A still image from the film “Songs From the Hole.” Photo courtesy of Amanda Austin

For film programmer Jon Courtney, a lifetime of matching Maine audiences to just the right movies has found a new and unexpected audience. Working with the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition (MPAC) for the past several years, Courtney has used his skills to serve one of the most underserved and vulnerable populations in our state: those incarcerated in Maine’s prisons and jails.

Creating the Inside Vision film series has allowed Courtney to bring films and guest speakers into prisons with an eye toward the unique needs and interests of the incarcerated. It’s an ambitious pursuit, one that connects Courtney’s passion for film with his equally passionate advocacy for those behind bars.

Since co-founding Portland’s SPACE gallery in 2002, Jon Courtney became a respected fixture in the Maine film scene, using his encyclopedic movie knowledge and people skills to turn SPACE into a vital hub for film enthusiasts. As a former film programmer for SPACE and the Portland Museum of Art, Courtney has a knack for pairing great movies to Maine audiences.

“I always thought about being a programmer, never really an artist or a filmmaker or musician,” Courtney said. “My talent was as a connector, in bringing content to audiences. I had a note in my office: ‘Get the right people in the room together.’”

A connection with activist and now Maine State Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross at SPACE lit the flame on his activism on behalf of Maine’s incarcerated population. “SPACE was showing ‘The Work’ (the Jarius McLeary and Gethin Aldous documentary about a men’s group therapy session at California’s Folsom State Prison), and Ross said, ‘You should come to the Maine State Prison and show this film sometime.’”

“Being a programmer is about connecting the programming to an audience,” says Courtney, who’s volunteered with MPAC for nearly a decade. “But in prisons, that’s naturally more challenging.”

Citing shifting political climates and institutional regulations, the difficulty in getting feedback from his audience, and the widely diverse prison population, Courtney faced a whole new challenge. “Communication’s not as free-flowing,” he says of his first attempts to pick a roster of films. “On some level, I was making educated guesses.”

Courtney cites the guidance of MPAC with helping him hone his skills. “I got the most guidance from the Q&As we do after every screening,” he said. “That’s where we see where people connect most to the material. And over the years, making friends with the people I met in there — some of whom are now doing great work on the outside — was incredibly helpful.”

With Inside Vision, Courtney regularly brings much-needed entertainment in the form of films, guest speakers, live performances and readings, to places like the Southern Maine Women’s Reentry Center in Windham and the Maine State Prison in Warren.

After booking Grammy-winning rapper and filmmaker Speech Thomas for a zoom Q&A to accompany “16 Bars,” the 2018 film about the Arrested Development front man’s collaboration with several inmates’ musical projects, Courtney saw how powerful the endeavor was.

“The Q&A was very emotional,” he recalls. “There were tears, anger, joy. I remember Thomas saying, ‘I’ve never experienced a Q&A like that.’”

From there, Courtney has overcome logistical hurdles and little funding to book an impressive roster of films, filmmakers and artists.

Prisoners in formation from the film “Tehachapi” by filmmaker JR. Photo courtesy of JR

Documentaries like “16 Bars,” “Master of Light” (about incarcerated painter George Anthony Morton), “Dakota 38” (Native American filmmaker Jim Miller’s healing trek coming to terms with the largest mass execution in American history), and the upcoming “Tehachapi” (filmmaker JR’s effort to make massive artworks alongside inmates in the titular maximum security prison) have all built connections between Maine’s prison population and the participating artists.

Courtney recalls filmmaker JJ’88’s recent appearance after a screening of his documentary, “Songs From the Hole.” “He zoomed in and guys went really deep with it. There was a guy who, like JJ’88, had been sentenced to life plus 30 years, and they connected until tears were rolling down their face.”

For Courtney, working with Maine’s incarcerated population has been eye-opening. “There’s a wealth of humanity that is incarcerated in this country. There are people who have done great harm and done terrible things, but who are also capable of changing and transforming,” he says. “Connecting them with the arts and humanities is valuable – and heartbreaking.

“Some of the best teachers and mentors in my life are in prisons now or have spent chunks of their lives there. There are millions of stories. It’s a broken system that doesn’t fix people but just warehouses them.”

To learn more about the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition and Jon Courtney’s work with Inside Vision, visit maineprisoneradvocacy.org.

“The Work” is available to stream for free on Kanopy.

“16 Bars” is available on AMC+.

“Master of Light” can be streamed on Max.

“Dakota 38” is available on AppleTV+.

“Tehachapi” is available on AppleTV+.

Dennis Perkins is a freelance writer who lives in Auburn with his wife and cat.