Key Highlights
- Hillyer leads a group of 30 students — 15 from “inside” (that is to say, inmates) and 15 undergraduate students from “outside” (in other words, free) in a semester-long exploration of the history of crime and punishment in the United States.
- Related Stories Documentary Oscar-Shortlisted 'All The Empty Rooms' Shows The Spaces Left Behind By School Shootings Documentary Soundtrack Releases For Oscar-Shortlisted 'Yanuni,' Documentary On Extraordinary Indigenous Leader From Director Richard Ladkani, Producer Leonardo DiCaprio The film, winner of the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the Aspen Film Shortsfest and Best Documentary at LA Shorts International Film Festival, is directed by Eden Wurmfeld, who first met Hillyer when they were 7th graders in New York City.
- Watch on Deadline “I’ve been hearing about this program since [Reiko] started participating in it [in 2012],” Wurmfeld tells Deadline.
- “It’s called the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program.
- And it’s actually an international program, and teachers of any discipline can take the training and offer classes… I think for me, the film is as much about the encounter between these two groups, these two unlikely groups — and they’re learning from each other and with each other — as it is a testament to the power of incredible teaching and the gift of that.” As the first class begins, students take seats in plastic chairs arrayed in concentric circles (the undergrads on the inside circle, facing students from the correctional facility).
