Sheffield Doc/Fest: Films A-Z

At Night I Fly

Director(s):

Michel Wenzer

Producer(s):

Tobias Janson
- Sweden, Denmark
- 2011
- 88 min
- HDCAM 1080/25p
- English

“It’s a place where everything that is fucked up gets deposited. And that’s why I’m here,” says Marty, one of the maximum security inmates in California’s New Folsom Prison. But the Marty of today seems very far from fucked up - he’s one of many articulate, eloquent inmates who has benefitted from the prison’s long running Arts in Correction programme. The group’s acting, rapping and writing help hardened ex gang members get in touch with their humanity – something of utmost importance in this most dehumanizing of institutions. The roaming, meditative camera takes us into every corner of prison life, a life governed by routine and boredom. It’s also ruled by the ever present threat of violence, as racial tension runs high and stabbings are frequent. Above all, New Folsom is about mind over matter, with many of the prisoners struggling to come to terms with the bleakest of sentences: life without the possibility of parole.