A Hidden Life
Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter faces the threat of execution for refusing to fight for the Nazis during World War II.
Midnight Express
Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of a country. The courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".
Papillon
A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
The Stanford Prison Experiment
In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true story.
Brubaker
The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
A World War I veteran’s dreams of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Things get even worse when he’s falsely convicted of a crime and sent to work on a chain gang.
The Prince
Chile, 1970. During a night of heavy drinking, Jaime, a lonely 20-year-old young man, is sentenced to prison. There, he meets “The Stallion”, an older and respected man in whom he finds protection, and from whom he learns about love and loyalty. But as their relationship grows stronger, “The Stallion” faces the violent power struggles within the prison.
In Youth We Trust
Puek, a boy from the slums, had no choice but to endure his circumstances, feeling that he could never have the same worth as others. He remained silent, accepting the bullying of others just to survive in society.
Titicut Follies
Employing methods of direct cinema–observation, limited stylization, and non-intervention–this stark look into the State Prison for the Criminally Insane in Bridgewater, Massachusetts shows its denizens, who were often kept in barren cells and infrequently bathed, forced to strip naked publicly, force feeding, and the indifference and bullying by many of the hospital's staff.
Les Misérables
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.
That Night
Told through striking animation, one woman’s powerful account of surviving a fire in Tehran’s Evin prison captures resistance; an urgent, creative act rooted in the Iranian Woman! Life! Freedom! movement.
Refuge(e)
Refuge(e) traces the incredible journey of two refugees, Alpha and Zeferino. Each fled violent threats to their lives in their home countries and presented themselves at the US border asking for political asylum, only to be incarcerated in a for-profit prison for months on end without having committed any crime. Thousands more like them can't tell their stories.
The Alabama Solution
Incarcerated men defy the odds to expose a cover-up in one of America’s deadliest prison systems.
The Cross of Lorraine
French soldiers surrender to lying Nazis and are herded into a barbaric prison of war camp. From there they plan an uprising.
The Education of Sonny Carson
A 1974 film based on the best-selling autobiography of Sonny Carson who joined a gang and committed petty crime before being sent to prison. After his release from prison he changes his life.
Code Name Vengeance
Soldier of fortune, Monroe Bieler, is sent to dole out some American-style justice when the wife and child of an African president are kidnapped by terrorists.
A Sense of Freedom
The true story of Jimmy Boyle, who was reputed to be Scotland's most violent man.
Buckstone County Prison
The Hell Hole of North Carolina. In 1957, the people of North Carolina feared two things - the mountain chain gang and a man named Seabo. North Carolina's Buckstone County Prison and Chain Gang were infamous as the most feared correctional institution in the country. Run by the sadistically brutal Warden Coley and his henchman, Jimbo, prisoners rarely caused a problem and those that did, didn't live long enough to talk about it.
Rikers
This film from Bill Moyers is the first documentary to focus exclusively on people formerly detained in New York City’s notorious Rikers Island Jail. They tell their compelling stories direct to the camera, revealing the violent arc of the Rikers experience – from the trauma of entry to extortion and control by inmates, to oppressive corrections officers, violence and solitary confinement.
Hell's Highway
A prison-camp convict learns that his younger brother will soon be joining him behind bars.