COLLEGE BEHIND BARS, a four-part documentary film series, tells the story of a small group of incarcerated men and women struggling to earn college degrees and turn their lives around in one of the most rigorous and effective prison education programs in the United States–the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI).
Shot over four years in maximum and medium security prisons in New York State, the four-hour film takes viewers on a stark and intimate journey into one of the most pressing issues of our time – our failure to provide meaningful rehabilitation for the over two million Americans living behind bars. Through the personal stories of the students and their families, the film reveals the transformative power of higher education and puts a human face on America’s criminal justice crisis.
It raises questions we urgently need to address: What is prison for? Who has access to educational opportunity? Who among us is capable of academic excellence? How can we have justice without redemption?
The series airs on PBS November 25th and 26th
COLLEGE BEHIND BARS is directed and produced by Lynn Novick; produced by Sarah Botstein; edited by Tricia Reidy ACE; produced by Salimah El-Amin and Mariah Doran; original music by Jongnic Bontemps; cinematography by Buddy Squires ASC and Nadia Hallgren. Ken Burns is the executive producer. COLLEGE BEHIND BARS is a production of Skiff Mountain Films, in association with Florentine Films and WETA-TV.
Public Screenings from September 13 – November 19
Click for event links. Check back as new links go live!
9/13: Washington DC/Congressional Black Caucus
9/19: San Francisco, KQED/ Commonwealth Club
9/25: NYC, Center for American Progress/ John Jay College of Criminal Justice
9/28: Los Angeles, Justice on Trial Film Festival
10/1: New Haven, Connecticut – Yale University
10/3: Bedford, New York – Bedford Playhouse
10/10: NYC, New America Foundation
10/17: Los Angeles, City Hall
10/21: Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson
10/23: Atlanta, Morehouse School of Medicine Auditorium
10/29: Chicago, Malcolm X College
11/4: Boston, Showcase Cinema de Lux Patriot Place
11/5: Boston, Boston Public Library
11/7: Philadelphia, WHYY
11/12: NYC/Apollo Theater
11/14: St. Louis, National Conference on Higher Education in Prison, Hyatt Regency
11/18: Washington, DC, Ellington Theater, Duke Ellington School of the Arts
11/19: Baltimore, Parkway Theatre
Click this icon for more on how to watch College Behind Bars on PBS
