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All I See is the Future

Available screening types

Virtual

On-demand

In-person

Available until

Apr 02, 2029

Available in

Worldwide

About the film

LOGLINE: An Optometrist opens her first clinic in the under-served area of Staten Island, New York. A newly released felon asks for a job. After some polishing up, they grow the clinic to 20,000 patients but a sudden “people, places and things” incident threatens to destroy all that they have worked for. SYNOPSIS: With only “five files and my faith,” Dr. Carolyn Powell opened her first private optical clinic practice in Stapleton, an under-served and dangerous area of Staten Island, New York. A young man showed up at her door looking for work, saying that he had training in optics. She knew from the certificate that the training was from prison but he swore that “I will be nothing but an asset for you.” And with that, she took a chance on him. Bryant Pearson had been a notorious drug dealer from the Stapleton Projects but with Doc as his mentor, he began to dare to dream the unthinkable – to become a professional. While working at the clinic, he enrolls at the City Tech CUNY School of Optometry, living his motto “All I See is the Future.” Together they grow the business with great success until he ends up in the wrong place, at the wrong time. With everything at stake, Bryant has to face one last binding tie to his past, so that his future vision can come to fruition.

Genre

Documentary

Runtime

0h 14m

Released

2020

Director

Nancy Dionne

Producer

Nancy Dionne

Crew

Braulio Jatar, Xiaoxiao Chen, Julia Cheng Zhu, Mariko Ide, Katerina Olkhovaya

Cast

Bryant E. Pearson, Dr. Carolyn Powell

Awards & recognition

Just Trust Org

$75,000 Grant for Impact Campaign

2022 Telly Award

Silver Telly Award

Montreal International Black Film Festival

2020 Audience Award Winner for Best Short Documentary

New York Women in Film and Television Online Shorts Festival

2019 First Place Best Documentary Short

Canada Shorts Film Festival

2019 Winner of Best Documentary

Crested Butte Film Festival

Special Jury Prize for Achievement in Social Impact and Activism

What people are saying

The documentary explores the hardships experienced by Pearson and his commitment to being an optometrist despite the stigma society holds against people who have been incarcerated. One of the primary messages of the film is that we must destigmatize the formerly incarcerated and see them as people worth a second chance. The theme of resilience was also prevalent. Pearson mentioned that despite being the face of the documentary, the documentary is not for him. Rather, it is for the world to see the harm of labeling people as “criminals” and denying them opportunities.Powell explained that one of the reasons she was able to hire Pearson was because her practice lacked any official HR department, many of which, she noted, dismiss all criminals outright because many HR departments are not trained to properly analyze criminal records. Yet a criminal record is not a negative thing. Recommended for recommended for who want to engage topics like grace, redemption and mass incarceration.

Colin Farmer

Redemption requires opportunity: A review of “All I See is the Future”

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