Once Upon A Felony

Faerie Tayler and friends are checking in on one another, making art by creating a faerie tale about trauma therapy, and the long term consequences of being incarcerated.

Faerie Tayler is a storyteller and artist focused on using art as therapy and a smart advocacy tool. Leaving the NYC metro area, the Faerie heads out to visit the area where a crime was committed over a decade earlier in 2008. JAREN meets with the Faerie to talk about what’s happened to them in the last decade or so, to make faerie stuff, and to reunite with Faerie. They were co-defendants spending years in prison for a crime committed at 18 years old. Faerie then meets up with old friend from prison, KAT and her preteen MIRA, and mother daughter duo who chat about the past and their futures while helping Faerie make this faerie tale visual collage short film. Along the way, RELL, a single black queer mother of a 7 year old, meets the faerie for only the second time since the Faerie and Rell met in a small jail. Their son, King, joins in on the art therapy and faerie tale telling by drawing and coloring with mom.

Faerie then remixes photos, interviews, stop motion, puppetry, drawings, and sounds to present the road trip stories as a faerie and fantasy filled adventure! It’s not all whimsical- the faerie and friends are touched by many small things while making the art, sharing deep truths, surviving since then, how they have kept hope. Everyone grows closer as a community and feels like their story is partially told. The film will focus on using art, even the basics, as a therapeutic tool and implore the audience to share their story by making art and advocacy signs and joining the movement to end mass incarceration.