Editorial Product Review:Description:Winner of the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury prize and the New York and Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Documentary of ‘98, THE FARM is a graphic, painfully real documentary, following six inmates at America’s most notorious prison.
Amazon.com:Angola Prison in Louisiana is the biggest maximum security prison in the country. This is where the most dangerous criminals go and where parole hearings are a mere formality. A startling 85 percent of all inmates die inside. A small video crew was given unprecedented access to the inmates, of which six were chosen from 5,000 to give a portrait of life in the facility, also known as 'the Farm.' Two of the men continue the fight to prove their innocence. Two veterans have found redemption in personal transformations, one man as a prison activist, the other as a preacher. Two men prepare for death--one faces execution, the other is being eaten away by cancer. It's unlikely any of them will emerge from prison alive.
What begins as a traditional documentary transforms into an investigation of the human spirit, of hope in the face of hopelessness. We see the parole board pass judgment before the applicant even makes his case and make their decision before the door has closed behind him. Yet this is not so much a work of investigative journalism as a cultural study. What the viewer comes away with is a glimpse into an almost surreal atmosphere best defined by an incongruously chipper clown who wanders the halls on Christmas Eve to cheer up the prisoners in isolation. On the surface this seems like a well-integrated, safe, supportive environment, but under the surface of normalcy is a mix of doom and hope.
--Sean Axmaker
More related to this product:
click for more
More related to this product:
Buyer Reviews
Average Buyer Rating:
-
The muslums,and the other criminals have it easy
This shows how easy life is on the inside and why should it be made easy for them? These people have killed,rapped,etc..I would say bring back the electric chair and let me pull the switch on them all.
Customer Rating: 
-
Stunning
If you believe in the death penalty, watch this film.
I saw this film a few years ago and it permanently changed my view on the prison systems in the U.S. Highly recommended viewing.
It is annoying how such an important film is so rare and high priced.
I'd also recommend "Crime control as industry: Towards gulags" for further understanding of some of the statistical data and financial mechanics that fuel the corrupt prison systems in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Customer Rating: -
Most Amazing, Inside depth, Prison Documentary!!!
It is no wonder this film took the 1998 Best Film documentary by the National Society of Film Critics,Association, and Oscar- nominated for Best Documentary. The Farm is the incredible and heart wrenching story of six inmates at Americas most infamous Prison...Angola, a former slave plantation spreading across 12,000 acres of Louisiana farmland. Do not miss this movie.......you'll have a greater understanding oif how the system works and a sence of darkness of some lifes, and how the heart can cry out. Once you start watching, you won't want to be disturbed. 5***** all the way. Very touching!
Customer Rating: -
The Farm: Life Inside Angola Prison.
This film is free of Hollywood glamour, and you love it for just that reason. It's a great documentary, and definitely worth the price. About 15 minutes into the film you get that weird sensation in your throat, and have trouble swallowing. Everything becomes clear, from now on you'll be a preacher boy just to keep clear of Angola, and anything that could resemble it.