Alone

Shot in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2016, Alone provides a glimpse into the life of Aloné Watts. As the documentary short opens, we find Watts in bed as she contemplates a recent marriage proposal from her incarcerated partner, Desmond Watson, who was arrested in 2015 on nonviolent charges. We follow the main character as she meets with Watson’s lawyer on courthouse stairs, tries on wedding dresses, and tells her family of her plans to wed, resulting in an explosive confrontation as they beg her to reconsider. Alone provides a close look at the ways in which the United States prison system impacts not only the incarcerated but also the daily lives of their loved ones as they attempt to navigate its bureaucracies—including paying significant sums of money to private telecommunications companies to stay in contact. In a country where African Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of white people, the film also points towards the enduring legacy of the Thirteenth Amendment, which in 1865 abolished slavery and legalized it as punishment for a crime. This set in motion new laws levied at criminalizing Black life, also known as Black Codes, which would, for all intents and purposes, maintain the Black body’s status as public property. Alone considers the continued precariousness of Black life and the Black American family through an intimate look into the ways love and loneliness remain intricately bound for the incarcerated and their families.