Last we heard from Gerjuan “Ge-Cue” Harmon — the ex-con artist whose post-incarceral transition is being documented in real time on this Substack exclusive podcast RELEASE: Life Beyond Bars — he was stressing.
Staring down the deadline of his cinematography program’s final project — a program he had applied to while still locked up at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, directing his precious allotment of outside phone calls to the New York Film Academy’s bursar’s office in a Herculean effort to arrange the requisite financial aid package needed to fund his celluloid dreams — he was scrambling to shape a concept and script that could be shot within budget.
The budget? Zero dollars.
He was also still struggling to navigate the many institutional potholes and roadblocks that dot the daily path of the underprivileged. His government relief had been reduced, forcing him to further stretch his dollars at the dollar store on grocery runs. He still hadn’t resolved his driver’s license issue — a hangover from his pre-incarceration era — compounding his exhaustion and frustration with the spotty public transportation network seemingly tacked onto car-centric Los Angeles as a civic obligation. And he was at his wit’s end trying to negotiate FilmLA’s permitting, licensing, and insurance bureaucracies — the necessary evils of indie pre-production.
Filming was set to begin July 16.
On July 21, I got a call from Gerjuan: “I just got out of jail.”
In an imprudent attempt at stress relief, he had followed a couple of call girls to the Chateau Marmont where they had a couple drinks and started smoking meth. According to Gerjuan, he refrained from the drugs, but must have caught some second-hand smoke because the next thing he knew, he was stumbling through Beverly Hills in the middle of the night where he jumped a fence to someone’s property — and quickly jumped back after realizing what he was doing.
But it was too late. Several police cars pulled up on him and “twenty officers stormed on me like it was the bank robbery of the decade.” He was charged with three misdemeanors — unauthorized access to a premises, tampering with a vehicle, and trespassing — and he woke up dazed and confused on the cold floor of the county jail.
Because of Gerjuan’s rap sheet and the apparent violation of his parole, he was held for five days — “for hopping a fucking fence” — before his case was sorted and he was called for a court appearance. After begging the judge for leniency and agreeing to plead guilty to the tampering charge (the others were dismissed), he was strapped with an ankle monitor and released on three months of home confinement.
Despite this setback, Gerjuan got back on track and completed his capstone film, Poetic Dysfunction — an eight-minute short in the style of a city symphony focused on the unhoused populations of downtown LA, described as “a cinematic poem blending elements of introspective imagery and social commentary.” But due to his unfortunate detour through the criminal justice system, he failed to secure enough course credits to earn his certificate from NYFA.
I wish I could say this would be Gerjuan’s last brush with the law before the year was up, but after an altercation over the alleged vandalization of a Ring camera, his landlord pressed felony charges and Gerjuan found himself back behind bars on October 21st — four days after his 43rd birthday, and one month shy of celebrating the first anniversary of his release from 12.5 years in California state prison. This time, the complications of his arrest record kept him jailed for nearly two months before he was able to choreograph enough outside assistance to make bail. He was released on December 14th.
Today’s episode is excerpted from our conversation on Christmas Eve.
Gerjuan knows he fucked up. He knows he’s set himself back. And he knows that generosity has its limitations. But his struggles are also understandable, given his unenviable circumstances. And if his artistic talents are sufficiently supported, he just might break out of this cycle of recidivism and reclaim his productive place in society.
If you’re feeling the holiday spirit and wish to shine your light his way, this man could really use your help. Click here to donate to his GoFundMe campaign.
On his behalf and mine, thank you.
