Turned Out presents a series of powerful, intimate, interwoven stories about rape in American prisons. It's a huge problem: in the U.S. more than two million people live in prison, and one in five has been sexually assaulted.
The filmmakers managed to gain access to Alabama's prison system, one of the most notorious and poorest in the country. They spent time in lockups with prisoners, building friendships, confidence, and providing the sense of safety so inmates would share their lives, their culture and their emotions on screen. Powerful stories from five inmates reveal a world within a world a culture and economy that is based not only on threat and intimidation but on a surprisingly softer side of real emotional attachment, affection, and salvation. The film starts with tough prison icons: inmates, rap music, keys, hands, and the voice of the pockmarked narrator, Danny Trejo, who succinctly frames the story: "In prison, if you've been turned out, you've been sodomized."
Viewers of this film will find meaning in those words through the personal views of inmates like Mindy. A blond, baby-faced young man in his twenties, he's one of the 15 percent of the Alabama prison population who is white. Like most of the victims, he was "fresh meat" when he walked through the gates for the first time. Mindy's story has its human side, told directly to camera by the inmate himself and his protector, Lamark Moore, a more experienced inmate serving 25 years for murder. "Mindy was my baby, I was comfortable with him," Moore says, almost wistfully.
Viewers enter a prison culture that has its own economy, with rules as precise as NASDAQ's. One inmate points out that when you get behind on a loan, whether it's a bar of soap or a chance to watch an NBA game, you either pay your man, "whip his ass" or are forced to "go back and f , whichever way you want to do it." The camera, in a remarkable feat of access, captures some of the most intimate moments, as when two inmates drape sheets over their double bunk bed for some privacy while those around them continue their domino game. We learn that the prison is a world within a world, and for the first time like a diver descending to the ocean depths the camera reveals a vast ecology that carries many surprises. Turned Out is a stunning view for those who have no clue about the archipelago of prisons our society has built.
The filmmakers managed to gain access to Alabama's prison system, one of the most notorious and poorest in the country. They spent time in lockups with prisoners, building friendships, confidence, and providing the sense of safety so inmates would share their lives, their culture and their emotions on screen. Powerful stories from five inmates reveal a world within a world a culture and economy that is based not only on threat and intimidation but on a surprisingly softer side of real emotional attachment, affection, and salvation. The film starts with tough prison icons: inmates, rap music, keys, hands, and the voice of the pockmarked narrator, Danny Trejo, who succinctly frames the story: "In prison, if you've been turned out, you've been sodomized."
Viewers of this film will find meaning in those words through the personal views of inmates like Mindy. A blond, baby-faced young man in his twenties, he's one of the 15 percent of the Alabama prison population who is white. Like most of the victims, he was "fresh meat" when he walked through the gates for the first time. Mindy's story has its human side, told directly to camera by the inmate himself and his protector, Lamark Moore, a more experienced inmate serving 25 years for murder. "Mindy was my baby, I was comfortable with him," Moore says, almost wistfully.
Viewers enter a prison culture that has its own economy, with rules as precise as NASDAQ's. One inmate points out that when you get behind on a loan, whether it's a bar of soap or a chance to watch an NBA game, you either pay your man, "whip his ass" or are forced to "go back and f , whichever way you want to do it." The camera, in a remarkable feat of access, captures some of the most intimate moments, as when two inmates drape sheets over their double bunk bed for some privacy while those around them continue their domino game. We learn that the prison is a world within a world, and for the first time like a diver descending to the ocean depths the camera reveals a vast ecology that carries many surprises. Turned Out is a stunning view for those who have no clue about the archipelago of prisons our society has built.
