Finding Art in Unexpected Places
Review of the Film: The Quilters
Times are bleak. Between the nightly news and doom-scrolling, we are bombarded daily with horrors. Now more than ever, self-care is essential. We must be careful not to overexert ourselves.
Protecting ourselves from feeling down can take many forms. Take half an hour to watch the 2024 Netflix documentary film, The Quilters. Director Jennifer McShane says, “This film [is] about the healing nature of art in a place you wouldn’t expect it (1).”
The setting is the South Central Correctional Center, a medium-to-maximum security state prison located in Licking, Missouri. It features seven incarcerated men, most serving lengthy sentences, some serving life. These men spend five days a week, eight hours a day, sewing quilts. They choose the fabric, draw the patterns, and sew on sewing machines and quilting machines. The finished quilts become birthday gifts for children in foster care. They also make teddy bears, weighted blankets, and vests for autistic children.
Working with supplies donated by the community, individuals work cooperatively and assist each other when problems arise with machines or patterns. Large men with tattooed hands sew delicate patterns, iron pieces of fabric, or tear out stitches when they aren’t pleased with their work. Inmates must remain free of violations to participate.
The program is part of the Restorative Justice Organization, which operates within the prison. What is restorative justice? According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, “restorative justice seeks to examine the harmful impact of a crime and then determines what can be done to repair that harm, while holding the person who caused it accountable for his or her actions. Accountability for the offender means accepting responsibility and acting to repair the harm done (2).”
Director McShane focused the film on how the inmates use their time in prison to make amends. She says, “…there are films about why people are in prison and should they be there. And this was not about how they got there, but how they’re using their time (3).”
Most of us rarely think about prison inmates and how they spend their time. This gem of a film shows us that those who have committed violent crimes can produce something beautiful given the opportunity. It is truly unexpected to find this type of art and these artists in a prison.
Take Action
- Donate. (As of June 2025, the program has been overwhelmed with donations of fabric, thread, and other supplies, and they do not have the space for the items. However, they will accept cash donations.)
- Research restorative justice programs in your area and ways you can assist their programs.
- Write your representatives and ask them to support restorative justice programs in prisons.
- Watch The Quilters on Netflix.
NOTES
- Stephen Saito, “Jenifer McShane on a Sewing Circle Unlike Any Other in ‘The Quilters’,” The Moveable Fest, June 12, 2024.
- Howard Zehr, “About Restorative Justice/University of Wisconsin Law School,” University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, accessed July 2025.
- Matthew Carey, “Oscar-Contending Documentary ‘The Quilters’: Behind the walls of a Maximum-Security Prison, Beauty and Healing Emerges,” Deadline, December 4, 2024.