Tre Maison Dasan

Three boys: Tre Janson, 13, Maison Teixeira, 11 and Dasan Lopes, 6 visit with their parents who are incarcerated at Rhode Island facilities where parents are allowed to spend two hours with their kids in an assigned space once a week. The film also spends time with them when they are elsewhere observing their coping mechanisms and behaviors and determining how they are responding to the parent's incarceration.

Tre Maison Dasan is an intimate documentary film about three boys growing up, each with a parent in prison. Directly told through the child's perspective, the film is an exploration of relationships and separation, masculinity, and coming of age in America when a parent is behind bars. Tre, Maison and Dasan are three very different boys. Tre is a tough 13 year old who hides his emotions behind a mask of tough talk and hard edges. Maison is a bright eyed 11 year old with an encyclopedic mind and deep love for those around him. Dasan is a sensitive 6 year old with an incredible capacity for empathy and curiosity. Their parents are not incarcerated for the low-level offenses that have become infamous in conversations around mass-incarceration, but their histories and relationships beg many questions about Justice and the lasting and rippling effects of a system at large.

—Denali Tiller, director

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