Movies: Incarceration

Filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown following the death of his infant niece and the subsequent arrest of his brother-in-law as the culprit. Using the audio-visual approaches of essay film, first-person cinema vérité, ...

Incarcerated participants in a mental health experiment watch videos of sunset-soaked beaches, wildflowers and forests on loop, prompting them to reflect on isolation and wilderness. Equal parts meditation and provocation, Blue Room identifies the da...

A man that is a stranger, is an incredibly easy man to hate. However, walking in a stranger’s shoes, even for a short while, can transform a perceived adversary into an ally. Power is found in coming to know our neighbor’s hearts. For in the darkn...

Francisco, Isabel, Fco. Javier and David are captured in different parts of the world when they worked as "mules" to overcome the crisis. They tell their stories from the deal that turned them into traffickers to their release from prison....

Set in a speakeasy in Atlanta, “Twenty” is a feature documentary about fifteen young people making it through 2020. The film is an observational time capsule that lays bare the raw reflections of a group of people surviving a year that will be seare...

Babz Dubreuil, a lonely ex-convict, works as a cook in a brunch restaurant. At the encouragement of a colleague, she finds the courage to ask an attractive customer on a date. It might be the beginning of redemption....

A convicted felon builds a feminist movement from behind bars at an all-male prison in Soledad, California....

Could dyslexia be a gift? Or can it only ever be a disability? Documentary maker Richard Macer sets off on a road trip with his dyslexic son Arthur to find the answer. En route, they meet Richard Branson and Eddie Izzard, and many other successful dy...

A Southern Indiana man endures a fatal night of torture after being arrested for a routine traffic stop....

Formerly incarcerated writer Marvin Wade speaks personally about his 25 years in prison and the positive transformation he achieved in spite of, not because of, the criminal legal system around him....

Preschool to Prison is a compelling examination of how the United States public school system is built and operated like prisons. Zero-tolerance policies are used to justify suspension and arrests that set up a pathway to send children of color and c...

Aundrey Burno, a black youth looking down the wrong end of a murder charge -- for which a conviction could result in a lifetime in prison -- appears to be the epitome of an unrepentant thug. Speaking to viewers, he claims to have done whatever was ne...

Two brothers, separated by time and prison bars, reestablish contact. Inspired by James Baldwin's short story, 'Sonny's Blues.'...

After a botched home invasion, 15-year-old Blake finds himself facing a virtual life prison sentence for Felony Murder. With the unwavering support of his single mother and teenage girlfriend, a David-and-Goliath uphill battle ensues in Elkhart, Indi...

In prisons ruled by toxic masculinity, dancing is an absolute taboo. But at Lancaster’s A-Yard, near Los Angeles, a group of young men, willing to take a chance to be mocked in the yard, start a dance class led by French choreographer Dimitri Chambla...

A look beyond the shock and inhumanity of prison rape to the intricate social hierarchy that keeps it alive. A filmmaker goes deep inside Alabama's infamous Limestone penitentiary to uncover the long-term causes and consequences of prison rape. With ...

The internal journey of eight men, who, through a theater workshop, go through the different prisons they inhabit. Practicing the art of seeing themselves, in Boal's words, this group of men reflects on their masculinity as a representation to hide t...

A father exits prison and tries to integrate with his two children and girlfriend while living in a halfway house and on parole....

Bubu is a poet who has been committed to state institutions for the insane twelve times. He challenges the meaning of hospital-jails, hybrid institutions which sentence the insane to life imprisonment. The poem "The House of the Dead" was written dur...

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