By Russell Contreras
ALBUQUERQUE, NM (AP) --Filmmaker Denali Tiller started capturing footage of a former inmate's life four years ago. A Rhode Island School of Design student at the time, she soon was introduced to a few children of inmates serving prison sentences for violent crimes.
On Monday, Tiller's project, "Tre Maison Dasan," is scheduled to air on most PBS stations as part of the series "Independent Lens." It comes after the Albuquerque woman filmed more than 350 hours of three Rhode Island boys coping with incarcerated parents. The film follows Tre Janson, Maison Teixeira, and Dasan Lopes over three years as they struggle with anger, loneliness and uncertainty from having a parent behind bars.
The Albuquerque Academy graduate said the boys — and their parents — invited her and her crew into their lives despite the emotional toll before them. Sometimes, Tiller handed over the camera and let the boys capture images. Other times, Tiller sat silently in a corner and watched the boys experience regular issues of growing up like wearing Spiderman costumes or listening to music.
"Through building a friendship, they began to build ownership of their own stories," Tiller said. She said was also honor that the families of color allowed her, a white woman, into their world.
But it was through the captured interaction with the parents where Tiller said she felt viewers could see what the children experience.
In one scene, Tre cries uncontrollably in front of his father and inquiries when he's coming home. Later in the film, an older Tre wears an ankle bracelet after getting into trouble, shares stories with his father about how annoying the bracelets are when they have to be charged. His father laughs and shares his own memories, then stops.
"This ain't normal," the father laments while holding back tears.
In another scene, Maison and his grandmother prepare a gift Maison wants to give a girl he likes. The grandmother worries Maison's heart will be broken. That evening, Maison calls his dad to give him a play-by-play: he asked the girl to be his Valentine, and she said yes.
"Yes! Oh my god, I've been so freaking stressed out all day," his dad yells on the phone.
Maison, now 14, says he hopes the film opens minds about the lives of children of prisoners. "There is a lot of stigmas that the children of incarcerated parents will end up like there. That's not true," Maison said. "Even with our parents in prison, we keep moving. It doesn't define us."
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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