Darius Clark Monroe is transforming the ways media portrays incarcerated young black men, starting with his own story. At the age of 16, Darius committed armed robbery, which dramatically impacted his life as well as those around him. After serving five years in a maximum security prison, Darius has since earned a MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and launched his career in documentary film.

Later this month, Darius’s film The Evolution of a Criminal will be released, and viewers across the country will be able to understand how Darius’s crime was intimately connected to his environment. While Darius is the first to take responsibility for his crime, his documentary contextualizes how his deep love for his family ...