Two women, Vicky Harrison and Deborah Mejchar; Mejchar has one arm around Harrison's shoulder. They are standing among pine trees.
Vicky Harrison, left, is now thriving in northern Wisconsin after years of incarceration, with help from peer support specialist and chaplain Deborah Mejchar.
Everyone needs the support of peers to succeed — and it’s no different for the formerly incarcerated. Two Madisonians who made a change after serving their sentence are among the profiles that make up the short documentary From Ashes to Beauty: Stories After Incarceration, directed by UW-Madison alumna Mabel Malhotra. The film screens as part of a Wisconsin’s Own Reel Life Shorts program on April 6 at Music Hall.
Eugene Crisler’El, now a fatherhood specialist at the Urban League of Greater Madison, overcame two stints of prison time in his youth. After his first release, he explains in the film, “acclimating back into the community was a struggle.” The second time, he “decided to change and move forward, and get what I needed out of life. That was more stability for myself, a relationship with my children.” He credits the 15 months he spent in prison for giving him the time to “recuperate, re-evaluate, rebalance, and define who I really am.” Crisler’El started going to Urban League’s fatherhood program after getting out, and now helps others in similar circumstances.
Anthony Cooper, the film’s other Madison subject, also moved into peer support after his time in prison: He is now the vice president of re-entry services at Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development. He also works as president and CEO of Focused Interruption Services, a Madison nonprofit dedicated to reducing gun violence.
Mabel Malhotra did shooting for the film last April during her final semester as a UW-Madison communications arts student. The murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020 pushed her to focus more of her work on the criminal justice system. Since graduation, she has moved to Minneapolis where she now volunteers with the Minnesota Justice Research Center. She hopes to gather material for a future documentary through this work.
She emphasizes the importance of community for the formerly incarcerated to successfully navigate re-entry after release. “Try your best to see yourself in these people if you can,” she says. “Imagine how much their lives are impacted beyond what you’re seeing on the screen.”
See more of our 2024 Wisconsin Film Fest coverage here.
