List of Movies on Prison Issues

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Up the Ridge is a one-hour documentary that offers viewers an in-depth look at the United States prison industry and the social impact of moving hundreds of thousands of inner-city offenders to distant rural outposts . The filmmakers were motivated by letters sent from Wallens Ridge State Prison that described human rights violations, racial tension, and cultural conflict between staff and inmates.   http://www.appalshop.org/h2h/film/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

work in progress---list below...

“A Sentence of Their Own” (2001) by Edgar A. Barens. 64 minutes. Chronicles one family’s annual pilgrimage to a New Hampshire State Prison and reveals the damaging impact incarceration has on families. www.asentenceoftheirown.com

HOW DO YOU SPELL MURDER? chronicles a year in the life of a group of men who are illiterate and incarcerated in New Jersey. It explores the powerful connection between illiteracy and crime. The film profiles several of student-tutor teams working together. The prisoners recount years of humiliation in the public school system, where they were either held back repeatedly or promoted without adequate preparation. Many have undiagnosed learning disorders. Almost all are dropouts. Their years of frustration and anger were brought to unyielding conclusions at criminal trials where they could barely grasp the legal documents and procedures that determined their fates.

The film profiles one such student-tutor team from their first session through to a year later when the student can read. Inmate tutor Sammy recounts that he was functionally illiterate when he entered prison. While in prison he taught himself to read and is now a poet as well as a tutor.

“Corrections” (2000) by Ashley Hunt. 58 minutes. The story of justice turned to profit. www.independentfilms.com

The Reentry National Media Outreach Campsign - offers media resources that will facilitate community discussion and decision making about solution-based reentry programs. A list of documentaries and media resources is available by visiting their website: www.reentrymediaoutreach.org

Red Hook Justice--Imagine a court that works for change instead of punishment. A film by Meema Spadola. 60 minutes.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/redhookjustice/film.html

This Black Soil: A Story of Resistance and Rebirth (2004), directed by Teresa Konechne and produced by Working Hands Productions.This film chronicles the successful struggle of Bayview, Virginia, a small and severely impoverished rural African-American community, to pursue a new vision of prosperity. Catalyzed by the defeat of a state plan to build a maximum-security prison in their backyard, the powerful women leaders and residents created the Bayview Citizens for Social Justice non-profit organization, secured $10 million in grants, purchased the proposed prison site land and are now building a new community from the ground up.

www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/this.html

TROOP 1500 follows five young Girl Scouts—sisters Caitlin and Mikaela, Jasmine, Jessica and Naomi—whose mothers are serving time.

“Voices in Time” 36 minutes. A window into the lives of women who have served time in prison. In emotionally charged interviews, women share their experiences before, in and after prison and examine the relationship between  the prison system and poor communities and communities of color. www.beyondmedia.org

“What I Want My Words to Do to You” (2003). This program goes inside a writing workshop led by playwright Eve Ensler, consisting of 15 women inmates of New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, most of whom were convicted of murder. The women delve into and expose the most terrifying places in themselves, as they grapple with the nature of their crimes and their own culpability. The film culminates in an emotionally charged prison performance of the women's writing. PBS Videos Link.

“What We Leave Behind” (2000). Produced by Visible Voices and Women’s International Information Project.  20 minutes. A video made by formerly incarcerated women that challenges stereotypes about women in prison and examines the impact of their incarceration on their children. www.beyondmedia.org

“Yes In My Back Yard” (1999)by Tracy Huling. 57 minutes. Examines rural dependence on prisons and probes the impact on the keepers and the kept.  Order from: galgirls@francomm.com

FOR A MORE EXTENSIVE GUIDE TO VIDEOS GO TO: WWW.360DEGREES.ORG

>  

>  (http://www.current.tv/make/vc2/sot)

> 

>

> _One Nation Under  Guard_

> (http://www.current.tv/make/vc2/sot)