Paint Me a Road Film Screening + Talk Back

November 15, 2025 @ 6:00PM — 8:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada) Add to Calendar

Women Building Up: 401 State Street Women Building Up Brooklyn, NY 11217 Get Directions

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Join Aubin Pictures and Women Building Up for a special screening of the new documentary Paint Me a Road Out of Here, centered on Faith Ringgold’s artwork For the Women’s House. Stay for a talk back featuring artist Mary Enoch Baxter, filmmaker Catherine Gund, and community activist Leah Faria.

Check out the trailer here: https://paintmearoadfilm.com/!

Director's Statement

A priceless work of art put into NYC’s Rikers Island jail receives the same horrific treatment as the priceless human beings detained there. To free the women and gender expansive people, we need urgency, accountability, community, a plan and most importantly, we must value each person. Across decades, the collaborations among artists Faith Ringgold and Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter and different women and gender expansive people incarcerated at Rikers Island jail provoke vital questions. What does their work tell us about humanity, value and justice? How does the relocation of Faith’s original painting from the jail to the museum further the process of resistance, opening space for Mary to carry on the work of becoming free? Our film is a dialogue between Mary and Faith, two artists whose work practices, artworks and life experiences show us how the institution of the museum can’t contain resistance to the criminal legal system. They make collaborations, quilts, hip hop videos, children’s books, murals painted on canvas with the intention of public, community engagement rather than interrogations for gallery walls. They challenge viewers to consider how artwork is connected to the world we want to live in.

Meet the Speakers

Following the film screening, we are pleased to be joined by artist Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, community activist Leah Faria, and filmmaker Catherine Gund, who will discuss the film and answer questions from the audience.

Leah Faria
Leah Faria (She/Her) is a mother, daughter and sister as well as a 20+-year activist for communities most impacted by the criminal justice system. As a mission-driven survivor of both domestic and State violence, Leah leverages her personal experiences to educate, build community, network and organize within vulnerable Black and Brown communities. She works tirelessly behind bars, in local communities, at the State capital and nationally. She brings hope to the hopeless in the form of support and resources to the women and gender-expansive people detained at the Rose M. Singer Center, the women’s-only facility on Rikers Island. She passionately advocates for the justice impacted by speaking at rallies, conducting interviews with the media and testifying in front of state legislators on behalf of legislation that can create systemic change for some of the most marginalized people in New York. Leah is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College and is a justice-in-education scholar from Columbia University. Leah currently serves as the Community Liaison for Women Building Up.

Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter
Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, writer, pedagogue and cultural worker based in Philadelphia PA. As a visionary thought leader creating socially conscious music, film, performance and visual art, her practice embodies resilience, care and community-centeredness while working at the intersections of reproductive justice, Black feminist thought and transformative change. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues including MoMA PS1, New York; the African American Museum of Philadelphia; Frieze LA and NY; Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia; the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Ohio; Brown University, Rhode Island; the Schomburg, New York; Yale Art Gallery, Connecticut; the National Museum of World Cultures Leiden, Netherlands; as well as a solo exhibition in 2023 at the Brooklyn Museum. Ms. Baxter is also an inaugural 2017 Right of Return fellow; a 2018 and 2019 Mural Arts Philadelphia Reimagining Reentry fellow; a 2019 Leeway Foundation Transformation awardee; a 2021 Ed Trust Justice fellow; a 2021 Frieze Impact Prize award winner; a 2022 S.O.U.R.C.E Studio Corrina Mehiel Fellow; 2022 Art 4 Justice grantee partner; 2022 Pratt Forward fellow; 2022 Artist2Artist Art Matters Foundation grantee and grantor; 2023 Soros Justice fellow and a 2024 Anonymous Was a Woman awardee.


Catherine Gund

Founder and Director of Aubin Pictures, Catherine Gund is an Emmy-nominated and Academy-shortlisted producer, director, writer, and activist. Her media work focuses on strategic and sustainable social transformation,arts and culture, HIV/AIDS and racial, reproductive and environmental justice. Her films have screened around the world in festivals, theaters, museums, and schools; on PBS, HBO, Paramount+, the Discovery Channel, Sundance Channel, Free Speech TV, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. She won the 2023 Gracie Award for Documentary Producer. Her recent films include: Paint Me a Road Out of Here, Meanwhile, Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices From a Plantation Prison (Academy shortlist), Primera (HBO), Aggie (Strand Releasing), and Born to Fly (Emmy nominated). She has served on several arts, media, and justice nonprofits boards and has been a creative advisor on numerous documentary films. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. An alumnus of Brown University and the Whitney Independent Study Program, she has four children and lives in NYC.

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