America's Greatest Prison Breaks

Dec 27, 2015

1h 46m

★ 6.0

How did they do it?

Overview

A look at the prison breakout of Richard Matt and David Sweat from Clinton Correctional facility, as well as a look back at some of the most daring and ingenious prison breaks in American history.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Peacock Productions

America's Greatest Prison Breaks Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Herself

Jolene Babyak

Himself

Jolene Babyak

Daren Donofrio

David Sweat

Daren Donofrio

Richard Lee McNair

Jason Faust

Himself

John Martini

Richard Matt

Charlie Sara

Narrator

Jon Seltzer

Himself

Clint Van Zandt

Pete and Toshi Seeger, their son Daniel, and folklorist Bruce Jackson visited a Texas prison in Huntsville in March of 1966 and produced this rare document of of work songs by inmates of the Ellis Unit. Worksongs helped African American prisoners survive the grueling work demanded of them. With mechanization and integration, worksongs like these died out shortly after this film was made.

8.0

Surviving Syria’s Prisons

Jun 10, 2025

A look inside one of the most brutal campaigns of state repression in modern history - told by those who endured it and those who enforced it.

8.0

Dancing in A-Yard

Sep 30, 2023

In prisons ruled by toxic masculinity, dancing is an absolute taboo. But at Lancaster’s A-Yard, near Los Angeles, a group of young men, willing to take a chance to be mocked in the yard, start a dance class led by French choreographer Dimitri Chamblas. This class quickly becomes an intoxicating escape from their grim reality so they decide to create a dance show. In this exceptional context, the inmates engage with overwhelming sincerity, evoking their childhood, ganglife, the crimes, the prison, and their desire for transformation. Beyond damaged lives and a prison system on the edge of the abyss, DANCING IN A-YARD explores redemption and the capacity of human beings to reinvent themselves, when given a chance. And more importantly, how art and introspection can help see the light.

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0.0

Blue Room

May 1, 2022

Incarcerated participants in a mental health experiment watch videos of sunset-soaked beaches, wildflowers and forests on loop, prompting them to reflect on isolation and wilderness. Equal parts meditation and provocation, Blue Room identifies the damage done by withholding access to the outdoors and how we are all prisoners when the essential human need for communion with nature is denied.

6.6

The Big One

Sep 6, 1997

The Big One is an investigative documentary from director Michael Moore who goes around the country asking why big American corporations produce their product abroad where labor is cheaper while so many Americans are unemployed, losing their jobs, and would happily be hired by such companies as Nike.

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6.8

The Condemned

Jun 27, 2013

With unprecedented access, this documentary looks into the hidden world of one of Russia's most impenetrable and remote institutions - a maximum security prison exclusively for murderers. Deep inside the land of the gulags, this is the end of the line for some of Russia's most dangerous criminals - 260 men who have collectively killed nearly 800 people. The film delves deep into the mind and soul of some of these prisoners. In brutally frank and uncensored interviews the inmates speak of their crimes, life and death, redemption and remorselessness, insanity and hope. The film tracks them though their unrelenting days over several months, lifting the veil on one of Russia's most secretive subcultures to reveal what happens when a man is locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours every day, for life. A startling insight into inscrutable minds and the forbidding world they have been condemned to. (Storyville)

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6.0

East-West Passage

Feb 2, 2010

In the summer of 1989 tens of thousands of tourists from communist East Germany came to Hungary. They were deeply disillusioned because they felt they had no future in East Germany. There was no freedom, no choice in the shops, salaries were low and they could not travel except to Eastern Europe. They wanted to go to a prosperous and free West Germany but they could not get passports, so they hoped that by travelling through Hungary, the least suppressed country of the Soviet Block, they could cross the Iron Curtain into Austria and then travel on into West Germany. For them the Hungary of twenty years ago was the new east-west passage. Written by Czes

10.0

Elementary Genocide

Jan 1, 2014

Elementary Genocide is a documentary executive produced by award winning journalist/filmmaker Rahiem Shabazz. The documentary appeals to a wide general viewership by addressing the social, cultural, political and personal ramifications of how the federal government allots money to each state, to build prions based on the failure rate of 4th and 5th graders. In America, where half of the 4th grade is reading below grade level and more African-American males are in jail than are in college, Elementary Genocide serves as a striking reminder of a flawed system in need of repair.

10.0

Elementary Genocide 3

Aug 22, 2017

World renowned journalist, and award-winning filmmaker Rahiem Shabazz presents the third installment of his docu-series Elementary Genocide: Academic Holocaust. The first two documentaries in the series; The School To Prison Pipeline and Elementary Genocide 2: The Board Of Education vs. The Board of Incarceration received critical acclaim and launched Shabazz as a political pundit and academic ambassador for the African American community. Elementary Genocide: Academic Holocaust adds more statistical proof of the scholastic inequalities faced by Original people around the country. The documentary revisits the importance of education and its impact on self-image, family structure, financial freedom, and the collective future of African/indigenous people in America and abroad.

10.0

El Almafuerte

Invalid Date

The youngsters housed in the "Almafuerte" Maximum Security Juvenile Institute have their first approach to audiovisual recording. A film and documentary video workshop serves as an excuse for them to make a short film inside the prison. The camera is a rabid toy that generates fascination in them and rescues a sheltered, innocent smile that seemed forgotten under the shadows. While inside libertarian cries bounce against the walls, outside sounds fanfares of an iron fist.

7.2

My Life Inside

Jan 16, 2007

Rosa is a Mexican woman who, at the age of 17, migrated illegally to Austin, Texas. Some years later, she was jailed under suspicion of murder and then taken to trial. This film demonstrates how the judicial process, the verdict, the separation from her family, and the helplessness of being imprisoned in a foreign country make Rosa’s story an example of the hard life of Mexican migrants in the United States.

7.1

Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo

Sep 21, 2019

71 years in the making, this feature documentary experience reveals the extraordinary life journey of Hollywood's most unlikely hero, Danny Trejo.

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0.0

The Execution Machine: Texas Death Row

Mar 10, 1997

Explores the realities of death-row inmates inside Huntsville (Texas) Unit, a prison with the highest number of executions in 1997. Features interviews with prisoners, guards, officials, lawyers and victims' family members.

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8.0

Hard Time: The Making of Prison

Feb 10, 2013

Retrospective documentary on the making of the low-budget horror film Prison (1987)

6.7

Old Thieves: The Legend of Artegio

Mar 15, 2007

Is the story of a generation of thieves who achieved their greatest victories in the sixties; their distinctive code of ethics, the various categories of delinquents inhabiting the citys streets, their alliances with high ranking police officials that allowed them to operate, the betrayals that followed, and the price they ended up paying.

7.0

This Man Escaped the Iron Curtain by Zip Line

Jun 8, 2018

In 1986, Daniel Pohl was stuck in communist Czechoslovakia, looking for a way to escape life under totalitarian rule. His exit strategy was unusual, to say the least. After realizing that he could not rely on traditional forms of transport, Daniel chose to zip line his way to freedom. After teaming up with a physicist, the two devised a plan using a series of DIY pulleys. Thankfully, his journey proved to be mission possible as he successfully crossed the Iron Curtain, making a safe escape into Austria.

0.0

Insein Rhythm

Aug 5, 2016

Insein Rhythm portrays the sights, sounds and rhythms of Yangon’s Insein train station which is also a stone’s throw away from the country’s infamous Insein prison.

6.9

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.

Dec 29, 1999

A portrait of the life and career of the infamous American execution device designer Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. Mr. Leuchter was an engineer who became an expert on execution devices and was later hired by holocaust revisionist historian Ernst Zundel to "prove" that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz. Leuchter published a controversial report confirming Zundel's position, which ultimately ruined his own career. Most of the footage is of Leuchter, working in and around execution facilities or chipping away at the walls of Auschwitz, but Morris also interviews various historians, associates, and neighbors.

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4.4

The American Matrix - Age Of Deception

Jan 1, 2010

A shocking new 2 hour film by B.A. Brooks. This 2010 release is a follow up to "The Decline And Fall Of America" which was released in 2008. "The American Matrix - Age Of Deception" details news items that all people should be aware of such as the economic collapse of The United States and the formation of the a New World Order. See what has really been going on in America today.

Cast

Herself

Jolene Babyak

Himself

Jolene Babyak

Daren Donofrio

David Sweat

Daren Donofrio

Richard Lee McNair

Jason Faust

Himself

John Martini

Richard Matt

Charlie Sara

Narrator

Jon Seltzer

Himself

America's Greatest Prison Breaks

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

America's Greatest Prison Breaks Trailers

Cast

Jolene Babyak

Jolene Babyak

Daren Donofrio

Daren Donofrio

Jason Faust

John Martini

Charlie Sara

Jon Seltzer

Clint Van Zandt

You may also like

The Work

Afro-American Work Songs in a Texas Prison

Surviving Syria’s Prisons

Dancing in A-Yard

Blue Room

The Big One

The Condemned

East-West Passage

Elementary Genocide

Elementary Genocide 3

El Almafuerte

My Life Inside

Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo

The Execution Machine: Texas Death Row

Hard Time: The Making of Prison

Old Thieves: The Legend of Artegio

This Man Escaped the Iron Curtain by Zip Line

Insein Rhythm

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.

The American Matrix - Age Of Deception

You may also like

The Work

Afro-American Work Songs in a Texas Prison

Surviving Syria’s Prisons

Dancing in A-Yard

Blue Room

The Big One

The Condemned

East-West Passage

Elementary Genocide

Elementary Genocide 3

El Almafuerte

My Life Inside

Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo

The Execution Machine: Texas Death Row

Hard Time: The Making of Prison

Old Thieves: The Legend of Artegio

This Man Escaped the Iron Curtain by Zip Line

Insein Rhythm

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.

The American Matrix - Age Of Deception

America's Greatest Prison Breaks Trailers

Cast

Jolene Babyak

Jolene Babyak

Daren Donofrio

Daren Donofrio

Jason Faust

John Martini

Charlie Sara

Jon Seltzer

Clint Van Zandt