{"id":9951,"date":"2025-07-31T14:30:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/?p=9951"},"modified":"2025-07-31T14:30:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:30:06","slug":"almost-home-life-after-incarceration-receives-significant-indiefest-film-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/almost-home-life-after-incarceration-receives-significant-indiefest-film-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost Home: Life After Incarceration Receives Significant IndieFest Film Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Palomar College film \u201cAlmost Home: Life After Incarceration\u201d<\/a> has been chosen for a Outstanding Achievement Humanitarian Award by the IndieFest Film Awards for the movie\u2019s focus on the challenges faced by formerly incarcerated students.<\/p>\n

The award is the latest in a long line of honors for the feature-length film released in June 2023. It also won awards for best documentary and best director at the 2023 Pacific Southwest Emmy Awards and previously received an award of excellence special mention at the IndieFest Film Awards.<\/p>\n

Director Bill Wisneski said the awards are gratifying, but more importantly, the film has brought national attention to the stigma around formerly incarcerated individuals and the positive impact that education can make in their lives.\u00a0 The Palomar College Rising Scholars program serves formerly incarcerated, and justice impacted students.\u00a0 The program served nearly 700 students in the 2024-2025 academic year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe award means a lot because it\u2019s about having an impact,\u201d Wisneski said.<\/p>\n

The film focuses on the successes of formerly incarcerated students, including eight who graduated from Palomar College in 2024. It also showed the story of Luis Jimenez, who attended Palomar College after he was released from prison and went on to attend the University of California at Los Angeles. He died by suicide in December 2023, at age 33.<\/p>\n

In selecting \u201cAlmost Home\u201d for the humanitarian award, judges at the IndieFest Film Awards said the film was \u201cpowerful and emotionally resonant.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWith compassion and authenticity, the film reveals how education not only heals deep-rooted trauma but also opens doors, uplifts families, and restores dignity,\u201d the judges said. \u201cIt is a stirring testament to the human spirit, offering hope, empowerment, and the possibility of second chances.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film also received praise from Influx Magazine<\/a> and FilmThreat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wisneski\u2019s next project is a documentary on Suzi Eszterhas, a wildlife photographer who overcame many challenges and now focuses her work on photographing baby animals. The film is expected to be completed by December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Palomar College film \u201cAlmost Home: Life After Incarceration\u201d has been chosen for a Outstanding Achievement Humanitarian Award by the IndieFest Film Awards for the movie\u2019s focus on the challenges faced by formerly incarcerated students. The award is the latest in a long line of honors for the feature-length film released in June 2023. It… \u00a0Continue Reading: Almost Home: Life After Incarceration Receives Significant IndieFest Film Award<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10665,"featured_media":9957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,23,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carousel","category-features","category-home","category-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlmost Home: Life After Incarceration Receives Significant IndieFest Film Award - Palomar News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/almost-home-life-after-incarceration-receives-significant-indiefest-film-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Almost Home: Life After Incarceration Receives Significant IndieFest Film Award - Palomar News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Palomar College film \u201cAlmost Home: Life After Incarceration\u201d has been chosen for a Outstanding Achievement Humanitarian Award by the IndieFest Film Awards for the movie\u2019s focus on the challenges faced by formerly incarcerated students. 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