READY FOR PBS—WINNERS

Juror's Choice Award—Black Maria Film Festival

Among the reforms that followed the 1971 uprising at Attica, prison college programs proved to be amazingly effective tools in turning inmates' lives around. In New York State, the recidivism rate for prison college graduates was only 11 percent, as contrasted to nearly 60 percent for the general prison population.

In the early 1990's, director Barbara Zahm worked as an instructor in a prison college program. She was "extremely inspired by the level of commitment, growth and transformation" she witnessed among her students. When the 1995 National Crime Bill killed the program she felt it "imperative to document the tragic events."

The Last Graduation frankly explores the issues from the advent of higher education in prison to the last graduation from the Marist College program at New York's Greenhaven Prison in 1995. Prisoners, former prisoners, educators and corrections officials tell their own stories of struggle, triumph and ultimate defeat at the hands of the Contract with America of the 104th Congress.

Director Barbara Zahm describes the challenge of producing a film that explores contemporary social struggles: "At the time, 1996-97, the issues we were raising did not fit easily into any box. Prisons and prison issues were not popular even among socially conscious people. After funding the beginning stages of the project on our own, we put together a 'Promo' and actively sought funding and support from many sources. This is a difficult road to walk, but we knew that the story we were documenting was important and needed to be told."

Zahm continues, "We were told that it might be best to find a PBS affiliate station to support our project, but we found that unless we fit into one of the affiliates predetermined formats; it was unlikely we would find support there."