women in prison
prison conditions • family separation • victimless crimes
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Como un Olhar Sem Rostro - As Presidarias (Brazil 1983)
(Like a Glance Without a Face - Women Prisoners)
Film, 16 mm, 31 min., color, in Portuguese
Made by Maria Ines Villares
Distributor: Cinema Distribucao Independente (Brazil)
In what may seem an ironic twist, this film addresses the issue of freedom by exploring conditions in a women's prison, where everyday life is blocked in by walls, doors and gratings. The camera scans the prison area, showing the detainees' view of the world and pointing out the various instruments society uses to punish and exclude them. The women's feelings of death, fear and guilt combine with their hopes for freedom and their dreams for the future.
Fala So de Malandragem (Brazil 1985)
(Doing No Good)
Film, 16 mm, 45 min., color, in Portuguese
Made by Maria Rita Freire
Distributor: Telemil Filmes (Brazil)
The fruit of three long years of hard work by a group of women prisoners, this film describes conditions in a women' s jail. Working from their own script, the protagonists recount their own dramatic experiences in jail in their own script.
NORTH AMERICA
Being a Prisoner (USA 1975)
Film, 16 mm, 28 min., color, in English
Made by Suzanne Jasper
Distributor: Women Make Movies (USA)
Being a Prisoner looks at some of the problems which are unique to a largely ignored group, women in prison. The film focuses on a "model prison," where the guards are comparatively humane and the women can wear their own clothes and decorate their own rooms. Yet the superficiality of this humane treatment is all too apparent. The women are cut off from their life blood - their children with whom they have limited contact. Other emotional needs are not met. Most of these women have been imprisoned for crimes committed to protect their lives. The film is a moving account of Black, white, and Puerto Rican women's lives and their responses to incarceration.
Like a Rose (USA 1975)
Documentary film, 16 mm., 23 min., b/w, in English
Made by Tomato Productions
Distributor: Tomato Productions Incorporated (USA)
This film is a documentary about the lonely and frustrating existence of two women serving 25-year sentences in the Missouri state penitentiary.
C'est Pas Parce Que C'est un Chateau Qu'on Est des Princesses (Canada 1983)
(We Are Princesses, But Not Because We Live in a Castle)
Video, 3/4 in., 60 min., color, in French
Made by Lise Bonenfant and Louise Giguerre
Producer: Video Femmes
Distributor: Video Femmes (Canada)
Deals with the life of women prisoners in the Gomin detention center in Montreal, Quebec.
Time Has No Sympathy (USA 1975)
Film, 28 min., color, in English
Made by Kristine Samuelson
Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Cooperative (Australia)
Without special emphasis on political or expository material, this film examines daily life in a women's prison through the unfolding character of La Rue, a committed spokesperson for social change. The film offers special insights into the feelings and needs of women prisoners. Many of the women have been sentenced for "crimes" that victimize them more than they have harmed society. Special attention is paid to the problems of mothers separated from their children and to the use and abuse of tranquilizers in prison.