"Mothers of Bedford is a beautiful film. It provides audiences with unprecedented access to this community of women and will move our national conversation about incarceration to a new level."
THE FLEDGLING FUND
Mothers of Bedford follows five women incarcerated in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility as they struggle to remain engaged in their children's lives and become their better selves.
ABOUT
Many parents find it hard to imagine being away from a child for a week. Imagine being separated for ten or twenty years? Mothers of Bedford explores the effects of a long-term prison sentence on the mother-child relationship.
The film examines the struggles and joys these five women face as prisoners and mothers. It shows the normal frustrations of parenting as well as the surreal experiences of a child's first birthday party inside prison, the cell that child lives in with her mother, and the biggest celebration of the year, Mother's Day in prison!
Eighty percent of women in US prisons today are mothers of school-age children. Filmmaker Jenifer McShane spent four years visiting Bedford Hills and following the women and their families. A mother herself, Jenifer was drawn to the universal themes of motherhood and the staggering power of the mother-child relationship. In all walks of life, mother and child care for each other. As we watch the mothers inside Bedford trying to become their better selves, we see parts of our own selves – and that gives us all hope.
Jenifer's first documentary, A Leap of Faith, about an integrated school in Belfast, Northern Ireland premiered at The Sundance Film Festival in 1996. Mothers of Bedford teams her again with the gifted editor, Toby Shimin. Jenifer's most recent film, Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops, is currently streaming on HBO.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
I was inspired to make Mothers of Bedford once I learned about Sister Elaine Roulet's work inside the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Sister Elaine decided that bars could not separate a child from their mother's love and pledged to make it easier for mothers to see their children. I was struck by the hopefulness and love involved in her work. By promoting opportunities for incarcerated women to see their children she has created space for positive change in the least likely of settings: prison.
As a mother myself, I was fascinated by the work happening in The Children's Center as I observed the inmates working hard to maintain their role as a mother. The issues the mothers in prison worry about: school grades, hanging with the wrong friends, and dating are not all that different from what the suburban moms I know are worried about. Of course, mothers in prison do not have day-to-day access to their children and have limited control. They also often have boatloads of guilt about being in prison and how that is affecting their child.
I am attracted to topics that sit squarely in the gray area. Every day I hear people who see the world definitively in black and white. In contrast, I believe many of life's situations are somewhere in the complicated, gray area where problems are not easy to define or solve. Of course, there are the occasional exceptions. But generally speaking, regardless of why the mother is in prison, it can only benefit all concerned to allow a mother to nurture and possibly strengthen the relationship with her child.
With the permission of the NY State Department of Corrections and the patience of The Children's Center staff, I visited the wonderful women in my film and their families. It has been a transforming experience for me, as I hope it will be for those who watch the film.
- Jenifer McShane
Director, Mothers of Bedford
CHARACTERS
MELISSA
Melissa arrived at Bedford Hills pregnant. In her own words she "had lost everything but her own life" before landing in prison. We first meet Melissa and her daughter, Emma, in the cell they share when Emma is eight months old and revisit them until both are released from Bedford Hills when Emma is sixteen months old.
tANIKA
When Tanika was arrested one of her sons was in first grade and the other in preschool. The boys are being raised by Tanika's parents in a rough section of Schenectady. They are desperate to keep the boys out of trouble in a neighborhood that just keeps getting worse.
MONA
High on angel dust at the time, Mona has no memory of riding as a passenger in a car involved in a hit and run. She awoke shackled to a hospital bed implicated in a crime she couldn't recall. Nineteen at the time, she refused a plea deal because she felt five years seemed "like a lifetime away" from her two small children. She went to trial and was given a sentence of twenty to life. Mona was released in 2011, twenty-four years after being arrested. She attends many of the Mothers of Bedford screenings to participate in the Q&A sessions with director, Jenifer McShane.
ROSA
An employed mother of two when she was arrested, Rosa works in the baby nursery inside Bedford. She has a close relationship with her two sons, Jacob and Joey. Joey is entering adolescence and Rosa is learning to adapt to her son's growing awareness of why she is in prison and the fact that he "must move on with his life".
ANNEATHIA
Anneathia’s story has a generational component. We explore Anneathia's relationship with her own mother Luecrezy, a recovering addict, as well as her ties to her own two daughters. During the film, Anneathia and her mother mend broken trust and team up to get Anneathia's two girls back in Luecrezy's, care.
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With Tanika's release in 2020, all of the women featured in Mothers of Bedford have been released and reunited with their families.
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Sister Elaine Roulet & Bobby BlancharD
These two women are changing the world of incarceration for the inmates inside Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.
As the founder of The Children's Center at Bedford, Sister Elaine Roulet, describes the parenting programs as "teaching people to swim with success when failure has been your water from the day you began". She had the extraordinary vision to think of prison time as an opportunity to nurture your relationship with your child and begin again. Sister Elaine passed away in 2021. At her memorial, there was incredible outpouring from women and their now grown children who had been impacted positively by Sister Elaine's on-going work at Bedford Hills.
Bobby left her career as a lawyer to join The Children's Center. In the film, we see her as an advocate for the women's right to "mother" and see their children on a regular basis. She is a teacher and confidante to the women who participate in the nursery and parenting programs. Bobby is now in Vermont working with incarcerated women and adjusting to winters in her new state.
Subject Bobby Blanchard
with cameraman Christopher Walters
CONTACT
For general inquiries, please contact us at mothersofbedfordoutreach@gmail.com
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