In Paradisum

Survivor's Guide to Prison(en)

Today, you're more likely to go to prison in the United States than anywhere else in the world. So in the unfortunate case it should happen to you - this is the Survivors Guide to Prison.

Private Network: Who Killed Manuel Buendía?(es)

An account of the life and work of the famous Mexican journalist Manuel Buendía (1926-84) that seeks to unravel his murder and the links between Mexican politics and drug trafficking.

A Tale of Singers and Murderers(en)

The documentary depicts the remarkable phenomenon of the national competition Kalina Krasnaya, organised with a flourish in which the convicts from all over Russia sing their way to victory with songs about longing, war, love and forgiveness.

Planet Without Apes(de)

Humans hunt for baby apes. But things are not always done properly when chimpanzees and orangutans are acquired for zoos or shows. And even the endangered bonobos are no exception.

Prison Art(ru)

This documentary, which features Sergei Parajanov’s heartbreaking letters from prison, explores creativity among inmates and the art born in conditions designed to destroy all traces of selfhood.

Emperors of Nothing(fr)

Emperors of Nothing is an unprecedented immersion within Forest, a prison in Brussels notorious for its inhumane incarceration conditions, bearing witness to how the human spirit resists or submits to this harsh world. Deeply personal and candid moments shared with inmates and wardens alike, those who have forfeited or devoted their lives to prison, expose universal truths of what it means to be "behind bars".

Obituary of a Beast(de)

Between 1962 and 1966, sex murderer Jurgen Bartsch cruelly tortured and killed four children in an old air raid bunker in Germany. This documentary examines the personality of the killer who died in 1976 during voluntary castration surgery at the age of 30. Vilified by the press for his heinous crime, Bartsch also became a case study for famous found criminal psychologists like Alice Miller (who maintains that no one abuses without being abused as a child, and murderers tend to have their own childhood abuse denied by the adults around them). Bartsch never met his birth parents, he was raised in a clinic and later adopted by a cold, unaffectionate couple. By the age of 15, he tortured and killed his first child victim. This informative, fact-filled documentary provides enough details for viewers to come away with a broader understanding of the nature of the criminally insane and society's role in their formation.

ULTRA II(en)

A video magazine put out by the Come Organization label. Noise, smut, medical procedures and an unwholesome fascination with infamous murderers. CHARLES MANSON family interviews/LP tracks WHITEHOUSE LP TRACKS 2 birthdeath experience side B SUTCLIFFE JUGEND studio action 1 RAMLEH interview & music PETER SUTCLIFFE trial report KINGS CROSS PROSITIUTION 1982

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.

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.

Encounter with a Killer(es)

In 1980, the capture of the infamous serial killer Pedro Alonso López, also known as the Monster or the Strangler of the Andes, seemed to end his nearly decade-long reign of terror. However, Ecuadorian laws benefited the murderer by giving him a shorter sentence and even the option of leaving in less time. When the Monster's release draws near, a group of family members struggle to find ways to keep him in jail, while he, from the inside, searches through a series of letters to clear his name and unmask the real killer: Jorge Patiño. The problem is that Jorge Patiño exists only in his mind.

Standard Operating Procedure(en)

Errol Morris examines the incidents of abuse and torture of suspected terrorists at the hands of U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.

The Freeway Killer: Lost Murder Tapes(en)

In 1970s California, a serial killer dumps young boys' bodies along the freeways. An L.A. street reporter on the case receives information that embroils him in the dilemma of a lifetime. Decades later, lost confession tapes help experts uncover the truth.

Serial killer, autopsie d'une fascination(fr)

This Temporal World(en)

A haunting story of the FBI's dark hand in American life. In 2015, Khalil Abu-Rayyan was just a young Muslim man in Detroit, Michigan: to get by, he delivered food for his family's pizzeria. Depressed and lonely, Khalil found solace in smoking weed and looking at extremist material online. Then two young women started messaging him, and he fell in love. But one of them suggested he start doing increasingly violent things. Nothing was as it seemed. And Khalil's life would never be the same. A documentary by Garret Harkawik for the Gravel Institute.

Eyes of a Survivor(en)

An experimental intake of Ojore Nuru Lutalo as he recounts the 22 years he spent in political isolation, and the flourishing comradery he built with prison abolitionist, Bonnie Kerness, whose work supported him and other prisoners.

The Iceman and the Psychiatrist(en)

For the third time, HBO cameras go inside Trenton State Maximum Security Prison--and inside the mind of one of the most prolific killers in U.S. history--in this gripping documentary. Mafia hit man Richard Kuklinski freely admits to killing more than 100 people, but in this special, he speaks with top psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz in an effort to face the truth about his condition. Filled with more never-before-revealed confessions, it's the most chillingly candid Iceman special yet as it combines often-confrontational interview footage between Kuklinski and Dietz with photos, crime reenactments and home movies that add new layers to this evolving and fascinating story.

Serial Killers Defined(en)

Take a chilling tour through the twisted minds of some of the most violent serial killers including Jeffrey Dahmer and the BTK killer. What defines a serial killer? What makes them tick? These questions and more are answered in this horrific account of true events.

The Happy Face Killer: Mind of a Monster(en)

Detective Rick Buckner has to prove Keith Jesperson is the serial killer known as Happy Face Killer, guilty of murdering a woman in 1995, and has to make sure he is apprehended before he kills again.

Latvian Coyote(lv)

An absurd game of “finding happiness” is being played by local Latvian coyotes* and illegal immigrants on the Russian and the European Union border. It is a game with no winner – all participants are driven to play by the sense of despair. While one side leaves home and undertakes a perilous journey to the other side of the globe, hoping to spend the rest of their lives in a free country, the other side risks their freedom to earn a chance to stay right where they are, in their homeland. *coyote – someone who smuggles illegal immigrants