Natalie Pattillo, Co-Founder, Co-CEO, Head of Story

As a filmmaker, woman of color, survivor of domestic violence, and mother, I am driven to uplift survivors who are directly impacted by the legal system to feel heard, seen, and believed in ways that feel true to who they are. I have dealt with the court system personally and know from lived experience how daunting and exhausting the process can be, and how it exacerbates the effects that trauma has on a survivor’s emotional, physical, mental, and financial well-being.

With Full Picture Studios, through trauma-informed interviewing and filming, we have the honor of offering survivors who are incarcerated the emotional space, dignity, and empowerment to tell their stories of hope, resilience, growth, joy, and grief in their own words. As Co-Founder and Head of Story of Full Picture Studios, I am motivated to make sure that survivors of abuse are not villainized, infantilized, and misunderstood because the legal system (and society at large) lacks the understanding and compassion of how abuse and trauma can affect survivors in various ways. Instead, I will hold myself accountable through empathy and a drive to constantly learn, and use my lived experience and skills as a filmmaker to uplift each survivor’s unique truth and do my part in fighting for their liberation.

Daniel A. Nelson, Co-Founder, Co-CEO, Head of Video

Since meeting Natalie in 2015 at Columbia Journalism School, I have spent the last decade dedicated to understanding intimate partner violence with all of its intricacies and nuance. As Co-Founder and Head of Video of Full Picture Studios, I believe that using the art of visual storytelling creates a human element that is often stripped away by the legal system. I have worked on many issue-based documentaries, from the trans right to the pandemic, in my career and have seen the impact documentary has on creating empathy and connection.

I use my skills as a filmmaker to help create videos with Natalie to provide legal relief for incarcerated survivors. Through our work, Natalie and I are able to show survivors holistically as the strong and resilient people that they are. As a white man working in this space, it is important to hold myself accountable and use my privilege to help elevate the voices of survivors by taking the lead of women like Natalie and the survivors we work with.

I am constantly driven by this work because we’ve seen it work and I am forever grateful to all the survivors who have allowed me the space to help tell their stories. I will never stop fighting for their freedom.

Spearheaded by Natalie Pattillo and Daniel A. Nelson, the filmmakers behind the award-winning documentary And So I Stayed, Full Picture Studios uses the power of compassionate video and audio storytelling to free those who are unjustly incarcerated. In 2021, the filmmakers created videos for incarcerated survivors of abuse, which led to early releases from prison. Some of this work was featured in The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune.

These videos, which range from short to feature length films, have been an incredible by-product of And So I Stayed’s impact campaign, and is now taking on a life of its own with law firms and legal organizations requesting for compelling videos to be produced on behalf of their client’s clemency and/or Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act applications.

We believe these films work in decarcerating individuals because they fully show who the person is, their hopes and dreams, their fears, their community support, their growth, and ultimately, their humanity. From the music selection to filming heartfelt interviews at the prison facilities, we craft these films with care, empathy, and trauma-informedness. When judges and prosecutors watch and listen to these survivors and their loved ones, we've seen that it becomes clear that incarceration is not the answer in these cases (plus, it helps that a prosecutor can’t object while watching a video).

As filmmakers, we are inspired by our work everyday — how fortunate we are to not only learn about these remarkable individuals, but that we also have the opportunity to uplift their story of redemption, while also changing the hearts and minds of those in power.