PHILADELPHIA — In 2018, after spending 40 years incarcerated, Mike and Debbie Davis were ready to start living productive lives.

They moved in with their son, Mike Africa Jr., who hadn’t yet been born when the couple — then 22-year-old MOVE members Mike and Debbie Africa — were sentenced for the 1978 murder of a Philadelphia police officer.

Debbie found a job as a cashier at ShopRite while Mike started working in maintenance at the Chester Housing Department. Within the year, the Davises married and moved into an apartment of their own. They spent a year caring for Debbie’s brother, Charles, another former MOVE member. He died of cancer in 2020.

That year, Mike taught his wife how to drive, and when she was 64, she got her driver’s license.

“I can go most places that I need to on my own,” said Debbie, who at 68, has nary a wrinkle on her caramel-hued face. “I can go to work, both of my sisters’ homes, my kids’ house, and the grocery store.”

They spent months getting to know their children, nine grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

The couple were watching the news one day when they saw a story painting formerly incarcerated as unworthy of a second chance. It insinuated that they were responsible for Philadelphia’s rising crime.

“That just wasn’t true,” said Mike. “There are 600,000 returning citizens who come home each year. Most are trying to restart their lives and make positive differences in their communities.”

“So, we decided to make a film,” Debbie chimed in. “To spotlight returning citizens who are doing good things.”

"A New Voice," the 16-minute short film directed by the Davises, premiered last week at this year’s BlackStar Film Festival.

“BlackStar is very much rooted in social justice,” said Nehad Khader, BlackStar Film Festival’s director “We are interested in stories about incarceration told through the lens of the incarcerated. Mike and Debbie’s perspective fits into our mission.”

The powerful film features prominent returning citizens, including former juvenile lifer Kempis Ghani Songster, a Philly-based activist whose Youth Art Self-empowerment Project is working toward a world with no youth incarceration. Dana Lomax-Ayler, who helps women adjust to life outside prison walls and feeds the unhoused, also makes an appearance.

Clawing their way out

On Aug. 8, 1978, Mayor Frank Rizzo ordered the Philadelphia police to ambush MOVE’s Powelton Village compound. MOVE, a group of Black anti-racist activists led by Debbie’s uncle, John Africa, eschewed modern technology. The group’s back-to-nature ethos infringed on their neighbors’ quality of life.

Officer James Ramp was shot and killed in the melee. Nine MOVE members — including Debbie and Mike — were convicted of third-degree murder and sentenced to 30 to 100 years in prison. The MOVE Nine maintain their innocence. The shooting was an ugly precursor to the city’s 1985 Osage Avenue bombing that killed 11.

Mike and Debbie were placed in solitary confinement for years. “We had to fight to get into the general population,” said Debbie, who said she went on a 45-day hunger strike.

The Davises had to fight for decent food and the privilege to go outside. They barely received mail and when they did, it was tampered with. Still, the couple had hope that one day they would be freed and wrote letters to each other, dreaming of a life together after their release.

“For all the abuse and trauma prisoners go through, it’s amazing so many of us are able to live productive lives,” Mike said.

Telling their own story

In 2019, the Davises attended a community speaking event in Trainer, and found themselves in conversation with filmmaker Jennifer Bennett. Bennett suggested the couple write a book but then quickly corrected herself: a film would be better.

Bennett introduced the Davises to Louis Massiah, founder of West Philly’s Scribe Video Center. The couple enrolled in the center’s 14-week filmmaking class.

“We had 40 years of knowing nothing about digital technology,” said Debbie. “When we left, there were rotary phones and Yellow Pages.”

By the end of the class, the Davises completed a 15-minute short, "By Your Side."

“For nearly 50 years, people had been telling our story,” Mike said. “Now we had a chance to tell our story ourselves. It was cathartic.”

Making ‘A New Voice’

The Davises filmed "A New Voice" in 2021. Life under incarceration, they said, doesn’t preclude people from living a well-rounded, upstanding life.

Celebrating the achievements of friends and acquaintances was their new form of activism.

In addition to Songster and Lomax-Ayler, the filmmakers interviewed Mike’s friend Tom Banks, owner of a gas company in Pittsburgh with more than 100 employees and who was also formerly incarcerated.

“He’s an example of someone who succeeded despite not having anything,” Mike said. “When he was first released, he made only $10 an hour.”

Debbie’s friend Regina Pearson,, now runs a home health agency in Pittsburgh. She is in "A New Voice" as is Avis Lee, who worked in construction after her release and recently bought a home.

“It’s about humanization and inspiration,” said Debbie, who said she’d like to see the film screened in prisons, schools, and rehabilitation centers. “We wanted people who were in prison to see this, help them feel hopeful.”

Filmmakers at Philadelphia-based MING Media and Scribe edited Mike and Debbie’s raw footage, shot additional B-roll, and interviewed with Mike and Debbie. They submitted "A New Voice" to BlackStar and were chosen from more than 2,000 applicants.

Last week's premiere, the team hopes, will appeal to donors willing to fund a full-length documentary. That wouldn’t just validate the Davises’ experience, but also the hundreds of returning citizens embarking on a new life.

“The process was therapeutic,” Debbie said. “Our film family saw us, recognized us, and acknowledged us in a way we knew we were worthy of their praise.”

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