Off the Record: Sal

Salesh ‘Sal’ Prasad, 51, stands on the threshold of a new chapter — released from his transitional home in the Tenderloin in San Francisco, he is in the process of getting settled in the first home of his own in nearly 30 years. Our film meets him in this liminal moment. After surviving 27 years of prison followed by ICE detention and parole, he is finally in a place to begin envisioning a life ‘after.’

But this moment of opportunity is also a moment of deep uncertainty and uncomfortable firsts.

With this film, we meet Sal as a gifted artist, and a devoted counselor and advocate. Refusing to be defined by his incarcerated experience, Sal is deeply committed to his personal evolution, and to extending his insight to others in service of helping those in challenging circumstances reach their full potential. No matter what, he’s going to keep moving forward.

‘Off the Record: Sal’ is part of “Off the Record” – a vibrant, visually elegant digital portrait series from The Adachi Project about our shared human experience — as seen through the eyes of public defender clients.

"Off the Record," challenges the notion that the ‘official record’ tells the whole story. Each film in the series introduces our subjects as holistic people, whose full lives transcend any experience they may have had with the justice system and who each have found a form of expression and liberation through an art-making or cultural practice.

"Off the Record" – is an extension of The Adachi Project’s “Defender” – an unprecedented Art + Media project, borne from the partnership between the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office (PDR), creative studio Even/Odd, and Compound, created to honor the legacy of the late SF Public Defender, Jeff Adachi.

The Adachi Project – a storytelling initiative created by the San Francisco Public Defender with Compound and Even/Odd that illuminates timely stories and unseen perspectives of the US criminal legal system through seminal documentary film, videos and photojournalism.