In 2011, Maine State Prison launched a pioneering reform program to scale back its use of solitary confinement. Bafta and Emmy-winning film-maker Dan Edge and his co-director Lauren Mucciolo were given unprecedented access to the solitary unit - and filmed there for more than three years. The result is an extraordinary and harrowing portrait of life in solitary - and a unique document of a radical and risky experiment to reform a prison. The US is the world leader in solitary confinement. More than 80,000 American prisoners live in isolation, some have been there for years, even decades. Solitary is proven to cause mental illness, it is expensive, and it is condemned by many as torture. And yet for decades, it has been one of the central planks of the American criminal justice system.
The world of pimping in early 1980s America offers a rare, unfiltered glimpse into a controversial underground lifestyle. Through exclusive interviews with the notorious figure “Harold” and his associates—Alice, Lori, and Karen—the film provides a nuanced exploration of the lives of pimps and streetwalkers and the ways their paths intertwine. With a focus on both the allure and inherent dangers of this lifestyle, the documentary reaches a sombre climax, shedding light on the tragic murder of Alice Franklin, one of Harold’s streetwalkers, later that same year.
Throughout the Islamic world, each year hundreds of women are shot, stabbed, strangled or burned to death by male relatives because they are thought to have “dishonoured” their families. They may have lost their virginity, refused an arranged marriage or left an abusive husband. Even if a woman is raped or merely the victim of gossip, she must pay the price. Crimes of Honour documents the terrible reality of femicide – the belief that a girl’s body is the property of the family, and any suggestion of sexual impropriety must be cleansed with her blood. We meet women in hiding from their families, a brother who describes his reasons for killing the sister he loved, and a handful of women who have committed themselves to the protection of young women in danger of losing their lives.
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.
Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.
A year in the life of troubled Australian graffiti artist Justin Hughes.
A documentary about the rival gangs Mara 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, originating in Los Angeles but terrorizing El Salvador. It explores their origins as possible founding myths of organized crime in a globalized world.
Street pimps, all of them African-American, discuss their lives and work: getting started, being flamboyant, pimping in various U.S. cities, bringing a woman into their group, taking a woman from another pimp, and the rules and regulations of pimping. The men are clear: it's about money.
British filmmaker Beeban Kidron ventures onto the mean streets of the South Bronx and other New York locales to examine the lives of those involved in the city's thriving sex industry.
Mihai Moldoveanu, a former Romanian army officer, was sentenced to 25 years behind bars for a crime he claims he did not commit. Following a long series of attempts to prove his innocence, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Moldoveanu's favor in June 2012. The documentary follows him after his provisional release and focuses on the referral of the case and the consequences of the new sentence, giving the viewer the role of a juror in a complicated and controversial lawsuit.
The world watched in horror as the NYPD was put on trial for the shooting of Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo. The chants of "no justice," "no peace" were heard around the world, but in the end was justice served? In this sequel to IF I DIE TONIGHT, the story continues and follows the next seven years of this case of police brutality. It presents both sides in an effort to find the truth after the culminating trials. This riveting documentary continues to ask the question, "how far has our country actually come?" Features Al Sharpen, Rudy Giuliani, and Eliot Spitzer.
Life, career and death of the two protagonists of American life sixties, John and Robert Kennedy, from the days of their ascent to the White House, the first as president, the second as a minister of justice, to the death.
This documentary recounts the dysfunctional state of the death penalty in the state of California by revisiting the crimes, arrest, trials and appeals of Lawrence Bittaker, a convicted serial killer who has been on death row at San Quentin since 1981.
The Hip hop group Kartellen is one of Sweden's most controversial bands. Here, the members present their chaotic history of musical success, substance abuse, crime and political controversy.
THE 414s tells the story of the first widely recognized computer hackers, a group of Milwaukee teenagers who gained notoriety in 1983 when they broke into dozens of high-profile computer systems, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a classified nuclear weapons research facility.
A look at the people affected by seven shootings which occurred during the same July weekend.
The theatre 7:3 project was conducted at the Tidaholm prison 1998-1999. What started as an artistic experiment, ended up in police killings at Malexander. The process in the prison were filmed during 6 months.
In 1993 David Dougherty was found guilty and imprisoned for the abduction and rape of his 11 year old neighbor. It took two trials, two high court appeals, a petition to the Governor General and 3 years, 6 months and 1 week in prison before David finally won his freedom and was found not guilty of the crime he didn't commit. But it wouldn't have happened without the unrelenting efforts of three individuals - a journalist, a lawyer and a scientist - who put their own personal and professional lives on the line in order to prove that David Dougherty was innocent.
Deep Web gives the inside story of one of the most important and riveting digital crime sagas of the century -- the arrest of Ross William Ulbricht, the 30-year-old entrepreneur convicted of being 'Dread Pirate Roberts,' creator and operator of online black market Silk Road. As the only film with exclusive access to the Ulbricht family, Deep Web explores how the brightest minds and thought leaders behind the Deep Web and Bitcoin are now caught in the crosshairs of the battle for control of a future inextricably linked to technology, with our digital rights hanging in the balance.
Three different countries and one case of deadly violence each. Three men who have killed and three families who have lost a beloved one. In the common idea of guilt and punishment this makes three who get punished and three who are meant to forget. Unthinkable to imagine the two sides will ever get closer. The film tells three times the impossible story: To meet your enemy - in thoughts, in messages, in real life. A film that challenges our ideas of guilt and punishment.