The Prison in Twelve Landscapes Trailer (2016)

Trailer for The Prison in Twelve Landscapes.

From Rikers Island to Alcatraz, Angola to Folsom, prisons have become some of the United States' most iconic institutions. This is hardly surprising for a country with one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. But outside the prison gates and razor wires are entire communities and industries dependent on this massive system intended to rehabilitate and reintegrate. Purposely avoiding the obvious imagery of penitentiaries, Brett Story's distinctive vignettes draw attention to the changing landscape of the prison complex through the perspectives of individuals affected by it. Pocket parks in Los Angeles designed to prevent released sex offenders from settling nearby, and formerly incarcerated chess players unable to find work, raise questions about the efficacy of reintegration. In this brilliant investigation of the American prison system's pervasive influence, the formalist structure fosters discovery and contemplation about issues of race, power and poverty through a cinematic journey across the land of the free.