SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – The SF Film Festival is happening all weekend long. Several local artists are being featured, including a man who did time at San Quentin State Prison.

It chronicles the director’s experience creating relationships with people both inside and outside the prison. Adamu Chan reflects on time spent within San Quentin in his documentary titled “What These Walls Won’t Hold.”

Part of it chronicles the peak of the pandemic in 2020 when he and others organized for better protection in closed quarters. It was made possible by the San Quentin Media Center, where filmmaking equipment was provided.

“There were countless people within our community that died during that time and thousands that got the COVID virus,” he said. 

The movie took him more than two years to make and includes his journey home, but he explains the overarching message is much more than a life lived detained… rather the importance of community and relationships.

KRON ON is streaming news live now

“The film is mostly about the relationships people have with each other both inside and across walls, and really about a community that during a period where people all across the world experienced so much isolation was really building a lot of closeness, and connection, and community,” he said.