Carandiru

Jackson County Jail

March 1976 •English

A young woman stumbles into a nightmare land of hijacking and humiliation while driving cross-country from California to New York.

Tövbekar

April 1977 •Turkish

People Will Talk

August 1951 •English

Successful and well-liked, Dr. Noah Praetorius becomes the victim of a witchhunt at the hands of Professor Elwell, who disdains Praetorius's unorthodox medical views and also questions his relationship with the mysterious, ever-present Mr. Shunderson.

South Central

September 1992 •English

During a 10-year sentence for murdering the leader of a rival South Central Los Angeles gang, Bobby Johnson finds religion and rehabilitation with the help of Muslim inmate Ali. Upon his release, Bobby returns home to find that his young son, Jimmie, has joined the Deuces, his old crew. Tensions rise as Bobby struggles to convince Jimmie to leave the gang that was his only family during the painful years his absent father spent behind bars.

Straight Time

March 1978 •English

After being released on parole, a burglar attempts to go straight, get a regular job, and just go by the rules. He soon finds himself back in jail at the hands of a power-hungry parole officer.

Reset

October 2020 •English

As a young filmmaker who suffers from OCD, Lucas struggles with finishing his synopsis for a film that he had always dreamt of making. Despite his ambitions, Lucas can't seem to gather his thoughts and he worries that his work will not be the perfection that he undoubtedly desires. With overwhelming emotions and a lack of self-confidence, Lucas finds himself trapped in his own mind where he desires everything to go as planned but is instead faced with his fears and an altered reality that his mind presents to him.

Andersonville

March 1996 •English

This lengthy docudrama records the harrowing conditions at the Confederacy's most notorious prisoner-of-war camp. The drama unfolds through the eyes of a company of Union soldiers captured at the Battle of Cold Harbor, VA, in June 1864, and shipped to the camp in southern Georgia. A private, Josiah Day, and his sergeant try to hold their company together in the face of squalid living conditions, inhumane punishments, and a gang of predatory fellow prisoners called the Raiders.

Levity

March 2003 •English

Manuel Jordan is a man who is free after serving 23 years for killing a teenager during an attempted robbery. After nearly two decades of staring at his victim's face on a newspaper clipping in his cell, the newly paroled man seeks redemption. Instead, redemption—in the form of a mysterious minister and two needy women— finds him.

Gönülden Yaralılar

April 1973 •Turkish

Mahkum

April 1972 •Turkish

Hector

November 2016 •Portuguese

While in a very dangerous psych trip, a former police officer Hector lives his past in the present while he tries to get free from his anguish and find out his mistakes in order to be forgiven of his sins.

A Second Chance

September 1976 •French

Imprisoned as an accessory to murder, Catherine gives birth to a son she conceived in prison. Eighteen years later, her sentence served, she is reunited with the boy, Simon, who has remained in an orphanage the entire time. She is accompanied by toothsome prison buddy Sarah, and gradually these people whose lives have been frozen in time "thaw" and get on with the business of living.

Law Abiding Citizen

October 2009 •English

A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.

The Big Bird Cage

July 1972 •English

Women rebel against slave labor in a filthy jungle prison where they feed sugar cane to a mechanical maw.

A Prophet

August 2009 •French

Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group.

Woodpeckers

January 2017 •Spanish

Julián finds love and a reason for living in the last place imaginable: the Dominican Republic's Najayo Prison. His romance, with fellow prisoner Yanelly, must develop through sign language and without the knowledge of dozens of guards.

25 to Life

November 2008 •English

An urban drama about a parolee trying to be a better father to his daughter as he struggles for perspective in his life.

Four Days in September

October 1997 •Portuguese

Fernando, a journalist, and his friend César join terrorist group MR8 in order to fight Brazilian dictatorial regime during the late sixties. César, however, is wounded and captured during a bank hold up. Fernando then decides to kidnap the American ambassador in Brazil and ask for the release of fifteen political prisoners in exchange for his life.

The Bricklayers

December 1976 •Spanish

When a worker is found murdered on the construction side, the investigation swiftly turns from things criminal to the political circumstances surrounding the building itself. Widespread corruption and neglect by the builder himself are seen to have brought the situation about. Much of the movie is filmed using hand-held cameras, and the majority of the dialogue is in the difficult-to-understand and very slangy Spanish dialect of Mexico City's bricklayers.

Guncrazy

September 1992 •English

California teen Anita Minteer struggles in the face of an absentee mother, her mom's abusive boyfriend, Rooney, and a lack of respect from her classmates. This all changes when a pen-pal school project connects her with convict Howard. Anita secures Howard's parole and violently squares off against Rooney after he rapes her. Soon enough, the gun-crazy teen is on the run with Howard, with his parole officer in pursuit.