Screening w/ Filmmaker Q&A

Voices Beyond the Wall: Twelve Love Poems from the Murder Capital of the World

Burchfield Penney Art Center

Voices Beyond the Wall: Twelve Love Poems from the Murder Capital of the World, Brad Coley (dir). 87min, SP-W-ENG-SUB, 2017

BIFF Global: Documentary Feature

Director Bradley Coley in attendance

Founded twenty-five years ago in San Pedro Sula, a Central American city infamous for its poverty and violence, Our Little Roses is the only girls’ orphanage in Honduras. Seventy girls, ages 1-18, have found refuge there from broken and destitute homes, murderous streets, and the neighboring Bordo, the worst slum in the Americas. Inside twenty foot high concrete walls topped with barb wire, they receive medical attention, food, shelter, and the nurturing care of a vibrant and entirely female collective of other “Desechables”. (a slang word for orphans- also used for ‘disposable containers’).

Voices Beyond the Wall explores the question: how do those subjected to profoundest trauma and rejection begin to heal themselves and change the course of their lives? It bears witness to the catharsis that occurs when marginalized adolescent girls are encouraged to find their voices, in poetry and their own words. In the winter of 2012, Spencer Reece, an award winning American poet and Episcopal priest, came to live at the home for a year. On a Fulbright grant to teach the girls poetry and help them create a book of their own work, he found himself immersed in a profoundly challenging environment. His attempts to teach the girls were largely rebuffed- poetry is too difficult, personal, and boring they insist. Who would want to read about their lives anyway? Oh and Padre, we don’t like the words ‘orphan’ or ‘orphanage.’ We call ourselves “Chavas”. And we call this place home.

@ Burchfield Penney Art Center – Saturday, October 7, 3:15PM

Watch the Trailer for Voices Beyond the Wall here!

  • Video from Voices Beyond the Wall: Twelve Love Poems from the Murder Capital of the World

    Still from Voices Beyond the Wall: Twelve Love Poems from the Murder Capital of the World

    Still from Voices Beyond the Wall: Twelve Love Poems from the Murder Capital of the World