Independent Lens
Down a Dark Stairwell
A Chinese American cop shoots and kills an innocent black man; suddenly two marginalized communities must navigate an uneven criminal justice system together.
You Don't Know My Name
After being separated from his incarcerated mother at birth, a son begins the search for her identity as he navigates his way through systems designed to keep him in the dark.
- Length
- 90 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Open Call
Director/Producer
Tommy Franklin
Tommy Franklin is a formerly incarcerated filmmaker and screenwriter. His documentary You Don’t Know My Name received support from Sundance, Catapult, The Just Trust, BAVC, Film Independent, and others. Franklin works along creative culture lines to reimagine power structures, focusing on Black liberation. He is sure he wants to do this.
Producer
Rajal Pitroda
Rajal Pitroda is a producer of fiction and nonfiction films. She most recently produced Down a Dark Stairwell, which premiered at the 2020 True/False Film Festival. Her work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Black Public Media, Firelight Media, Chicken & Egg Pictures, the Tribeca Film Institute, SFFILM, and others.
- Other ITVS Films
- Down a Dark Stairwell
- The Gas Station Attendant
- Higher 15
We fund untold stories for public media.
Learn more about funding opportunities with ITVS.
The Film
Prison birth is grim—a mother is shackled to a hospital bed, surrounded by armed guards, and her child is taken from her after delivery. You Don’t Know My Name confronts the often overlooked injustice of forced family separation and the generational trauma wrought by the prison system.
Director Tommy Franklin is a formerly incarcerated filmmaker who longs for a mother he never knew. He was taken from her in prison as an infant and placed in the foster system. As a newborn, he was adopted by a white Minnesotan family. He begins therapy to better understand his internal world and how it relates to going his entire life without a connection to the Black woman who created him.
Tommy joins an underground community of prison doulas on a mission to disrupt the carceral system and bring justice to incarcerated mothers and their children. Tommy spends time with pregnant women and those who gave birth in the system, including Alicia Roach, who was separated from her infant and dreams of becoming a prison doula at the same prison she was incarcerated in 15 years prior. Together, this network shares insights and finds solace while processing the conditions of prison and the complexities of life after release. Tommy searches tirelessly for information on his biological mother, and his journey inspires the community around him. They seek radical and necessary changes in conditions for pregnant incarcerated people, from prenatal through postpartum care, with the goal of ending prison birth in America.
