My husband and I watched a fascinating, powerful and emotionally charged film titled ROOM. It was very well produced and directed with exquisite and profound performances by the entire cast, not to mention the little boy is amazing! Held captive for years in an enclosed space, a woman (played by Brie Larson) and her 5-year-old son (played by Jacob Tremblay) finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.
There are a lot of parallels between what occurred in this film and as to what men and women in SHU - Segregated or Solitary Housing Unit - experience. The only difference is that the woman in this film had been abducted, raped and imprisoned in a small windowless room; held captive and controlled as a sex slave for a period of seven years. Still, the psychological affects, and how the mind and spirit does what it needs to in order to survive and overcome the trauma of confinement in a world so small without contact with the outside world....is similar to what the those in SHU experience.
Art is vitally important to the men in SHU. It allows them to escape the confines of the enforced physical imprisonment into a creative world of no bounds.
Here is a drawing of a SHU cell created by artist, Adrian Andrade. The average SHU cell measures only 6' x 10'. Please also check out the details of this drawing by clicking on the first image, which will bring you to the next, then the next, then the next.
*"I have been drawing since I was a kid, but I really started to pick it up in juvenile hall...it's always been my positive outlet, one of the few things no one, not this place, can take away from me. Art saved my life...I hope to share the message. It's not about what you don't have, but what you do with what you have - through my art. From all of us behind the walls, we thank you for giving us a voice" *- Adrian Andrade
Blessings,
Leslie, Director