Recent screening of ‘Sentenced’ at Exploration Place shows how Illiteracy impacts daily life. Film and discussion event shows need for cross-sector collaboration.
by Jacinda Hall
Many people across the United States are functionally illiterate. In fact, about 54% of adults in the U.S. read below a sixth-grade level.
The real-life effects of illiteracy are shown in the documentary “Sentenced,” screened earlier this month in conjunction with a discussion at Exploration Place in Wichita. The film follows four adults who never learned to read and are now struggling with the consequences.
“Sentenced” tracks four adults of differing backgrounds from across the country who struggle with illiteracy and how it affects them, their families and their daily lives. The health and economic barriers created by an inability to read text messages, decipher words, read bills or spell is shown rather than just told.
The documentary’s executive producer, Tony Kriz, said that he and those who help run the nonprofit, Children’s Literacy Project, have been working with schools nationwide, particularly Title I schools, to get community support for literacy programs.
“We realized through that work, that the most important thing we could be involved in is literacy,” Kriz said. “If we really want to change young people’s futures, the single best thing that we could put our efforts toward is making sure every kid could read by the fourth grade.”
Kriz said the nonprofit talked with teachers, principals and education experts. Those conversations helped them tighten their focus.
“We made a massive pivot and said ‘We’re gonna put all of our efforts toward this one idea: making sure every kid can read by fourth grade,’” Kriz said. “And like we do, like we’ve done with three other documentaries, we’re like, ‘We’re going to make a documentary.’”
“Sentenced” was directed by Connor Martin and Mark Allen Johnson, who went about the country to try to define the problem in a way that people could absorb.
“The challenge with literacy, early child literacy in particular, is it’s very hard to document the problem,” Kriz said. “Because we don’t really know what a child’s future is gonna be.”
So how did they document the problem?
“You have to show what those kids become,” Kriz said.
‘A powerful medium’
Kriz, Martin and Johnson were able to find communities with individuals who wanted to tell their stories. They decided to do a film because statistics show that people consume far more of YouTube than they do newspapers.
“We’ve moved into this video consumption culture,” Kriz said. “We wanted to create something that was vibrant and alive and in the ‘lingua franca,’ which is film, and film is just such a powerful medium because it is sort of an immersive medium, particularly when you see it in a theater.”
The film is narrated by NBA basketball player, Stephen Curry, who started a nonprofit with his wife, Ayesha Curry, called “Eat. Learn. Play.” According to Kriz, the documentary was reworked to add Curry’s voice after the initial showing in New York.
“We completed the film without him; we worked on it all through COVID, it took us four or five years to make,” Kriz said. “It was the keynote film at the New York Justice Film Festival. We showed it, we had a big panel, we had members of the New York government on stage and all these big time leaders and we did a panel afterwards discussing the importance of literacy and what can we do.”
In the audience was an assistant to Curry.
“We got a call from his people that said ‘Hey, are you willing to put that film back in the can and can we rework it a little bit and put in Stephen?’” Kriz recounts.
After a year of remaking the film, Kriz and the Children’s Literacy Project were invited to debut the film at the Library of Congress before it was put on the streaming service Peacock.
“It was on Peacock for about six to nine months, and we pulled it off Peacock because we want places like Wichita to be able to use it,” Kriz said. “We really wanted to bring back the exclusivity of it.”
Lead Wichita hosted a screening event for “Sentenced” on May 4 at Exploration Place, with a post-show conversation facilitated by Shane Carter, executive director of the Kansas African American Museum.
Cross-sector solutions
With his background in youth development and having previously worked in community centers, Carter wanted to collaborate with Lead Wichita because of his passion for literacy. He spoke with Lead Wichita CEO Damon Young about the importance of literacy and its impact on the city, USD 259 and the youth in the community.
“My lived experiences, my career work in youth and community development and how that aligns with what Damon is doing at Lead Wichita, it just felt like it was really right in my wheelhouse of some of the lived experiences that I participated in,” Carter said. “And ultimately wanting to move the needle, wanting to be in a role where if we could partner and bring awareness to this issue, we could move the needle and be able to support young people.”
Carter believes that the film brings awareness of ways that interested parties can be able to plug in to help with the issue of literacy in Wichita.
“Whether if it’s working and volunteering at other nonprofits, becoming a mentor or becoming a lunch buddy with young people,” Carter said. “I can’t speak to the numbers on literacy here, within USD 259, but I know that there is a need and there’s an opportunity where willing and able bodies can fill that void.”
Young said the main purpose of the film event was to raise awareness about the issue of literacy and how it’s a downstream issue that all communities should be focused on.
“We like to say that cross-sector problems require cross-sector solutions. Literacy isn’t an educational problem, it’s a community problem,” Young said. “So we need business, we need faith, we need every sector, nonprofits, philanthropy, all thinking about it. So we just want to raise awareness of the great organizations in Wichita that are doing work in this and drive action, drive volunteerism and to help these organizations tackle this important issue.”
CEO of Storytime Village, Dr. Prisca Barnes-Simmons, said she got emotional during the film.
“I had a tissue in my hand because I had some tears and I was like ‘Where’s the hope?’ I was looking for the hope,” she said. “Then I looked around the room. … The room was full of literacy practitioners, groups and organizations that are really doing the work to help improve literacy in our community, and that is the hope.”
Barnes-Simmons said that she read a portion of Kriz’s book, “Read,” and gathered the understanding that this documentary was going to be different in some way.
“It was really raw, it really followed the lives of struggling readers at all ages, different backgrounds, different communities,” Barnes-Simmons said. “I’ve seen some documentaries before, and I lead a children’s literacy nonprofit, but I haven’t seen a documentary approach literacy in this way.”
What impacted her the most was when the documentary ended.
“When the film ended, you heard someone have a question, … and he wanted to share this story because it impacted him and made him think differently about the literacy issue,” Barnes-Simmons said. “So that tells me that this film helps you to see literacy different.”
This article was republished here with the permission of: KLC Journal