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| John L. Hill |
The first movie I watched was The Freedom of Fierro. It was director Santiago Esteinou’s sequel to his 2014 documentary, The Years of Fierro. César Fierro had spent 40 years imprisoned in the Polunsky Unit, a super-maximum-security prison in South Livingston, Texas, for a crime he did not commit. At 63, the Mexican-born Fierro was supposedly released to become a free man. Having spent 20 years in solitary confinement before hitting the streets, the movie details the psychological turmoil and seldom-mentioned difficulties faced by incarcerated people. The movie documents the painful transition to a world most of us take for granted.
Then, I had the opportunity to watch director Josh Greenbaum’s Will and Harper. Comedian Will Ferrell undertakes a 16-day cross-country road trip with his old friend and former Saturday Night
Harper Steele and Will Ferrell. Photo by the author
We come to understand that Steele has also been imprisoned. Unlike Fierro, whose barriers to society were walls and razor wire, Steele had a psychological barrier to the freedom to live herself as the little girl and woman she knew was trapped inside the body that was assigned male at birth.
Fierro is delighted to walk from prison and return to his home country of Mexico. However, the reality of rejoining society soon dawns upon him. He experiences the difficulties of institutionalization. In prison, all decisions had been made for him. Now, he must relearn how to cope with making decisions few of us ever consider difficult. He must become reacquainted with friends and family without knowing if anyone bears resentment against him because he was in “the can.” He learns of the difficulty of working with others and getting and maintaining employment. We are left suspecting that without intervention, he could wind up abusing alcohol and facing homelessness.
Steele’s transition left her with uncertainty about rejoining a society where work and friendship were once the norm. Like Fierro, she had to understand that while people may seem pleasant and respectful to her face, there is an unspoken prejudice against trans people, even as there is that resentment against people regarded as “ex-cons.”
The documentaries explored the difficulties in transitioning from one’s place of physical captivity to an open society and from the gender assigned at birth to the one demanded by one’s own psychology. Both César Fierro and Harper Steele faced a public that was unable or unwilling to accept them.
Seeing these movies back to back gives one a greater appreciation that freedom isn’t just being released. Freedom also requires one’s own self-acceptance. In his Sept. 12 column for Law360 Canada, David Dorson titled his piece: Sentence over? Now the punishment really starts.
He points out that the problems one faces post-release may be worse than those in prison, and they don’t come with an end date. Many people I have encountered in my prison law career have re-entered society feeling they stand out and fear its repudiation as much as if they had the word “criminal” tattooed on their foreheads. Harper Steele, in the documentary, expressed a similar form of toxic shame. Although people may be comfortable in their own skins, there is a constant fear of societal rejection.
We live in a society where we profess to accept the Charter value that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person. Do we really put that value into practice? I urge all readers to watch the two documentaries I saw on Thursday and then try to evaluate your reaction, not outwardly but in your heart, if you were to be introduced to either of the title characters.
John L. Hill practised and taught prison law until his retirement. He holds a J.D. from Queen’s and an LL.M. in constitutional law from Osgoode Hall. He is also the author of Pine Box Parole: Terry Fitzsimmons and the Quest to End Solitary Confinement (Durvile & UpRoute Books) and The Rest of the (True Crime) Story (AOS Publishing). Contact him at johnlornehill@hotmail.com.
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