For Venida, For Kalief

In 2010, 16-year-old Kalief Browder was sent to New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail, without standing trial, for allegedly stealing a backpack. For three years, he courageously survived pressures to take a plea deal, solitary confinement, and excessive physical and mental violence. He eventually was released without charge, but with tremendous trauma and not enough psychological support to help him process what he’d endured. At the age of 22, Kalief Browder committed suicide. Just a year later, after tirelessly fighting for justice for her son and young men just like him, Kalief’s mother Venida died from a broken heart. She left a personal collection of poems detailing her family’s ordeal—expressing a full spectrum of emotions, shedding light on the injustice, and illuminating a beautiful side of her family and community.

For Venida, For Kalief presents Venida’s words as poetic cinema, showcasing the range of everyday experiences for people of color in New York City; reveling in moments of Black and Brown joy and spirituality, as well as constant police surveillance, struggle, and activism. The film explores the concept of legacy and personhood, lyrically weaving together the deeply personal emotions of Venida’s poems with the community activism that emerged in the aftermath of Kalief’s death. Featuring some of Kalief’s siblings as they take part in the markers of Kalief’s legacy—the naming of streets, the creation of scholarships and foundations, as well as city and statewide legal achievements—the film shows an opportunity for a different kind of justice in New York. By pulling back the curtain on how change is actually made, For Venida, For Kalief conveys the complicated flaws of the system and the forces that created this tragedy while also celebrating the emergence of encouraging policy reforms. Kalief was more than a martyr; Venida was more than a mourning mother. This film is an homage to a family’s legacy of resilience and hope.