Cruel and Unusual (2006 film)
| Cruel and Unusual | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by |
Janet Baus Dan Hunt Reid Williams |
| Produced by | Janet Baus Dan Hunt Reid Williams |
| Music by | Amy Carey |
| Cinematography | Slawomir Grunberg |
| Edited by | Janet Baus Dan Hunt Mark Juergens Reid Williams |
|
Production
company |
Reid Productions
|
| Distributed by |
Alluvial Filmworks DVD) Outcast Films(DVD) |
|
Release date
|
October 24, 2006 |
|
Running time
|
66 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Cruel and Unusual is a 2006 American documentary film directed and produced by Janet Baus, Dan Hunt and Reid Williams about the experiences of male-to-female transsexual women in the United States prison system. It was screened on television as Cruel and Unusual: Transgender Women in Prison.
According to the film, prisoners in the United States are incarcerated in men's or women's prisons depending on their biological sex (or, more specifically, whether they have male or female genitals), and not their gender identity. As a result, pre-operative trans women are incarcerated in men's prisons, and trans men in women's prisons.
The documentary focuses on five trans women, three incarcerated and two recently released from prison. At the end of the film, one of the prisoners has been released while one ended jailed again for other offenses. In prison they are unable to continue taking hormones or to receive counseling for gender dysphoria. According to the film, transgender people are more likely than average to be imprisoned, and when in prison often face sexual violence from other prisoners. Often transgender prisoners are kept in solitary confinement to protect them from other inmates. The filmmakers set out to ask whether this situation constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and violates prisoners' Eighth Amendment rights.
The film took three years to make. The directors initially made contact with approximately 100 transgender prisoners. Although they had planned to feature trans men in the film, they decided to focus only on trans women due to the different issues experienced by the two groups and the complex nature of the issues faced by them in prison. To this end, they interviewed trans women in six different prisons.
...
Wikipedia