Life Inside Out (2006)

Life Inside Out is a verite-style documentary that takes us inside the walls of Grand Valley Institution - one of five federal prisons for women in Canada. Here, the women live in small houses they share with ten or more roommates, in an environment that is supposed to be more about rehabilitation than the notorious Kingston Prison for Women, now shuttered. The first documentary to go behind the walls of this new breed of prison, Life Inside Out features four unforgettable women over age 50, doing time in a system that can seem designed to frustrate and baffle. It's a world where arbitrary decisions, bureaucratic ineptitude, and a Kafkaesque parallel justice system control much of women's lives, sometimes with devastating results. With remarkable access to these women and their daily lives, filmmaker Sarah Zammit delivers a film that doesn't idealize the women. At the same time, it refuses to accept the false logic that people who have committed crimes are not worthy of basic human dignity.