Waiting for Godot in San Quentin

Out of State(en)

Out of State is the unlikely story of native Hawaiians men discovering their native culture as prisoners in the desert of Arizona, 3,000 miles, and across the ocean, from their island home.

The Big One(en)

The Big One is an investigative documentary from director Michael Moore who goes around the country asking why big American corporations produce their product abroad where labor is cheaper while so many Americans are unemployed, losing their jobs, and would happily be hired by such companies as Nike.

La petite prison dans la prairie(fr)

Since November 2022, the Brussels prisons of Saint-Gilles, Forest and Berkendael have been moving to the brand-new "prison village" of Haren, on the outskirts of Brussels. An ultra-modern, ultra-secure, semi-private prison. But why build new prisons in the first place?

Ashley Smith : Out of Control(en)

Ashley Smith was a troubled 19-year-old when she choked herself to death at Ontario's Grand Valley Institution for Women. Her death made national headlines and led to a scathing report by Canada’s federal prison ombudsman. Incarceration for Ashley began at a youth detention centre in New Brunswick. Her crime: she had tossed crabapples at a mailman. Her one-month sentence stretched to almost four years, served in five provinces. With the prison videotapes and exclusive access to Smith’s parents, along with a fellow inmate, this documentary exposes a system that fails the many Ashley Smiths still incarcerated in Canadian institutions.

Out of Mind, Out of Sight(en)

Four-time Emmy winner John Kastner was granted unprecedented access to the Brockville facility for 18 months, allowing 46 patients and 75 staff to share their experiences with stunning frankness. The result is two remarkable documentaries: the first, NCR: Not Criminally Responsible, premiered at Hot Docs in the spring of 2013 and follows the story of a violent patient released into the community. The second film, Out of Mind, Out of Sight, returns to the Brockville Mental Health Centre to profile four patients, two men and two women, as they struggle to gain control over their lives so they can return to a society that often fears and demonizes them.

Cain's Children(hu)

Three boys, they all committed murder. After discovering their haunting faces and disturbing stories in a banned prison documentary from 1984, the filmmaker goes out to find them and discovers untold secrets and a Hungary he has never known.

Extreme Consequences: The Reality of Prison Life(en)

A compelling look at the choices that lead to incarceration and the reality of being locked up in Pelican Bay State Prison.

The Rati Horror Show(es)

"El Rati Horror Show" is a documentary that portrays the dramatic story of Fernando Ariel Carrera, the case of an ordinary man wrongly sentenced to thirty years in prison - not by mistake but deliberately - through the manipulation of a judicial case in Argentina. The film takes as its central point the way in which Fernando Carrera's case was fabricated: the manipulation and alteration of evidence at the scene of the crime; the manipulation of all national media by Rubén Maugeri, key witness to the events and president of the Association of Friends of Commissary 34. On the other hand, it shows how Fernando Carrera leads his daily life in prison.

Gogita's New Life(ka)

After 14 years in prison, the time has come for Gogita to return to his normal life. His wishes seem modest enough: a home of his own and then marriage to a nice woman. But who would be interested in a poor farmer and ex-con who still lives with his mother? Then he meets Maka on the internet. She's not that young anymore, and she's not the prettiest girl in the world, but she can bake delicious cakes. They're soon making grand plans without even having met.

The Fallen(hu)

The documentary was shot in the prison for juvenile delinquents in Hungary. It does not aim at judging whether the perpetrators were convicted rightly or not but, given the burden they carry, how they can reintegrate into society after they are released.

Breaking the Cycle(en)

The warden of Halden, Norway's most humane prison, tours the U.S. prison system to urge a new approach emphasizing rehabilitation.

Chodorkowskis neue Freiheit(de)

Released from prison, former oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky expounds on his newfound freedom and complex relationship with Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.(en)

A portrait of the life and career of the infamous American execution device designer Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. Mr. Leuchter was an engineer who became an expert on execution devices and was later hired by holocaust revisionist historian Ernst Zundel to "prove" that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz. Leuchter published a controversial report confirming Zundel's position, which ultimately ruined his own career. Most of the footage is of Leuchter, working in and around execution facilities or chipping away at the walls of Auschwitz, but Morris also interviews various historians, associates, and neighbors.

Prisoners of Conscience(en)

An early Patwardhan documentary completed in 1978, Prisoners of Conscience focuses on the state of emergency imposed by Indira Ghandi from June 1975 through March 1977. During this time over 100,000 people were arrested without charge and imprisoned without trial. They were released only by the government that replaced Ghandi's. The film also shows that political prisoners existed in India before the state of emergency and continued after the new government was elected.

Stanford Prison Experiment: Psychology of Imprisonment(en)

The Stanford prison experiment was a landmark psychological study of the human response to captivity, in particular, to the real world circumstances of prison life, and the effects of imposed social roles on behaviour. It was conducted in 1971 by a team of researchers led by Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University.

Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer(en)

British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.

30 dní ze života českého dozorce(cs)

War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex(en)

The war on drugs has been going on for more than three decades. Today, nearly 500,000 Americans are imprisoned on drug charges. In 1980 the number was 50,000. Last year $40 billion in taxpayer dollars were spent in fighting the war on drugs. As a result of the incarceration obsession, the United States operates the largest prison system on the planet. Today, 89 percent of police departments have paramilitary units, and 46 percent have been trained by active duty armed forces. The most common use of paramilitary units is serving drug-related search warrants, which usually involve no-knock entries into private homes.

Dead Behind Bars(en)

200 young people under 25 have died in custody since 1992 in England and Wales. This is the story of three of them; young men who died behind bars - told by the people who knew them best, it explores the flaws in the system and the lapses in care that contributed to their deaths.

10-J: The History of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City(en)

In 1913 Congress created the Federal Reserve to bring financial stability to the nation after a number of banking panics, with a mix of regional banks and a central bank board. Congressmen Robert L. Owen and Carter Glass helped pass the Federal Reserve Act with the help of compromises led by President Woodrow Wilson. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City was begun in 1914, led by Jo Zach Miller, Jr., along with local bankers such as William T. Kemper. With the bank rapidly growing, about 1920 a new 21 story building was built at 9th and Grand that at one time held the offices of the Bureau of Investigation and President Harry S. Truman.