The Department of English and the Fayetteville Public Library will co-host a screening of the award-winning documentary film Apart from 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20, in the Walker Community Room of the public library, located at 401 W. Mountain St. in Fayetteville. The film was directed by Jennifer Redfearn and released in 2020.

In addition, for the last half hour of the event, there will be a virtual Q&A session with Malika Kidd, who appears in Apart.

The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

As is announced at the beginning of the film, "The number of women in U.S. prisons has risen over 800 percent since the beginning of the War on Drugs. Eighty percent of women entering the system are mothers."

Apart, filmed over several years, follows three mothers — Amanda, Lydia and Tomika — as they participate in a reentry program at an Ohio prison and then, one by one, are released. The film highlights the barriers that mothers who are incarcerated must overcome to stay connected with their families on the outside. It also looks at how mothers who have left prison may find that reuniting with their children takes time, allowing both sides the opportunity to heal from being apart from each other.

Malika Kidd

The reentry program that is featured in the film, facilitated by the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry (LMM), offers counseling as well as job training in the culinary arts to those in prison. Kidd, who served as program director for LMM from 2015 to 2024, is shown in the film mentoring participants in the reentry program as well as supporting them on the outside after they are released.

Kidd holds an M.B.A. from Cleveland State University. Earlier this year, she began a new position as project manager with the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a national nonprofit organization that provides research expertise and other support to government officials, helping them develop safe, strong and healthy communities throughout the country.

Advance Notice to Audience Members: The film Apart is emotionally heavy, as it focuses upon mothers who have been separated from their children due to incarceration as well as mothers who have left prison and are struggling to reunite with their children. The film likewise discusses addiction in detail and focuses on a reentry program that encourages women to talk about their experiences of past trauma, including abuse and neglect by family members. The film also briefly describes (and shows video footage of) one woman's committing armed robbery and mentions an act of suicide.