Resistance Cinema: Restorative Justice

Join us at 6:30pm, Tuesday, October 5, 2021, via Zoom to watch and then discuss the film Restorative Justice: Changing Hearts and Minds.

Filmed over a two-year period, this new half-hour documentary follows the local restorative justice movement as it takes root in Santa Rosa schools, the Sonoma County judicial and probation system and in the lives of victims, offenders, teachers, students, volunteers and parents.

Narrator Karym Sanchez is a former troubled youth who shares his story, revealing a need for restorative justice that wasn’t an option when he was growing up as an undocumented minor living out of his car. His downward spiral hits rock bottom when he is expelled from school and arrested for stealing beer on the same day. As the story builds, we begin to understand his inspiration for working with youth today at Restorative Resources.

Director John Beck interviews everyone affected in the community, especially focusing on youth in the program, who share honest, candid thoughts about what they’ve learned from the restorative process. But it’s longtime Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Arnie Rosenfield who offers one of the most revealing quotes in the film:

“In all the years I have been working in the juvenile and criminal justice system, restorative justice was the only thing that I saw that really had a chance of working for all the participants to experience some kind of positive outcome.”