They Call Us Monsters

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.

Le silence entre les notes

Stíny dvou válek

In the documentary Last To Know political prisoners, sent to jail for openly opposing the East German regime that existed until the German reunification in 1990, talk about their times of trial and their lives today. Neither they, nor their families have come to terms with what happened.

Chennu committed his first crime when he was 15 years old: being a street kid. And he entered hell: Pademba Road. The adult prison in Freetown. In hell, Mr. Sillah is in charge, and there is no hope. Chennu got out after four years. Now he wants to go back.

A documentary about Goran Ivandic 'Ipe', the drummer of most popular Yugoslav rock band of all time, Sarajevo-based "Bijelo dugme" (White Button). Ivandic's fatal jump from the balcony of hotel Metropol in Belgrade in 1994 sparked much controversy around his fate.

When two incarcerated artists secretly document a routine prison practice, they risk their lives to expose a state policy that blurs the line between safety and sexual abuse.

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 parents are at their wits’ end, so a temporary supervision order is the last hope for a group of teenagers in Punks. Now, on a remote farm in France, they’re going to have to get their lives back on track, with the help of a counselor. If they want any chance of a happy life, they need to engage in some frank and painful conversations. Mitchel has to find a way to get along with his father, but maybe too much has already happened since his mother died. Jahlano is already at the next stage: he’s no longer allowed to live with his mother, and needs to get over the disappointment. Mike, meanwhile, is struggling with his image as a boy who’s “got a screw loose.” Filmed in constant close-up by director Maasja Ooms, the teenagers try to tame their demons with music and therapy, but problems from the past keep resurfacing. In this intimate and sincere portrait, these troubled kids show us their most vulnerable sides.

A documentary about the life of a female inmate named Ria Megawati, often called IOT. Once known as the most problematic prisoner in Bandung Women’s Prison, she has since transformed into a better version of herself by immersing in artistic practices such as painting, batik-making, and songwriting. Art ultimately becomes her way out of a dark past, and a vessel for expressing emotions long kept inside.

We discover a modest, almost derisory garden, located in the heart of the women's prison in Rennes, Brittany, France.

30 dní ze života českého dozorce

The film is about a woman’s prison and shows how creativity transforms people and gives them strength.

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.

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.

Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris investigates the case of a man who became an authority on capital punishment, but was discredited when he got involved on the wrong side of a court case. Leuchter, a meek man whose appearance belies his grim expertise, develops what he says is a more effective electric chair. Before long, he's in demand from officials who want his opinions on other execution methods. But when called to aid the case of an accused Holocaust denier, Leuchter's problems begin.

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.

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.

A surreal look at the day-to-day life of American soldiers stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba through the eyes of a traveling circus troupe cleared to perform there.

Experimental documentary about the Venezuelan prison Retén de Catia.