Features / Video
The Wall: powerful new film on Bristol Prison
The lives of Bristol Prison inmates have been laid out in the open in a frank and powerful documentary produced by a group of UWE students.
Their Film and Creative Media assignment brief was to create a 10-minute documentary with a six-minute audio clip.
But Alex Handschuh, 21, Matt Pidala, 22, Edd Roberts, 21, Patrick Royal, 22 and Christy Tattershall, 25, have surprised with a professional level of production on their film, titled The Wall.
is needed now More than ever
Alex said the group decided, as residents in the Horfield area, to explore whether the location of the the category B prison on Cambridge Road, in a residential area, was an “elephant in the room”.
The story was then developed when Christy was lucky enough to have a tour of the prison building itself and meet a few of the inmates.
During the tour, inmate Philip Barrett, set to be released only a week after the visit, registered an interest in sharing his story with the group and willingly introduced the group to his friends.
After this it was all about how the three individuals felt throughout their time in prison and their stories. Alex said the group and ex-inmates all met over a coffee at first and relationships then developed.
“They were comfortable because he was comfortable”, Alex said , describing how Phil introduced the group. The crew then grew gradually closer to the inmates throughout the four-month filming period.
Alex said the group were planning to release an extended version in the new few weeks with additional material. “The future depends on whether there is more to the story,” he added.
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