PaleyArchive ColorBars TopBanner2

MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO SEMINAR SERIES, THE: TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL: THE FARM: LIFE INSIDE ANGOLA PRISON {LONG VERSION}

Summary

One in a series of seminars presented in New York by The Paley Center for Media (known at the time as The Museum of Television & Radio) as part of its PALEYDOCFEST 2000 Television Documentary Festival. This seminar showcases “The Farm: Life Inside Angola Prison,” a documentary film examining the lives of inmates in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola. Allen Glover (assistant curator, The Museum of Television & Radio) offers opening comments before introducing the film’s producers and directors, Jonathan Stack and Liz Garbus, to the stage. They make their own remarks before introducing the film, screened in its entirety. (For synopsis and credits, see T:59870). Glover moderates the following panelists: Stack, Garbus; and film subject George Ashanti Witherspoon. The panelists touch on such topics as: Witherspoon’s long legal battle to grant himself parole, and how the filming of the documentary contributed to his eventual release; how he hopes the film will change public opinion about the lives of prison inmates; the public’s reaction to the documentary since its release; the producer’s selection process for film subjects; and the work of the film’s co-director Wilbert Rideau. Questions from the audience then lead to a discussion of the following topics among others: the issues involved in gaining filming access to the Angola compound; reactions to a portion of the documentary concerning the parole process of one particular inmate portrayed in the film, Vincent Simmons; problems in the Louisiana penal system; the rise of the private prison industry in recent years; Stack and Garbus’s previous documentary film, also concerning Angola; the applicability of the themes of “repentance” and “transformation” which permeate the film; and Witherspoon and other inmates’ feelings about being filmed.

Details

  • NETWORK: Paley
  • DATE: May 16, 2000
  • RUNNING TIME: N/A
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: 111454
  • GENRE: Seminars
  • SUBJECT HEADING: N/A
  • SERIES RUN: N/A
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Allen Glover … Host
  • Jonathan Stack … Panelist
  • Liz Garbus … Panelist
  • George Ashanti Witherspoon … Panelist
  • Wilbert Rideau
  • Vincent Simmons