

Just released, El Pilar chronicles the work of Archaeologist Anabel Ford in protecting the culture and livelihood of the Maya in Guatemala and Belize. Most early excavated Mayan structures, stripped of their underbrush and the canopy above them, now bake -- and decay -- in the sun. Acid dissolves the limestone and turns the ancient monuments to dust. Ford works alongside local Maya to preserve their century old cities and the traditional rain forest gardening that sustained the Maya.

Mifigash: How a group encounter with self-identity can transforms Jewish culture is currently being on-lined at Interlock’s studios.

Orlando Screening Fact Sheet & Faith in the Big House Short Synopsis

Orlando Screening Fact Sheet & Faith in the Big House Short Synopsis
Night of March 19th FACTS

Screening  At The Plaza At 8 PM O N Friday March 19th the first public sneak preview of  Faith In The Big House, shown in  Standard Definition Fine-Cut form, running at 85 Minutes. As an extra feature we will screen Turned Out: Sexual Assault Behind Bars at 10 PM also produced by Interlock Media and Directed by Jonathan Schwartz.
 
Portions of Faith were filmed in Orlando, and the Executive Producer of this Indy Doc is Orlando’s own Edward Poitras.
The final Release of faith will be HD Pro and will go through an on-line and mix to pix and be expanded to 88 mins.
 

Faith in the Big House

I. Brief Summary of Program:
The power of the growing prison ministry movement is put to the test as six Louisianian inmates struggle to break the cycle of incarceration. the late Orlando based  Bishop  Frank Constantino, a former mobster, serves up his prison to pulpit story as well. 
 
II.  Condensed Treatment

At the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, strict routines and hopelessness are the norm. On the outskirts of a dusty Louisianan Delta town near Baton Rouge, Hunt houses the largest maximum-security inmate population in a state that already has the highest per capita incarceration rate. Over three thousand inmates, mostly from New Orleans' notorious Ninth Ward, call the 18,000-acre prison farm home.


In the US, one out of a hundred citizens is currently behind bars. Three out of every four incarcerated individuals return to prison following release. In the South, it’s eight out of ten. 

These are discouraging stats for those that oversee the criminal justice system. Some turn to faith-based rehabilitation, revivals, and Bible studies as the answer. Prison ministries offer services at no charge at a time when funding for secular treatment and educational programs are being slashed. At the very least they do seem to keep inmate violence down.

Faith in the Big House contextualizes the debate surrounding fundamentalist Christian missions inside prisons. Residents Encounter Christ (REC), a small-time operation out of Sedalia, Missouri, is just one of hundreds of programs that seek to rescue souls deemed unsalvageable. Participation is strictly voluntary, but the promise of a break from the routine and better food guarantees attendance. Many who sign on have never set foot in the prison chapel.


Faith in the Big House asks: Can prison ministry truly change hardened criminals and can this instilled faith extend post-release? Does an emphasis on spiritual cures jeopardize resources needed for secular drug rehab and vocational training? Can true spirituality exist in a place like Hunt? 

Jeff Barkacs, a troubled single-dad, directs the REC weekend retreat at Hunt. Traveling nearly 700 miles at his own expense, he works with a small group of religious volunteers to offer their multi-denominational message to any inmate who will listen. Using persuasive tactics, motivational speaking, and traditional religious preaching they hope to bring lasting change to inmates’ lives. Barkacs certainly has his work cut out for him. 

Barkacs offers unconditional love and forgiveness and tough talk and humor from zealous ex-cons. Some prisoners sign up for personal gain – being a Christian in prison can look good to the parole board. Others are truly searching. Barkacs is both charismatic and complaining, compassionate and sometimes bitingly cruel, and a still-struggling ex-alcoholic.



Kenny Simmons is an articulate former Louisiana State University football star with an infectious smile; it's easy to forget that he's serving 20 years for battery.  As a practicing Muslim, Kenny is at times put off by conservative Christianity, but enjoys the earnest camaraderie of the retreat. He tries to keep an open mind, perhaps in part because Christianity could be an enormous help upon his release. 
 
Rusty Patterson's reasons for joining the workshop are harder to tease out. As a four-time drug offender, he exhibits the typical language of an unreformed user – blames and excuses. His first love is music but his primary interest is himself.


Timothy “Ice” Anderson believes in God and possibly white supremacy, but neither belief runs deep. His Sundays are devoted to softball, so his presence at the retreat surprises everyone.


Clay Logan is an astute self-styled prison theologian with a genuine interest in all religions. He checks out REC after starting to disassociate himself from Hunt's Muslim community. When he entered prison at sixteen, Clay was white, a Wiccan, and a Goth-- sentenced to forty years for killing his mother. With thirty years left, he has plenty of time to contemplate spirituality and alienation. 

Eric Cryer has become a single father while behind bars following the death of his wife. In one-on-one sessions with prayer warrior Ted Poitras he vows to be a better dad and to turn his life around upon his release. 

Leon Reddick, AKA Tyson, is a feared gang-banger at the end of a twenty-year sentence, so the issue of re-joining society is foremost on his mind. He has a born again Christian girlfriend who visits him every Saturday, and to everyone's surprise, he's baptized at the retreat. Shortly after his conversion, he's locked down for masturbating in front of a female guard, a common charge for those placed in solitary confinement.

The most controversial Faith character is Greg Riley, a Christian pastor and teacher who sodomized his four foster siblings. The Chaplain lost one-third of his inmate congregation when he appointed Riley musical director.

The organizers know that what often launches the conversion process for inmates is the letters sent them by anonymous Sunday school children which offer nonjudgemental love. As part of the weekend program, the men who participate encounter group-type activities such as performing skits of biblical tales. They address their sins and misdeeds by writing them down on paper and burning them solemnly.


The US has a long history of attempting to use religion as a means of reforming criminals. Chuck Colson, of Watergate fame, leads Innerchange, the world's largest ministry for convicts, ex-offenders, and their families. 50,000 volunteers, many from mainstream Protestant and Catholic congregations, support Colson's efforts.
 
Back at Hunt Correctional a new chapel frames the front entrance. Its steeple rises as high the guard tower. For some inmates this chapel symbolizes hope for a better life.
 
Faith tracks the complexities of faith-based rehabilitation at a time when even the notion of rehabilitation has become something of a national joke and repeat offenders are the norm.

"Turned Out" in Orlando and Review from Susan Adams

From Susan Adams, Forbes,
Interlock Advisory Board

A surprisingly touching and revelatory film about a brutal subject: prison rape. After shooting for 100 hours inside 14 different correctional facilities, director Jonathan Schwartz and his crew honed in on the story of a handful of men at a cash-strapped Alabama prison called Limestone. The inmates describe the complex, conflicting emotions, ranging from brutality to tenderness and even love, that develop over time as they engage in a sex ring where prisoners are "turned out," and then traded for favors, cigarettes and snacks.

Mindy, a young blonde with a beautiful face, is haunting and sexy as he talks about how he developed feelings for Lamarck, the man who raped him. When Lamarck describes the excitement and thrill of overcoming his conquests, it is a window onto a disturbing, base element of human nature. The film also shows footage from a prison in Florida, including undercover shots of a warden attempting to rape an inmate.

Shot mostly inside prison walls, with interviews that run long, the film nevertheless moves briskly, helped by a great soundtrack of "dirty south" music, including several cuts by southern rapper C-Nile. Narrator Danny Trejo, a former inmate himself, lends credibility and soul.

The first ever full-length documentary on prison rape, the making of Turned Out played a hand in the Bush Administration's passing the Prison Rape Elimination Act, requiring the Justice Department to come up with a strategy for combating sexual assault behind bars. The film has also proved cathartic to rape survivors, leading many to seek therapy. For a general audience, Turned Out is riveting viewing. With impressive sensitivity and grace, the filmmakers shed light on one of the darkest corners of the penal system.

The DVD's supplemental materials include segments worth watching, including a rocking music video by C-Nile. Director Schwartz's articulate commentary is full of fascinating details about the film's production and the subject of prison rape.