Before former President Joseph Biden left office, he granted justice and freedom to scores of Americans including pardoning Marcus Mosiah Garvey posthumously as well as Kemba Smith Pradia while commuting the sentence of her longtime friend and former fellow inmate Michelle West.
Both women were caught in the crosshairs of the drug dealing epidemic of the 1990s and harshly punished for the crimes of the men they loved. As many across the nation continue to celebrate Black History Month, HBCU First LOOK Film Festival celebrates the film Kemba film, highly favorited during the festival, and its social impact in securing freedom for Michelle West and Kemba Smith Pradia’s full pardon.
Using Smith’s more well-known life story captured in her memoir Poster Child, Kemba, directed by Howard University alumna Kelley Kali who was also a young woman during that time, takes us back to that era and outlines how Smith Pradia, who attended Hampton University, West, a mother, and other young women got entangled with “bad boys” and ensnared in the criminal enterprise of drug trafficking.
Both women were aggressively prosecuted amid the War on Drugs and received harsher sentences than many men directly involved in the criminal enterprise. Before her release in 2000 after President Bill Clinton commuted her sentence, Smith Pradia served 7 years of a twenty-four-and-a-half-year sentence for a nonviolent drug offense. She even gave birth to her son while incarcerated.
West served over 30 years in prison until Biden commuted her sentence. As the film details, Smith Pradia had the benefit of two dedicated parents, a powerful cover story from Emerge magazine, and the Legal Defense Fund led by Elaine Jones at the time to help secure her miraculous release.
Upon learning of the film, Miles Ahead Entertainment President and CEO Sheila Eldridge, who founded the HBCU First LOOK Film Festival, which launched on the campus of her alma mater Howard University in November 2023, quickly partnered with Black Women Film Network, a 25-year+ organization supporting Black women in the industry, for a screening in Atlanta. After seeing the film and meeting Smith Pradia, Eldridge threw all her resources from her long-running, nationally syndicated Café Mocha Network, partnership with ‘Black Women Film Network’ and journalist Ronda Racha Penrice, and more to not only amplify Smith Pradia’s remarkably true story but also to help raise awareness regarding women like West who were still incarcerated.
“With the HBCU First LOOK Film Festival’s 2024 theme of Black Cinema and Activism, I was compelled to lift up Kemba’s heartfelt story, powerful film, and support of criminal justice reform efforts,” said Eldridge. “Especially knowing that this could happen to any young woman on a college campus today as a cautionary tale.”
By the time the sophomore HBCU First Look Film Festival came around in November 2024, Eldridge decided to incorporate Kemba, though available to stream on BET+, and invited Smith Pradia into the festival, to serve as the opening film followed by a post-screening Q&A spotlighting her and Kali with SHERRI executive producer and Norfolk State alum Jawn Murray.
“After I moderated the conversation with Kemba at the HBCU First Look Film Festival, I was so moved by her journey and advocacy that I personally lobbied the White House to consider the clemency of both her and Michelle West,” said Murray. “Kemba is a great example of how you maximize second chances and I’m happy President Biden granted her full clemency. I also look forward to seeing how Michelle maximizes her fresh start.”
The inaugural year, the Obamas surprised the young HBCU First LOOK attendees by introducing their powerful Netflix film Rustin directed by Broadway icon George C. Wolfe. The stellar film about the great civil rights leader and general of the epic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom starred Colman Domingo, who later earned an Oscar nomination.
“Black History IS American History,” added Eldridge. “I celebrate and salute the achievements and contributions of Black filmmakers, producers, actors, content creators, and people preserving our culture.”