The Farm: 10 Down

This film is not part of this year’s food programming. Instead, it’s a complicated portrayal of the lives of several inmates in the notorious Angola Prison in Louisiana, otherwise known as “The Farm.” Filmmaker Jonathan Stack’s first film about the prison, The Farm: Angola USA, won the Grand Prize at Sundance and was nominated for an Oscar in 1998. With the rare opportunity to stay with a story over time, Stack made countless trips back to Angola with remarkable access to the prison and its inmates—thanks to the warden, who believes that people should know what happens inside prisons. Stack shows us more than the one-dimensional angle of lockdowns and strip searches highlighted on MSNBC: This is a deeply textured story of hope and heartache, remorse and redemption. —DH