Sara - My Whole Life Was a Struggle

The Big One

1997 · ★ 6.7

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.

HMP Styal: The Mother of All Prisons

Behind the scenes at one of the most unique and controversial prisons in the UK, home to some of Britain's worst female criminals

The Iceman and the Psychiatrist

2004 · ★ 7.4

For the third time, HBO cameras go inside Trenton State Maximum Security Prison--and inside the mind of one of the most prolific killers in U.S. history--in this gripping documentary. Mafia hit man Richard Kuklinski freely admits to killing more than 100 people, but in this special, he speaks with top psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz in an effort to face the truth about his condition. Filled with more never-before-revealed confessions, it's the most chillingly candid Iceman special yet as it combines often-confrontational interview footage between Kuklinski and Dietz with photos, crime reenactments and home movies that add new layers to this evolving and fascinating story.

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

1999 · ★ 7

Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris investigates the case of a man who became an authority on capital punishment, but was discredited when he got involved on the wrong side of a court case. Leuchter, a meek man whose appearance belies his grim expertise, develops what he says is a more effective electric chair. Before long he's in demand from officials who want his opinions on other kinds of execution. But when called to aid the case of an accused Holocaust denier, Leuchter's problems begin.

Standard Operating Procedure

2008 · ★ 6.8

Errol Morris examines the incidents of abuse and torture of suspected terrorists at the hands of U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Last Days of Solitary

2017

In 2011, Maine State Prison launched a pioneering reform program to scale back its use of solitary confinement. Bafta and Emmy-winning film-maker Dan Edge and his co-director Lauren Mucciolo were given unprecedented access to the solitary unit - and filmed there for more than three years. The result is an extraordinary and harrowing portrait of life in solitary - and a unique document of a radical and risky experiment to reform a prison. The US is the world leader in solitary confinement. More than 80,000 American prisoners live in isolation, some have been there for years, even decades. Solitary is proven to cause mental illness, it is expensive, and it is condemned by many as torture. And yet for decades, it has been one of the central planks of the American criminal justice system.

She's Beautiful When She's Angry

2014 · ★ 7.4

A documentary that resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement from 1966 to 1971.

The Matchmaker

2022 · ★ 5

A unique interview with Tooba Gondal, the woman who groomed and lured scores of Western women to join ISIS. Using social media, she became a deadly matchmaker, recruiting a number of high-profile “jihadi brides” for ISIS militants in Syria: she allegedly helped organise the transporting of three British schoolgirls, including Shamima Begum, to Syria.

The Execution Machine: Texas Death Row

1997 · ★ 7

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.

Georgie

2024

An ex mobster reflects on love and loss after spending 32 years in prison.

The Work

2017 · ★ 7.5

Set entirely inside Folsom Prison, The Work follows three men during four days of intensive group therapy with convicts, revealing an intimate and powerful portrait of authentic human transformation that transcends what we think of as rehabilitation.

BETWEEN TURKEY AND POST-ASSAD SYRIA: WHAT FUTURE FOR THE KURDS OF ROJAVA?

2025

In Syria, the new government that overthrew Bashar al-Assad's regime on 8 December 2024 has just signed a historic agreement with the Kurds in the north-east of the country. In the heart of a country ravaged by more than 13 years of civil war, this autonomous administration of Syrian Kurdistan could well be integrated into a country that is in need of reconstruction and whose unity remains fragile. But in the north, the war has not stopped. A few kilometres away, neighbouring Turkey has been stepping up its attacks on Rojava for years, while militia abuses persist and the threat of Islamic State continues to loom. From Kobane to Raqqa via the Al-Hol prison camp... For this new long-form feature, Blast took to the roads of northern Syria in January 2025.