You are here:

The Prison in Twelve Landscapes

Name: The Prison in Twelve Landscapes
Director: Brett Story
Released: 2016
Duration: 90 min

Representation Score

9.0/10

Excellent

2016

Director

Brett Story

Runtime

90 minutes

Average Rating

No ratings yet

New Showbiz Analysis

Brett Story’s documentary offers a sophisticated critique of the American carceral state by focusing on the broader impact of the prison-industrial complex. By using a landscape-based approach, the film effectively shows how incarceration affects diverse communities across the country. The film's greatest strength lies in its ability to deconstruct systemic power. It avoids the 'white norm' by centering racialized experiences and challenges the legitimacy of Western institutions through an anti-capitalist lens. However, it lacks specific visibility regarding certain identity-based narratives, such as those of LGBTQ+ individuals or disabled persons.

Watch this, not that →

Category Breakdown

Does The Prison in Twelve Landscapes have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

The film focuses on the broader impact of the carceral system rather than individual LGBTQ+ identities or non-traditional gender expressions. There is no prominent narrative about LGBTQ+ issues or non-cisgender identities.

How does The Prison in Twelve Landscapes portray gender?

Good

The narrative challenges traditional hierarchies by shifting focus away from patriarchal leadership. It centers women's perspectives and explores how state surveillance affects domestic and social spheres.

How racially and ethnically diverse is The Prison in Twelve Landscapes?

Excellent

The film excels by examining how racialized bodies are disproportionately affected by the prison-industrial complex. It centers the lived experiences of people of color navigating the legal system's peripheries.

How does The Prison in Twelve Landscapes represent religion and culture?

Excellent

The film deconstructs Western state institutions, presenting them as mechanisms of profit and social control. It prioritizes a critique of the prison-industrial complex over traditional Western power structures.

Does The Prison in Twelve Landscapes include disability representation?

Fair

The documentary touches upon the intersection of socioeconomic vulnerability and personal ability to act. However, it lacks dedicated segments focusing on neurodivergence or visible physical disabilities as central arcs.

Present on Screen

Exceptional examination of how race and geography intersect with systemic social control.
Strong cultural critique that reframes state institutions as profit-driven mechanisms of control.
Effective disruption of traditional patriarchal narratives by centering diverse perspectives.

Limited or Absent

Lacks specific, centralized narratives regarding LGBTQ+ identities and gender expressions.
Limited focus on neurodivergence or visible physical disabilities as central character arcs.
Prioritizes macro-level systemic mechanics over individual identity-based storytelling.

Official Synopsis

More people are imprisoned in the United States at this moment than in any other time or place in history, yet the prison itself has never felt further away or more out of sight. This is a film about the prison in which we never see an actual penitentiary. The film unfolds a cinematic journey through a series of landscapes across the USA where prisons do work and affect lives, from an anti-sex-offender pocket park in Los Angeles, to a congregation of ex-incarcerated chess players shut out of the formal labor market, to an Appalachian coal town betting its future on the promise of prison jobs.

How are these scores produced? →