Federal Penal Colony No. 56 is situated in central Russia, in the middle of a forest larger than Germany and a seven-hour drive from the nearest city. In winter, temperatures fall to 40 degrees below zero. There are 260 prisoners serving out their sentences, all of them for murder.
Filmmakers Nick Read and Mark Franchetti managed to gain access to this isolated world, where they focused their meticulous eye for detail on the prisoner’s daily lives.
In remarkably candid interviews, the men talk about their crimes and their punishment. What does freedom mean to them? Is penitence and forgiveness possible for their terrible deeds? The prison’s director of 26 years also has his say. He too is condemned to this godforsaken place, not as punishment, but by a contract.
Directed by Nick Read
Duration: 80′
Year: 2013
The death penalty was re-instated in the United States in 1976. Since then, for every ten people that have been executed, one person has been released from death row after spending an average of ten years in isolation. One For Ten is an online documentary series telling the stories of these innocent people.
This crowd-funded series is being made live on the road; shot in one day, edited the next, and uploaded overnight. The team is spending five weeks travelling from New York City to Las Vegas, releasing two films a week. In the process the filmmakers rely on their online community to provide interview questions, music, artwork and to share the films online in order to reach a wide audience.
Fresh from the road, we will welcome co-directors Will Francome and Mark Pizzey, producer Laura Shacham and executive producer Christopher Hird to present a selection of their short documentaries. This will be followed by a discussion on the pros and cons of creating short web-documentaries, online distribution and crowd-funding. They will share their strategies for building online communities and grass-roots marketing. We will be looking at how much input they received from their online community, and to what extent it helped shape the result.
Directed by William Francome and Mark Pizzey
Produced by Megan Garner and Laura Shacham
Year: 2013
Between the Lines was a three-day festival that took place at Rich Mix from 1 to 3 March. In a series of follow up events we continue to explore the challenges facing documentary makers, investigative journalists and citizen reporters in the new media landscape.
Presented by:
Supported by:
