Babes and booze - Swedish Film Institute

34
at niGht i FlY DOC
MiChel wenZeR
DIRECTOR
PRODUCTION INFO P. 53
art behind bars
In At Night I Fly, documentary filmmaker Michel Wenzer shows us
how art and culture offer a means of survival for prisoners serving
life in California. The film is a testament to the innate human
capacity to be creative, even in the toughest environments.
Brutal reality is present right from the
outset in At Night I Fly. An assistant
warder explains to the film crew
about to go inside that New Folsom is a maximum-security
prison with a “no hostage policy”.
If they were to be taken hostage, there
would be no prisoner exchanges to set them
free. “But the state of California will extend
every possible resource to get you back”, he
adds with a wan smile.
Yet despite the inescapably grim reality of
life within the prison walls, in Michel Wenzer’s
documentary his focus is neither on the
violence nor the gang warfare of the institution.
Instead, it’s about the way that art, music
and poetry help those serving life to survive
the prison in a spiritual way.
The film lookS at “Arts in Correction”, a
programme that gives prisoners the opportunity
to express themselves through art,
music and creative writing. Behind the inmates’
tough exteriors we discover both talent
and well-expressed views on existential
questions. Wenzer gets to listen in on poetry
readings and discussions, and his conversations
with the prisoners explore the views of
life held by people who know they will never
leave the institution alive.
“I’ve survived difficult periods myself with
the help of art and music, which is what maybe
prompted me to make this film. It’s the
kind of thing I ought to have seen when I was
growing up,” says Wenzer, who spent most of
his early life in a foster home having been
forcibly taken into care at the age of nine.
“The film is about people’s capacity for development
in virtually impossible situations,
and the contrast between this innate capacity
and a tough environment can hardly be
more obvious than among prisoners serving
life,” says Wenzer.
TExT ROGER WILSON
FaCts Born in 1968 in stockholm, michel Wenzer
is a composer, photographer and director. As a
composer Wenzer has contributed to films
including Facing Genocide – Khieu Samphan and
Pol Pot (2010) and Frau Berliner Mauer (2009). his
debut short was Three Poems by Spoon Jackson
(2002). At Night I Fly is his first feature film and it will
have it´s world premiere at sheffield doc/Fest.
The documentary was spawned by a short
film about the poet and lifer Spoon Jackson.
Wenzer made Three poems by Spoon Jackson
despite the fact that he was denied permission
to film in the prison. Instead, he recorded
the poems in question from telephone
calls, in which the poet is constantly interrupted
by a telephonist explaining how many
minutes he has left to talk. Even on the telephone
there’s a claustrophobic feeling of being
trapped under constant surveillance.
“The contacts I made when making that
short eventually led to me being granted permission
to film inside New Folsom Prison.
ALBIN BIBLOM
ALBIN BIBLOM