UMFF 2004 Film Screening

"Turned Out: Sexual Assault Behind Bars" will screen on Friday, October 22, 2004 during the "Independent Music and Videos" Ultimate Networking Event at UMFF 2004, 6:30 - 11:00 p.m., at Lab 601 Digital Post.

Screening: 9:30 p.m., Friday, October 22, 2004. Run Time: 55 minutes. Documentary.

Location: Lab 601 Digital Post in downtown Atlanta at 621 North Avenue, NE. Get the directions from www.randmcnally.com.

Visit Independent Music and Videos for the details of the event.

Jonathan Schwartz, Director
J une Cross, Senior Producer
Danny Trejo, Narrator
C-Nile, Musik

Not Just Iraqis, American Prisoners Abused, Too

Interlock Media's new film, "Turned Out: Sexual Assault Behind Bars," illustrates that prisoner abuse in not "totally un-American," as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claims, but a domestic crisis.

Abuse of American prisoners — by guards or fellow inmates — occurs regularly in U.S. prisons. Sexual abuse is particularly troubling: one out of every five men is raped while incarcerated and, when they are released, the sexual violence follows them out onto the streets. Turned Out looks behind this grim statistic to uncover the social and power hierarchies that bolster the tradition of prison rape.

With startling honesty and remarkable access, Turned Out captures this "world within a world" from deep inside Alabama's infamous Limestone penitentiary. In Limestone, men sell their bodies for bags of coffee, chips or cigarettes, and makeshift families are cobbled together in an elaborate and ruthless bartering system. Narrator Danny Trejo (photo top left) tells the story of five inmates who reveal the complex mix of fear, brutality and, sometimes, love, that underpins these cellblock clans. It is a frank exploration of how prisoners are "turned out" into the world of subservient sex, and the strong pull of both loyalty and debt that keeps them there.

The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 is the first real hope for reform, and Interlock Media is proud to have contributed to its passage through its ongoing research and media work on public health, human rights, and the environment.

Turned Out is the first documentary to record prison life with the clarity of high-definition videography. Given the recent prohibitions on filming inside most prisons, it may well be one of the last.