Stories We Told: A monthly series presenting celebrated Canadian documentary gems of the past, giving audiences an opportunity to rediscover acclaimed films and filmmaking talent in a theatrical setting. Curated by Hot Docs Cinema lead programmer Vivian Belik.
Stories We Told is generously supported by Diane Blake and Stephen Smith.
One of the best and most important documentaries of 2016, Toronto native Brett Story’s The Prison in Twelve Landscapes is a sharp and imaginative deconstruction of America’s prison-industrial complex that fixes its gaze not on the prison themselves but the economic and personal links to penitentiaries, charting the invisible links of the system and society. From a mining town in Kentucky dependent on a federal jail for employment, to a business that supplies prison-approved care packages to inmates and a tour through Quicken Loans corporate headquarters—12 vignettes together brilliantly compose a portrait of the inextricable bonds between mass incarceration and American life.
Join director Brett Story, editor Avril Jacobson and cinematographer Maya Bankovic for a special post-screening discussion. Moderated by writer, scholar and film curator, Nataleah Hunter-Young
Brett Story is an award-winning filmmaker and writer whose work pushes the formal boundaries of political cinema. Her feature documentaries include The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016), The Hottest August (2019), and Union (2024), which was shortlisted for an Academy Award. She lives and works in Toronto.
TICKETS (+HST)
General: $15
Members: $10, $8, FREE