The Georgia documentary Cooking Inside: From Prison to Home, directed by Brent Lambert-Zaffino, has concluded its festival run and is set to begin an educational tour. Cooking Inside depicts two men who were formerly incarcerated together as they recreate a prison meal exactly as they prepared it inside.
The film features Adrian Drepaul and Caz Stewart, who were incarcerated in Georgia together, as they explore America’s broken prison system through the humanity of food. The film’s festival run featured a premiere at the Queens World Film Festival as well as stops at South Georgia Film Festival and LA Documentary Film Festival, among others. As the filmmakers reach out to Georgia universities to screen the film, they have also been exploring turning the project into a series.
“When we conceptualized ‘Cooking Inside,’ I thought of the food component in structural terms — as a fresh way to tell Caz and Adrian’s story while communicating difficult truths about incarceration in America,” said director Brent Lambert-Zaffino. “Caz and Adrian aren’t chefs or on-camera personalities, nothing about what we were doing was natural for them, but the minute they started cooking together everything settled into such a palpable flow and rhythm. Expanding this concept to a series, featuring different meals created by different demographics, would grant us the opportunity to share more of these untold stories through the empathy channel of food preparation.”
“No matter where you are in the world, what language you speak, or by what name you call God, the love in any community can always be found around the table,” said producer and documentary subject Adrian Drepaul.
Lambert-Zaffino and Drepaul are currently looking to partner with universities to share the film and production companies to assist with shepherding the film to series. The filmmakers met years ago when they were both students at Georgia College & State University. The two reconnected during the COVID-19 pandemic and partnered on media productions that amplify the experiences of marginalized communities.
