RELIGION AND INCARCERATION - FILMS

DOCUMENTARIES
Race to Execution

54 minutes
"Race to Execution" is a gripping documentary that offers a compelling investigation of
America’s death penalty, probing how race discrimination infects our capital punishment system.
The film neither advocates nor repudiates the death penalty; instead, it enlarges the conversation
regarding capital punishment, focusing attention on race-of-jury as well as race-of-victim.
Research reveals that our justice system is far worse than arbitrary and capricious; it has
deteriorated significantly in the last twenty years. Highlighted is a well-documented indicator of
this trend - the higher value placed on the lives of white victims. Once a victim’s body is
discovered, the race of the victim and the accused deeply influence the legal process: from how a
crime scene is investigated, to the deployment of police resources, to the interrogation and arrest
of major suspects, to how media portrays the crime, and, ultimately, jury selection and
sentencing.
The film traces the fates of two death row inmates: Robert Tarver in Russell County, Alabama,
and Madison Hobley in Chicago. Their compelling personal stories are enlarged and enriched by
attorneys who fought for these men’s lives, and by prosecutors, criminal justice scholars, and
experts in the fields of law and the media. These varied voices contribute to a thoughtful
examination of the factors that influence who lives and who dies at the hands of the state. While
recent death penalty documentaries have focused on innocence and the wrongfully accused,
"Race to Execution" tackles a more difficult, more complex issue: the prevalence and influence
of racial bias in capital punishment cases.

https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/race-to-execution?context=channel:academic-video-
online
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The Farm: Life Inside Angola Prison
Liz Garbus and Jonathan Stack co-directed this documentary, which explores life behind the bars
of Louisiana's notorious maximum-security prison, Angola. Stationed on an old slave plantation,
Angola is populated overwhelmingly by black inmates, and staffed by a white administration.
The stories of various inmates convey the injustice and futility but also the hope that is part of
prison life. A prisoner puts forth exonerating evidence to the parole board, and another speaks
prior to execution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odx9NEHc17M
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Time: The Kalief Browder Story (whole series stream-able on Netflix; link to Part I below)
The documentary recounts the story of Kalief Browder, a Bronx high school student who was
imprisoned for three years, two of them in solitary confinement on Rikers Island, without being
convicted of a crime. He was accused at 16 of stealing a backpack, and his family was unable to
afford his bail, set at $900.
Part I (45 minutes)
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ndlwe
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HOLLYWOOD
Brubaker
Posing as an inmate at a small Arkansas prison, the new warden of the penitentiary, Henry
Brubaker (Robert Redford), witnesses firsthand the corruption and abuse inflicted upon the
prisoners by the staff. After revealing his true identity, Brubaker brings much-needed reform to
the prison with the help of supporters Dickie Coombes (Yaphet Kotto) and Lillian Gray (Jane
Alexander). Yet when the benefactors of the old corrupt system are threatened by the changes,
Brubaker's battles really begin.
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Malcolm X
Spike Lee's Oscar-nominated drama illuminates the life of black nationalist Malcolm X (Denzel
Washington), following him from his early days in prison to his conversion to Islam, marriage to
Betty Shabazz (Angela Bassett) and discovery of Elijah Mohammad's (Al Freeman Jr.) Nation of
Islam writings. When Malcolm turns his back on the Nation of Islam (following a pilgrimage to
Mecca), he becomes a murder target.
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Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
A 2013 British-South African biographical film directed by Justin Chadwick from a script
written by William Nicholson and starring Idris Elba and Naomie Harris. The film is based on
the 1995 autobiographical book Long Walk to Freedom by anti-apartheid revolutionary and
former South African President Nelson Mandela. It chronicles his early life, coming of age,
education and 27 years in prison before becoming President of South Africa and working to
rebuild the country's once segregated society.
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Episodes of Orange is the New Black (Stream-able on Netflix)
Piper Chapman is a public relations executive with a career and a fiance when her past suddenly
catches up to her. In her mid-30s she is sentenced to spend time in a minimum-security women's
prison in Connecticut for her association with a drug runner 10 years earlier. This Netflix
original series is based on the book of the same title. Forced to trade power suits for prison
orange, Chapman makes her way through the corrections system and adjusts to life behind bars,
making friends with the many eccentric, unusual and unexpected people she meets.