Prison and Time

Evan Bode, Marvin Wade
USA | 2025 | 6’49’’ | national premiere

Looking back on his 25 years of incarceration, writer and activist Marvin Wade reflects on the personal growth he achieved in spite of, not because of, an inhumane prison system working against him at every turn. In collaboration with handcrafted animation by artist Evan Bode, Wade describes prison and time as opposing forces: one as a system of profound harm, and the other as a path to transformative growth.

Direction: Evan Bode, Marvin Wade
Animation: Evan Bode
Screenplay: Marvin Wade
Editing: Evan Bode
Sound Design: Evan Bode
Producer: Evan Bode, Patrick W. Berry
Production: Project Mend

Evan Bode

Evan Bode is an independent filmmaker, animator, composer, and teaching artist with an MFA in Film from Syracuse University. Their work has screened at major film festivals including Animafest Zagreb, Outfest LA, and the Gotham Institute’s short film showcase. Approaching film as a personal language of creative expression, Bode champions independent, inclusive, and inexpensive modes of production to explore themes of nonconformity within unjust systems. Evan’s recent collaborations include co-founding a free media arts workshop called Teens with a Movie Camera for youth in Syracuse and creating animation for Project Mend in conversation with prison-impacted poets and writers.

Marvin Wade

Marvin Wade is a writer, speaker, spiritual activist, and family man, born in 1970 and raised in Brooklyn, NY. While incarcerated for 25 years, Marvin wrote multiple books worth of stories, novels, and personal essays on every bit of paper he could find. Marvin has read his work at spaces such as the Malin Gallery, Princeton University, The Everson Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. You can read his writings in publications such as Mend, Voices of Fortune, and recreationwriters.