Saturday Short

Voices Poster for World Premiere

Today's short is the trailer for Voices Beyond the Wall: Twelve Love Poems From the Murder Capital of the World, which received its world premiere March 5 at the Miami Film Festival, and has since been screened elsewhere, including April 5 at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia; and April 7 at St. Mark's Church, Philadelphia.

The moving story related in the film, directed by Brad Coley and executive-produced by James Franco, takes place in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, a city infamous both for its poverty and violence and the location of the orphanage for girls, Our Little Roses. It is in that orphanage that dozens of girls, ages 1 to 18, receive food, shelter, and medical attention and, through poetry taught by Episcopal priest and poet Spencer Reece, find the means to heal their devastated lives. The documentary follows two of the eldest girls who graduate from Our Little Roses, documenting their efforts to create a future for themselves in the same city they fled from. The poems of the girls, who talk about their abandonment and having to relearn to trust, are interwoven throughout the film. (Read more about this wonderful film at the link above. Also see my Saturday Short post of June 15, 2013.)

A collection of the girls' poems, Counting Time Like People Count Stars (Tia Chucha Press), edited by Spencer Reece, is slated to publish this December. Reece and Luis J. Rodriguez contribute essays; Marie Howe provides the Foreword and Richard Blanco, the Afterword. A portion of every copy sold will be returned to Our Little Roses.

Voices Beyond the Wall at Miami Film Festival

Voices Beyond the Wall on FaceBook

Spencer Reece on FaceBook

Our Little Roses on FaceBook

Joan Chrissos, "The Priest Who Healed Orphans with Poetry", The Washington Post, April 3, 2017