‘Exodus,’ Oscar Contender About Two Women Released From Long Prison Terms, Asks “What Comes After Freedom?”

The Oscar-contending short documentary Exodusdirected by Nimco Sheikhaden, follows two women “endlessly plagued by their past, even as they fiercely seek to rebuild their future.”

The women — Trinity Copeland and Assia Serrano – were both incarcerated in New York state for more than 20 years between them for crimes indelibly linked to abuse they had suffered; in Trinity’s case by her father and in Assia’s by a domestic partner. They were released from prison under New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act in New York, a law enacted in 2019 that allowed for review of sentences in cases where applicants demonstrated “that they were a victim of abuse at the time of their criminal offense.”

Copeland and Serrano both ardently wished for release, yet as the film reveals, they would encounter obstacles on the outside, some erected by a society with an ostensible interest in seeing them rehabilitated and reintegrated into everyday life.

“There’s a big misconception that freedom fixes everything,” Assia says in Exodus. Reflecting on her circumstances post-incarceration, she says, “This is like another prison.”

“Our film hopes to spotlight the harsh reality that most prison sentences, even post-release, become life sentences—especially for black and brown communities,” Sheikhaden writes in a director’s statement.

Elaborating on her motivation for making the film, Sheikhaden notes, “Exodus was born out of a desire to challenge the dominant narratives around incarceration, which often center freedom as the ultimate goal. But what comes after freedom? Freedom alone is not enough. What does it mean to be released from prison if the world you’re returning to is unprepared—or unwilling—to receive you? How do you tell a story about individuals sentenced to life in prison—people who have committed a crime—and still encourage others to recognize their right to a dignified life? That was the question that drove Exodus.”

In the film, both women take responsibility for the crimes for which they were convicted. But they hope to live in a way not defined by their worst experience — “to regain agency,” as the filmmaker puts it, “rebuild relationships, heal fractured bonds, work toward self-forgiveness, and exist in a world that was never designed to welcome you back whole.”

One of Trinity’s biggest challenges involves working through a feeling of resentment towards her mother, whom she feels did not look out for her when she needed her support the most. Assia, who was mother to a months-old baby when she was sentenced and then gave birth to another child behind bars, faces a different kind of challenge: upon her release from prison, the native of Panama was immediately deported to the place of her birth, a country she had long ago left behind. Her daughter and son, now young adults, must cope with a mother separated from them not by the prison system but by immigration courts. Assia has a longstanding request before New York Governor Kathy Hochul seeking a pardon, which would allow her to return to the U.S. and be reunited with her children.

Exodus premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX, and has gone on to screen at DOC NYC, BlackStar Film Festival, HollyShorts Film Festival, Seattle Black Film Festival, San Quentin Film Festival, and more. It is produced by Sheikhaden and Sara Chishti and executive produced by Geeta Gandbhir, Blair Foster, and Rudy Valdez.

Documentaries that tell stories touching on incarceration often “fall into two extremes,” Sheikhaden notes: “[W]rongful convictions, where someone’s innocence is the focal point, or the sensationalized portrayal of the remorseless, ‘ice-cold’ killer. But there’s an entire spectrum of experiences that get lost when we don’t allow for more nuance. What happens when we look beyond the binary of guilt and innocence? When we sit with the complexities of accountability, the extenuating circumstances of one’s life, childhood trauma, the necessity of survival—and, crucially, the possibility of redemption?”

Sheikhaden continues, “Alongside that, this film was also born out of frustration with how stories about incarceration are flattened, reduced to headlines or statistics, and how, more often than not, the voices of those directly impacted are left out of the conversation. And when we do talk about incarceration and reentry, women—particularly Black and Brown women—are nearly invisible. Exodus is a response to that. It centers the voices that have been ignored for too long and gives space for the full complexity of their journeys.”