CJAB Conference Keynote
Official conference record for EL's keynote, “Missing Persons: Reentry, and the Aftermath of Incarceration.”
View the public recordEL Sawyer, Documentary Filmmaker, Speaker, and Healing Justice Practitioner
EL Sawyer · Filmmaker
About EL
A filmmaker shaped by
A filmmaker shaped by
what he survived.
EL Sawyer is a Philadelphia-based filmmaker, entrepreneur, and healing justice practitioner. After serving over a decade in the Pennsylvania state prison system starting at age 15, that lived experience became the lens shaping all of his work.
Today, more than 20 years after returning home, EL’s ongoing healing journey spans international conversations on neuroscience, trauma, and systemic reform.
He leads Sawyer-Media, a firm he founded to continue this vision, and serves as CEO and co-founder of Media in Neighborhoods Group (MING): a Philadelphia production company behind his earlier films. From North Philadelphia to the Obama White House, his work has consistently helped drive the national conversation on reentry.
EL’s films are not made from the outside looking in. They are crafted from the inside out, informed by firsthand experience of what the system inflicts on the human mind and communities, and anchored in a deep belief in our collective capacity to heal when given the right conditions.
"In here, you gotta go a little crazy to stay sane."
A mentor inside the Pennsylvania State Prison System
The Work
Documentary Films
In Production
Missing Persons
A feature-length documentary on the psychological devastation of incarceration, what confinement does to the brain, and why the system is designed to keep people from healing. Directed and produced by EL Sawyer.
Explore the filmCompanion Series
Missing by Design
The first podcast of its kind, activating full-length interviews as complete episodes to maximize every conversation gathered during the making of Missing Persons. Audio will be made available inside participating prison systems.
Listen to the series2023
Music Vets
A documentary on U.S. military veterans and the use of music therapy as treatment for PTSD and traumatic brain injuries, tracing the parallels between combat trauma and incarceration trauma. Co-directed with Jon Kaufman and produced by EL Sawyer.
Visit the Film Site Watch the Trailer2015
Pull of Gravity
A documentary exploring the environmental conditions of home and the societal forces that perpetuate cycles of reincarceration, told through the families and communities doing the waiting. Directed with Jon Kaufman and screened at the Obama White House.
Watch on Prime Video Watch the Trailer2018, Netherlands
Den Haag: De Mens Achter de Casus
Commissioned by the Veiligheidshuis after a screening of Pull of Gravity in Holland, this film examines the Dutch prison system through EL's inside perspective. Co-directed and produced by EL Sawyer, it draws parallels between U.S. and Dutch incarceration and finds a system that works in structure but falls short in cultural understanding.
Watch the Trailer2024
Belonging Beyond Brown
A documentary revisiting the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education through the lived experiences of Black educators, students, and families. Co-directed and produced by EL Sawyer, the film looks beyond legal progress to examine what was lost in forced integration and what true belonging in American education still requires.
Watch the Trailer
Ongoing Initiatives
The work beyond the films.
Human By Design Conference
A Neuro-Informed convening that serves as the primary impact platform for the film, bringing together researchers, policymakers, and advocates to turn findings into actionable reform.
ReFeeding
A trauma-informed approach to weight loss and metabolic health that acknowledges the physiological toll of chronic institutional stress, rooted in EL's lived experience and emerging neuro-informed research.
Explore ReFeedingSkyLife
A network-powered, closed-loop reentry support platform replacing fragmented cash-based systems with accountable service delivery. Sky Reserve Notes, milestone-based progress, and a community expansion engine built for the justice-impacted. Pre-seed round open.
Reentry Simulation Overlay (RSO)
An evidence-based overlay that reveals what most reentry systems miss: incarceration fundamentally changes how the brain sees, thinks, and feels. The RSO uses tinted lenses and distorted instruction cards to simulate those invisible neurological shifts, grounded in peer-reviewed neuroscience.
Speaking Engagements
A voice from the inside out.
EL speaks from direct experience, as someone who lived inside the system, rebuilt a life on the other side of it, and has spent over two decades studying what that experience does to the brain, the body, and the family.
His presentations bridge personal testimony with neuroscientific evidence, making him a uniquely compelling voice for audiences ranging from university research departments to policy conferences, prison systems, and community organizations.
On Stage
Featured Guest
Featured Guest
Podcast Guest
Future Memory: MING Media is the Message
EL and Jon Kaufman discuss the origin of MING Media and their approach to community storytelling.
Home Base Nation: Mending Invisible Wounds with Music
EL joins Dr. Ron Hirschberg to discuss Music Vets and the healing power of music for veterans.
Neuro-Informed Research
Science at the center.
EL's work is grounded in peer-reviewed neuroscience. Not as decoration, but as the foundation from which every argument is built.
Neuroscience
The Brain in Confinement
Prolonged isolation produces measurable, lasting structural changes in the brain, including cortical thinning, hippocampal atrophy, and disruption of prefrontal regulation. Research from Harvard, NASA, and Thomas Jefferson University converges on this finding.
Trauma & the Body
Chronic Stress and Metabolic Health
Chronic institutional stress disrupts cortisol regulation, suppresses BDNF, alters gut microbiome composition, and creates metabolic conditions that persist long after release. This is the biological foundation of the ReFeeding framework.
Recidivism & Reentry
What Drives Return
Nearly 2 out of 3 people released from state prison are rearrested within three years. Research consistently shows that recidivism is not a failure of character but a predictable outcome of unaddressed trauma, housing instability, and inadequate reentry support.
Public Health
Incarceration as a Health Crisis
The U.S. Surgeon General has identified incarceration as a public health issue. People who have been incarcerated face dramatically higher rates of cardiovascular disease, mental illness, substance use disorders, and premature mortality than the general population.
Historical Context
Design, Not Accident
The 13th Amendment's exception clause enabled the continuation of forced labor through criminalization. Scholars including Michelle Alexander and Bryan Stevenson document how mass incarceration emerged as a structural extension of racial and economic control.
Policy Implications
What the Evidence Demands
If confinement causes neurological injury, incarceration without psychological rehabilitation is a form of compounded harm. The Human By Design conference is built around translating this scientific conclusion into policy language and actionable reform.
ReFeeding
Healing the body that
Healing the body that
lived the trauma.
ReFeeding is EL Sawyer's trauma-healing-centered approach to weight loss and metabolic restoration. Rooted in his own experience of incarceration, it was born from the recognition that chronic trauma leaves a physiological imprint that conventional wellness frameworks were never designed to address.
Whether the source is incarceration, childhood adversity, systemic stress, or other lived experiences, prolonged trauma alters cortisol levels, suppresses the gut-brain axis, disrupts sleep architecture, and creates metabolic patterns that standard diet and fitness programs consistently miss. The origin may differ. The physiological impact often does not.
The framework draws on emerging neuro-informed research, EL's lived experience, and ongoing collaboration with researchers studying the long-term physiological effects of trauma across lived contexts.
Visit ReFeedingCore Principles
Trauma-First
Address the neurological and psychological roots of metabolic disruption before prescribing any dietary protocol.
Neuro-Informed Nutrition
Rebuild BDNF, regulate cortisol, and restore the gut-brain connection through evidence-based nutritional interventions.
Individualized by Design
Trauma shapes each body differently. While the metabolic patterns may share similarities, the path back is personal. ReFeeding is built around a tailored approach that meets each person where their body and history actually are.
Independent Recognition
Legitimate links already earned.
Independent journalism, public records, cultural institutions, and government partners documenting EL's filmmaking, advocacy, and public work.
Film Education at Sing Sing
Public-radio coverage of EL preparing incarcerated jurors to evaluate films for a prison film festival.
Read the storyMusic Vets Screening
The Kennedy Center's annual report documents the screening and audience conversation with directors Jon Kaufman and EL Sawyer.
View the annual reportFilmmaker Spotlight
A regional film-industry profile of EL's work as a filmmaker, advocate, speaker, and MING co-founder.
Read the spotlightFrom Prisoner to Presidential Advisor
An independent profile of EL's reentry journey, filmmaking, and criminal-justice work.
Read the profilePull of Gravity Profile
National coverage focused on EL, reentry, and the documentary's inside-out perspective.
Read the storyVoices of Youth
An official U.S. Attorney's Office release identifying EL as a filmmaker, educator, and youth-media leader.
View the releaseGrantee Partner Directory
A national funder's directory documenting EL's filmmaking, social-justice advocacy, and the SHOOTERS media-training program.
View the directory
Get Involved
Work with EL.
Whether you're interested in supporting the film, booking a speaking engagement, partnering on research, or exploring how the ReFeeding framework could serve your community, reach out.