Fritzi Horstman on Shame, Forgiveness and Compassion
“Somehow I got a glimpse that I could be somebody one day and that’s I believe the secret sauce.”
— FRITZI HORSTMAN
Fritzi Horstman is the Founder and Executive Director of the Compassion Prison Projection organization dedicated to bringing compassion, childhood trauma awareness, and creative inspiration to all men and women living behind bars.
She is currently directing “Step Inside the Circle,” a documentary about childhood trauma behind bars. The PSA created from some of the footage from the documentary has already received over 2 million views across all platforms.
She produced HBO’s “The Defiant Ones” directed by Allen Hughes which premiered July 9, 2017 and has garnered several awards including IDA Best Limited Series, NAACP Outstanding Director in a Television Movie or Special, Grammy for Best Music Film and was nominated for five Emmy Awards including Best Documentary.
Her first feature, “Take A Number,” which she wrote, produced, and directed, debuted at the Slamdance festival in 1997. She served as a co-producer and post-producer on numerous features and documentaries for Paramount Network Television, Universal Television, VH1, UPN, Lifetime, Showtime, FX Networks, the CW and CBS including the acclaimed “The Day Reagan was Shot,” “Our America,” which premiered at Sundance 2002, “Edge of America,” which premiered at Sundance 2004 and “Lila and Eve” which premiered at Sundance 2015.
She directed several shorts and documentary shorts, one of which, “Downtown,” won an award at the USA Film Festival.
She directed a documentary on James Joyce entitled “Joyce to the World,” featuring Brian Dennehy, Frank McCourt, and Finnoula Flanagan.
Fritzi is passionate about equality, civil rights, education, and stories about justice. It is her life’s work to makes sure these stories get told.
Connect with Fritzi
For me, this entire conversation was incredible. This conversation was recorded before the death of George Floyd and the proceeding social unrest.
The introduction was made by Cory McCarthy, who was also on this podcast. And if you are interested, in more after hearing what Fritzi you have to say. I highly recommend you check out his conversation.
I am getting back to Fritzi; her mission in life Is her emotion and compassion to helping other people who have never felt seen or have always felt less than. She pours everything she has into showing you how she feels about this. What changed for a lot of these conversations I've had was through the exposure I've done with movies, like Just Mercy and the work of Bryan Stevenson.
And to hear how these stories and the legacies of pain and trauma, shaping experiences for entire generations of people or families are part of the reason I'm having these conversations. I think that we need to look at The traumas we inflict on one another. And not only Person to person, but internally as well.
I have a hard time believing that some of us don't beat ourselves up. I can speak from experience that I've done it plenty of times, myself at a younger age, feeling like I should be superhuman to some degree where I couldn't cry or couldn't show emotion.
I think just hearing how she articulates what it's like for the most extreme case paint a picture for the rest of us on how we can live better. So we're not doing it to ourselves or those we care about around us.
And so with that, everyone, please enjoy this conversation with Fritzi Horstman.
Show Notes:
[00:06:11] A longing to change the world
[00:07:51] Forgiving yourself and violence towards the self
[00:10:24] Always doing something
[00:12:44] Focus on human flourishing
Flourish by Martin Seligman
[00:14:47] Prison as stored darkness and shame
[00:17:43] The Impact of Prison from Podcasts and Films
Prison Entrepreneurship Program: PEP
Tim Ferriss Goes to Maximum Security Prison (#323) – The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss
Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice | TED Talk
I Don't Want to Talk About It by Terrance Real
#119 - Terry Real: Breaking the cycle of shame, anger, and depression
[00:19:30] Unpacking the Death Penalty and Trauma
Early History of the Death Penalty
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy - Symptoms and causes
[00:25:54] ACE Test
[00:31:11] Advice to start forgiving yourself
[00:36:49] Workaholism
Workaholism: It's not just long hours on the job
Understanding the Dynamics of Workaholism
