10/26/15
Edgar A Barens
Title Documentary Specialist
Keynote Speaker:  Edgar Barnes -Edgar Barens is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker whose work explores the human stories within the American criminal justice system, revealing the personal toll of its systemic challenges. His Academy Award-nominated Prison Terminal (2014) raised awareness of the need for humane end-of-life care in prisons, screening widely in correctional facilities, academic institutions, conferences, and community hospice centers. The film highlights Iowa State Penitentiary’s pioneering peer-caregiver hospice program, a model Barens hopes will inspire other correctional facilities to provide dignified care for incarcerated individuals facing death. He now works with the Humane Prison Hospice Project, a California-based nonprofit dedicated to expanding compassionate end-of-life care in prisons by transforming how incarcerated people die through education, advocacy, and training to support their peers as caregivers and grief companions.