SELECTED FILMS BY CAROL JACOBSEN

 

Life on Trial, 9 min., 2019

Narrated by Stacy Barker, activist and former prisoner who fought the criminal, legal and penal systems for the human and civil rights of women prisoners

 

 

Courtroom, 15 min., 2019

By Carol Jacobsen and Shaun Bangert

Documents the drug and prostitution courtroom, 36th District Court, Detroit

 

 

Time Like Zeros, 13 min., 2010

Eight women prisoners give chilling accounts of the prison experience as the camera encircles the prison and moves into the darkest cells of the segregation unit.   

            

 

Prison Diary, 10 min., 2006

Shocking excerpts from a prisoner’s letters

 

Narrated by Incarcerated Women

2104 Pauline #306, Ann Arbor, MI  48103, USA jacobsen@umich.edu

Note: All prison films have been sponsored by Amnesty International USA. They are free to activists, although donations to the Clemency Project are gratefully appreciated.

 

 

Convicted: A Prison Diary, 10 min., 2006

Aerial and interior views of Scott Women’s Prison are layered with excerpts from an inmate’s diary to give a disturbing indictment of inhuman conditions in what Amnesty has named one of the worst women’s prison systems in the U.S. Co-sponsored by Amnesty International USA.

 

Beyond the Fence, 15 min., 2004

Conversation between 3 women who served long term sentences together in prison recalling their activism against the human rights abuses inside. Co-sponsored by Amnesty International USA. Funded by Institute for Research on Women and Gender, University of Michigan.

 

Sentenced, 6 min, 2002

Brief journey inside a women’s prison narrated by, and dedicated to, Connie Hanes, an inmate who later committed suicide in her cell. Co-Sponsored by Amnesty International USA; funded by University of Michigan Office of Vice President for Research.

 

Segregation Unit, 30 min., 2000

Agonizing look at a torture unit inside Scott Women’s Prison, in Michigan. The film is narrated by the woman seen in the footage which was shot by guards during her incarceration, and obtained after her release through Freedom of Information Act. In 2000, She sued the State of Michigan for torture and won. Co-Sponsored by Amnesty International USA.

 

Barred and Gagged, 8 min., 1999

Despite audible warnings by the Deputy Warden, women prisoners courageously tell what they are not allowed to speak about in prison: rape by guards, lack of medical care, few programs, and other issues. Funded by Inst. For Research on Women & Gender, University of Michigan; Co-Sponsored by Amnesty International, USA

 

3 on a Life Sentence, 30 min., 1998

Conversation between 3 women serving life sentences for murder in Scott Women’s Prison.

 

Clemency, 15 min., 1997

11 battered women prisoners serving life for killing in self defense narrate a collective, painful story of injustice.Funded by Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan

 

Violet & Judith, 1995, video installation commissioned by Detroit Art Institute

Video installation: Portrait of a woman who killed her violent husband in defense of her child and was sentenced tolife in prison, juxtaposed with the l7th C painting by Artemisia Gentileschi “Judith with the Head of Holofernes,”from the Detroit Art Institute Collection. Text on the walls include excerpts from Artemisia Gentileschi’s 1612 rapetrial in Rome and Violet Allen’s trial in Michigan in 1977. Commissioned by the Detroit Art Institute, 1995.

 

From One Prison… , 70 min. 1994

Award winning documentary narrated by four women serving life sentences in Michigan prisons. The women give scathing critiques of the systems that failed them from the domestic to the public spheres. Funded by Paul Robeson Foundation Fellowship; Women in Film Foundation Arbur Fellowship.

 

 

Films on Prostitutes’ Rights:

 

Night Voices, 15 min. 1991

Night shots of women working on the streets in Detroit with voiceovers by women working on the streets who describe the hazards of their work and critique the laws and police.

 

Street Sex, 30 min. 1990

Eight Detroit sex workers critique the criminal/legal systm with regard to prostitution laws and practices, and the hazards they face from both sides of the law. Prostitutes of New York Award. Censored by University of Michigan Law School; represented by the ACLU. For further information, see New York Law School Review, Vol. XXXVII, Nos. 1-4, 1993