Sarah Masters reviews the film

Hard Road Home

A statistic from the Bureau of Justice tells a story. “From 1995 to 2005, the number of jail inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents rose from 193 to 256.” That implies that the number of ex-convicts who have returned to society is also on the rise.

Hard Road Home brings film viewers into the lives of Julio Medina and members of the Exodus Transitional Community (ETC), the center Medina created to help ex-offenders navigate the transition from prison to life on the outside. ETC is situated above a storefront church in the East Harlem section of New York.

Julio Medina was arrested for dealing drugs and served 12 years for the crime. During his incarceration, he availed himself of the New York Theological Seminary Masters Program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Medina says the program gave him “more than he can name - his education, his faith, his vocation, his life back.” Following his release, Medina committed himself to helping ex-offenders through ETC.

The road for Medina was a long one, from drug dealer to prison inmate to founder of Exodus Transitional Community to a place beside President Bush in 2004 at the White House National Conference of Faith Based Community Initiatives.

By following the lives of Medina and three ex-offenders, Hard Road Home, directed by award-winning filmmaker Macky Alston, provides a unique and unprecedented look at the staggering challenges ex-offenders face. Their prison records make it nearly impossible for ex-offenders to survive without returning to a life of crime.

Prior to the screening of Hard Road Home on the PBS series Independent Lens, Alston said: “I hope that Hard Road Home will melt the hard hearts of all viewers who define people who have committed crimes and been in prison by the worst acts they have committed. I hope that viewers will recognize themselves in the lives of the people at Exodus as well as recognize the exceptional heroism of the formerly incarcerated people of Exodus who are committing themselves 24/7 to the salvation of a population at radical risk. I hope that people, following the broadcast, will go to hardroadhome.org and identify ways that they can join the movement to help formerly incarcerated people lead lives of meaning and security—lives maximized for the positive benefit they can have to society, rather than reduced to the damage they have done to it.”

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Completed: 2007
Running Time: 74 Minutes
Director: Macky Alston
Producer: Selina Lewis Davidson

If you are interested in purchasing this film, you can do so at www.hartleyfoundation.org. Just click on “Film Titles” on the home page and then “Top New Films” for more information. The cost is $19.99 for a DVD.

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