Movies: Incarceration

In 2002, the greatest prison in Latin America, Complex Carandiru, was demolished. A couple of months before its implosion, director Paulo Sacramento trained some inmates and together with his crew, they produced many hours of footage, showing daily l...

Low-level narcotics offenders too often cycle in and out of jail, re-offending soon after they hit the streets. District Attorney Kamala D. Harris has convened City leaders to answer this problem and, along with key partners, has launched Back on Tr...

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...

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...

Achille, 13, awaits, full of hope, the release from prison of his father, unknown and fantasized. His dream of living as a threesome, like a real family, will be seriously undermined by a mother exhausted from waiting and this father who is unsuitabl...

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

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....

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...

Low-level narcotics offenders too often cycle in and out of jail, re-offending soon after they hit the streets. District Attorney Kamala D. Harris has convened City leaders to answer this problem and, along with key partners, has launched Back On Tra...

Young Dimitris, on the verge of manhood yet very much a child, has romanticized his imprisoned father to mythic proportions. When he gets released after ten years, Dimitris cannot wait to finally know him and make up for lost time. But when his fathe...

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

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...

FREEDOM IS JUST THE BEGINNING. EXODUS is an intimate, lyrical portrait of Trinity Copeland and Assia Serrano as they struggle to make sense of their lives post-release, exploring the overarching question of: What does life after prison look like? Gr...

Trevor McDonald goes to Rockville Correctional Facility in Indiana to speak with some of the women that live there....

Portable Channel, a community documentary group in Rochester, New York, was one of the first small format video centers to have an ongoing relationship with a PBS affiliate (WXXI). Portapakers interviewed Sinclair Scott, a member of the negotiating t...

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...

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....

Arthur, a young Korean-American, tries to manage one brother, sentenced to spend his life in jail; his other brother, a drug addict; and pressure from their Korean-born mother....

MILWAUKEE 53206 chronicles the lives of those living in the ZIP code that incarcerates the highest percentage of black men in America, up to 62%. Through the intimate stories of three 53206 residents, we witness the high toll that mass incarceration ...

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