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Welcome to the ‘Prison Valley’ web doc forums. This is the place where you can discuss prisons, share what you know and have a debate with other Internet users from around the world. And to experience the ‘Prison Valley’ film, click here.

Prison Valley: a web documentary

  • 44 Comments

Fremont Residents Reactions to Prison Valley

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  1.  
    I personally like the documentary. It shows individuals that live here, and don't live here what is happening to our community, state, and country. Fremont county residents are the only ones who have the power to change what is needed to better our community. Nothing endures but change. We can't stop change. We can only decide if it is for the better, or worse.
     
    Posted by gutnecklace
    May 2nd 2010 (edited May 23rd 2010)
  2.  
     
    Really????? Maybe you should have drove on some of our historical streets and looked at the wonderful homes we have, or checked out Canon City a bit more instead of only staying in Florence. What about the new golf course that has won awards or maybe our Abbey Wines that have won several awards. Maybe you should have taken a trip out to the Royal Gorge Bridge, the worlds highest suspension bridge or checked out the white water rafting, by the way the Arkansas River just happens to be part of our National Parks and is the closest to being self sufficient financially in the US. Maybe you should have looked into the White water park that will be opening this month. And look at all of our community outreach programs we have here. One thing Fremont county prides itself on is the great sense of community and all our wonderful volunteers. We have great athletics at our schools and new facilities for our children with lots of opportunities for them to go on to college. We are not a dead end town with a black cloud hanging over us, as a matter of fact we get more sunny days here than California! Maybe you should come back and take a second look......
  3.  
     
    The mottos oughta be "We Luv Big Gov" or "Prisons R Us" haha!
  4.  
     
    I have lived here most of my life and I have never heard of Canon City referred to as "Prison Valley." Nor do I know anyone who has.

    This is an absolutely fascinating documentary but you have some of your facts slightly skewed. It's odd that you talked so much about Canon City and yet focused on Florence. We all know that Florence is Canon City's little brother. And why would the footage you show of Canon City be mostly of our back alleys?

    As for Brenda..... honestly. Her husband committed a crime. Whether she believes he is guilty or not is no reason to take out her frustration on our county. Frankly, I wouldn't want someone like her living here.

    Canon City is a beautiful town, not in the middle of nowhere and really, a lot of us who live here like the small town ambiance. I could not live in a city.

    Is the prison population a problem? I don't know. I don't pay much attention to it. I live and work in the private sector and have never had the desire to work for DOC even if they do pay better than the private sector.
  5.  
     
    First off I think that your depiction wasn't quite fair here.

    It is completely unfair to demonize the town. I would agree that the criminal justice system in the United States is quite broken and certain
    populations are unfairly discriminated against and that needs to change in my country and I hope to help to that in my lifetime.

    I would like to point out that the people of Canon City did NOT make the judgement of who came to prison or not. You know the phrase "judge, jury and executioner", well, we, the people of canon city, would fill the role of executioner. I know that sounds harsh but given the job, the Executioner would be the noblest one because he is able to be there face to face everyday while the lawyers and judges just SEND people to prison, like you said, far out of sight.(but I guess people have already made documentary about those). It is not the prison guards job to judge the persons innocence or guilt, just to keep them from the jury of peers that made the choice to remove said person from the population. Also, trying to say that the town works the same way that old mining villages worked is just moronic. Do you think that the prison pays it's workers in company credit? Does the prison have company stores? Does that nice couple that has officer clothing get kick backs from the prisons in canon city? That's is an intentional and gross misdirection to imply a abuse of workers rights.
    As far as the woman visiting her husband in prison, her pain and problems are real and husband that committed a "white collar crime" (like that makes any difference?), it wouldn't matter if he as completely innocent, we didn't put him there. I don't blame her for being angry at the system and even resenting Canon City because I would resent it too, but that doesn't mean that Canon is a bad place or that it is filled with bad people or dirty people (as she suggested and you aired). And even IF people's houses were a little run down, it wouldn't suggest that we were bad people. You can go tell poor people they are bad because they are poor.

    Why Canon City? well it makes sense that you would want to put prisons together, 13 prisons spread all over the state would cost the state a significant amount more money to ship prisoners around the state. Why would they build more prisons in canon and why would we as residents want them? We, as a town, a long, long time ago decided that we would be guards. We would watch over those that society decided were too dangerous or insidious too be out with the rest of humanity. If you wanted to build a prison in a major population area, the people of that area would refuse. I guess my point is that people decided to remove people from their population because they want them gone.
    Gone equals canon city
    You start the documentary with our town's little collective story that our town had the choice of the university or the prisons and we picked the prisons.The tone implied that that wasn't true but there wasn't any supporting evidence that it wasn't the truth. and placed like that in the "story" would imply that that was our flawed destiny (incarceration over
    education) which is naive oversimplification.

    I don't think it's fair to describe canon as a desolate hell? I would say that our second biggest industry is rafting and nature loving free spirits and outdoors lovers who enjoy the magnificent mountains and rivers around Canon. I know that "crappy place" fits much better with the story line than small town with some great antiques, and a cool bridge, and beautiful mountains? some of the nicest people in the world live in some of crappiest places.

    -Yes the restaurants on average are kinda crappy........there are a few really good ones (did you try the french restaurant?) And I would argue with you that that isn't a great pizza. My point would be ,it doesn't matter that our food is crappy or not ,that isn't a determiner of how good of a place it is? It would have been much more objective to ask what the prisoners ate? or ask the guards that eat with them? or go to the culinary classes offered to the prisoner?

    The Orange Thing?, that's just absurd for many reasons, but first because prisons wear different uniforms and orange isn't the predominant color... many are green, some are denim? When the prisoners are out side the gates on supervised work crews ,I think they wear orange?....AND...American tractors come in a few colors, the old ones like the ones shown come in ether green or orange just Google "tractor" and look a little bit, and its absurd to think we would paint our tractors the same color as prisoners uniforms? (in
    the 1930ies the black and white striped tractor was all the rage in canon city, it was a real fashion trend it might spread?)

    -License plate making, yes prisoners do make license plates, no they are not forced to be on work crews, people (prisoners) wait on long lists so they can be on work crews. yes they get paid very very small amounts, try to think of what your expenses would be? food=free(to the prisoner) shelter=free(to the prisoner) gas,electricity,heat=free(to the prisoner) medical care=free(to the prisoner) clothes=free(to the prisoner), can't have cellphones....and so on. The major point would be that the people running the prisons did not decide the wages of prisoners, politicians did. Also I might add that there are many different programs that prisoners can be involved in, like wild horse taming. The prison system also has a big green house where they grow flowers, culinary arts, I think even auto mechanics school. I'm sure you didn't place that quote about job training right after
    the license stamping sequence on purpose to make it sound like that was the only thing that they were being trained for? Without explaining all the other OPTIONAL work that prisoners could CHOOSE to participate in?

    Yes, prison jobs are somewhat recession proof, to an extent...budget cuts have put hiring freezes on the department of corrections, furlough days, short staffing due to freezes. But there are a few other jobs that are recession proof like road makers, bridge builders and other government jobs or government contracted work. You don't demonize the guards at Fort Knox because he is guarding capitalism, don't demonize canon city for keeping safe what we were asked too?

    Yes, the prison provides jobs, don't forget all the doctors and mental health workers that work at prison ,too, not just blue collar but white collar
    too?

    I thought your excessive use of fire arms was a attempt to overtly "red neck" my town. Yeah, people like their guns in Canon and this isn't coming from NRA member, I'm a vegetarian anti-gun person! If you wanted to give the image that guards were strapped to the nines on the job, your mistaken, nobody is allowed to take a gun into any of the facilities. Yes, there are guns but those are locked away for riot and escapees ,as you expect? Also, at the minimum security prisons inmates get keys to their rooms, and there isn't any master that locks them all up. Trust that the relationship between guards and prisoners is far more communal than portrayed, if the prisoners wanted to riot there would be very little to stop them. There is a much more complex story to tell.

    I think that private prisons are a bad idea and have a bad feed back loop in their design. I know you stated that there were no private prisons in Canon
    City. It sends a very bad message to film our town while talking about things that we don't engage in. I read your reply's that say that your not being
    critical of Canon City.(the first words on your web site are "welcome to Cañon City, Colorado") It sure looks like your being critical of the city, maybe its just out of shear laziness to stick to a point and not sensationalize the negative things, to not show the nice neighborhoods, the pretty areas, and simply paint the whole cities of Canon and Florence with a negative light simply out of proximity to prisons.

    Yes many of the towns buildings were built by prisoners, yes I would agree that wouldn't be considered ethical by today standards, and no that type of "no choice" work isn't still going on. The Skyline Drive you showed,however was built by he WPA workers. There are many places in the world built on unreasonable labor. The sins of past people shouldn't transfer, the son of a prisoner isn't a bad person, just like the ancestors of wardens of the time, don't deserve to be demonized because the buildings are still standing.

    Your documentary lacked the subtlety of the situation. You wanted cheap thrills instead of portraying the complex situation accurately. And most importantly, our little town made the smart choice to be guards and wardens and social workers to society's not so congenial members, and we work hard and make a fair living too. It was said the that prisons were recession proof, and maybe they are, their also bad journalism proof, half truth proof, and French prick proof.....there will always be prisons in Canon City but who decides to fill them isn't our fault, but we will guard them, none the less and be proud of it, too.


    I was Born and raised in Canon city, feed and care for by a mother that was a social worker for the department of Corrections. Her job was making sure that the prisoners mental health and well being was taken care of providing them with dignity and respect as they go through one of the hardest time in there lives.



    Jacob Bouchard.
  6.  
     
    Dear Jacob,

    Thank you, really, for taking the time to watch the movie and to write us and to contribute to our forums and leaving your testimonies here. For this was what we had in mind for Prison Valley: start a discussion. On behalf of all the team, sincerely, thank you.

    There's a lot of interesting things in your mail and your post in the forums.
    We will answer you asap here. (you can read this too: http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/en/forums/discussion/133/inaccuracies/#Comment_380)

    Thank you again.
  7.  
    • heather
    • May 12th 2010 (edited May 12th 2010)
     
    i dont know if you all live in the same place i do but canon city is a great place to live there is things for kids todo just as much as any where else. they took a rainy day and made it seem like thats the way it always is here not true it rains everywhere and you can make any place look gloomy. i love canon city and i have only lived here for a short while but my close friends have lived here a very very long time so you all should apperciate the fact that we still have jobs and caring friends all around us,
  8.  
     
    What I saw of this Documentary was a load of crap!! Stay in your country and out of ours!!
  9.  
     
    What I have seen so far is not true at all. You did not take the time to get to know many of us living here. I have lived in this area most of my life, I grew up in Florence. Got married and moved away. I love this area so much that I had to come back. The weather is sunny and nice most of the year. We have some of the nicest people that live here. Many people come from all over the world to see our beautiful area. Yes we have many prisions here, but most of us don't even pay attention to them anymore. They are tucked out of sight and out of mind. Next time you want to talk about Canon City....don't drag other cities into it. I will watch the rest then I will make sure no one else I know watches your outragous misrepentation of our county. I only came to see, because of our local news having us watch and respond to them.
  10.  
     
    I am very impressed by the interaction between the website the video footage and the photos. Very cool website! However, I feel the information and the way it is presented is skewed very far to one side. I also feel that the way that Fremont County was presented was totally incorrect. Fremont County isn't that much different than any other small town. Yes we have our run down sections , and our unseemly alley ways, which you seemed to enjoy showing. We also have plenty of well kept neighborhoods, businesses, and parks, which you didn't seem to show in your project.

    PS-Fremont County isn't in the "middle of no where". We are only two hours away from Denver, CO and world class skiing. We are only minutes away from spectacular mountain biking, rafting, and world class rock climbing. There is even one French artist who likes the area. Christo is planning a major installation here in 2011! Here is a link to the project. http://bit.ly/d8HvLQ
  11.  
     
    Wow, what a ridiculously silly 'documentary'. I always thought that a documentary would be full of, ya know, documentation. (Indicating that even a vague form of a fact might be present?) Very sad to see such pretty town get demonized in such a vapid, mindless way. I guess you can make any place look like the "clean version of hell" if you take menacing, slowly panning shots of alleys and empty lots/pastures. (which, if I'm not mistaken, are common features of every city on the planet- but OOO ya got us on that one! *insert eye roll here*)

    Silly Made-Up Fact #1: The dark and slightly sinister name 'Prison Valley'. My father, and his father before him,(a lifelong corrections officer no less!) have lived in Canon City their entire lives. Neither of them, nor anyone they know has ever heard it called 'Prison Valley'. Might want to check your facts before you base the name of your documentary on them. It's called due diligence, and you might want to look into it.

    Silly Made-Up Fact #2: Canon City is a backwater town "In the middle of nowhere". (as noted in other comments) Interesting definition of "the middle of nowhere". Surrounded on all sides by mountains, an hour from the Continental Divide, less than an hour from 2 major cities, 2 hours from the capitol, straddles the Arkansas River at the mouth of the Royal Gorge...I dunno, maybe you should try opening your eyes the next time you visit? I'm no doctor, but I hear that can cure severe cases of ineptitude and incompetency. (at least as it is experienced by you 'savvy' filmmakers.)

    Silly Made-Up...oh who cares, really? I could go on and on. Compared to yours, Michael Moore has less propaganda and misdirection in his films. (and that is truly saying something!) When I first clicked this link I was anticipating a thoughtful and insightful documentary about the town of my birth, and instead what I got was a pile of dreck only barely worth commenting on. It is unfortunate that your tone and facts are so horribly skewed, because your execution of the website and photography are not too shabby at all. Please keep trying- I'm sure in the end you will find some real facts and true stories to point your cameras at, and the resultant viewing for all of us will be time well spent...
  12.  
    • martigoat
    • May 13th 2010 (edited May 13th 2010)
     
    Well, there goes an hour of my life I'll never get back. I feel my IQ has actually gone down after watching this.
  13.  
     
    How dare you people come to our town and say this SHIT, No where did you put us as town menbers in your film you only put horrorible things that are not true!! I have lived here since I was six years old all three of my kids were born here!! Never do I have to worry about frive by shotting like in Denver, or do I have to worry about gangs! This is a great town and a safe town! You did not come here to get facts!! You only got a lot of BULLSHIT. Your film is the worst thing I have ever seen. To the wife of an inmate you had in the film how dare she even say anything about this town she doesnt even try to see how great it is. You poeple should feel like SHIT for this piece of SHIT film.
  14.  
     
    I have to say.... as an interviewee, I think you are on the right track about the prison system in America. That is really what this documentary was to be about. (I was told) I'm NOT pleased with your description of my home county. Being raised in Fremont county, graduating from Florence High School, I think Canon City is a great town! As you can see, we DO have some disillusioned persons on here though. We have seen LOTS of gang activity in the past couple years in Canon City, it was at one time the Meth Capital of Colorado, at one time the Colorado head quarters to the KKK, and the reality is, if all the prisons left this area, we really WOULD have nothing left! However, I'm not sure that really will happen anytime soon. The reality is though, this is still a great town to raise kids, work, and live your life. With so many "police" walking around, it really seems to make the place "safer." Fremont County is not un-happy with all the prisons here, in fact, we welcome them. Prison Valley is not a name the residents came up with, as so many people here think, it is a name the inmates began using because we have so many prisons in the area. When inmates talk to others they use it, and it begins to stick.....at least in their world. Most of you are NOT in their world, and it really makes no difference who you know that works in the system, YOU have to work in the system, because for 90% of the people working in the system, we DONT talk about our daily incidents inside the walls. We choose NOT to bring this type of work, drama, and madness home to our families. And if you ask, you prolly just get... "oh, the usual".....or….” just another day."

    Take the documentary for exactly what it is...... an outside, different culture, foreign country’s look at our Prison system, and the community that supports it. Take an outside look and you’ll realize that many other people and countrys DON’T have the same view of prisons that Fremont County does.
  15.  
     
    Ok, aside form the fact that this is obviously a worthless piece of bleeding heart propaganda...I wonder...how many of the locals in this web-umentary farce are now actually stunned and embarrased on how badly they were manipulated, used and their stories twisted as well as their words?
  16.  
     
    nevermind
  17.  
     
    This is in response to Mr. Rexford:

    I agree with you that this an interesting project, and it is from the point of view of an outsider. However, the portrayal of the residents and the municipalities of Fremont County in this project is completely off base. The footage of Fremont County made the entire area look rundown, and almost abandoned. It made all of the local residents look like a bunch of slack jawed, gun toting morons who have nothing else to do than work for the prisons and figure out ways to incorporate the color of orange into our lives. This isn't representative of the population of Fremont County.

    I agree the prison system is not a positive thing. That is the idea behind prisons, negative consequences for people who decide to break the law. If the entire prison experience was positive, than what would the point be? Not to say the whole thing is negative, there are programs, both educational and vocational, for the inmates that choose to better themselves.

    I appreciate the point they are trying to make that the prison system is flawed. The creators of this website even point out that the prison system in France has issues. I know they are trying to make a statement about he system as a whole, and they chose Fremont County as the place to illustrate their point, but they could have done it in a more honest fashion.
  18.  
     
    I personally thought that this Documentary was more of opinion based then real facts. I heard a lot of lies. And rude comments about Fremont Country. I live here and didn't appreciate this documentary at all. All BS in my eyes. Not a lot of facts. and you only showed the broken down parts of Canon not the Amazing and beautiful parts. And trust me, my family is not scared to live here we feel safer here then in Denver.
  19.  
     
    @DJ James Jr. Thank you for your comment. About the french situation in prisons, you can check this forum: http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/en/forums/discussion/42/the-state-of-frances-prisons You'll see the "honest fashion" you ask, I hope.
  20.  
     
    To Mr. Dufresne:

    I think the construction and execution of your completed project is amazing! The entire process comes off as a work of art displayed on the internet. I agree with your position that the prison system as a whole is bad, and more could be done on the front end to help keep people out of prison. When I use the term "honest fashion" I was only referring to the way you portrayed the place and the residents of Fremont County. I am not questioning your facts, or the points you are trying to get across about the penal system.
  21.  
     
    To all: as we promised, please find our answers to your critics on Prison Valley http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/en/forums/discussion/139/answers-to-comments-posted-by-some-fremont-county-residents-faq/
  22.  
     
    way to go...i liked your filmmaking and the website and the editing was good.....by the way i live in canon city and was grabbing a paper one sunday when you were filming...should have said bonjour but you looked busy....could have pointed out some bleak places to take pics here that would have fit into your theme good...maybe next time....oh well cant believe all of the people here that are freaking out about your movie personally....this is a good place but there are gangs and mass corruption out at the justice center road corner...i think the everyday citizen here just ignores it or doesnt know about it or is part of it...its kinda like the town portrays itself as mayberry rfd almost like a shiny red apple and you take a bite and get a worm...dont get me wrong there are many good people also...anyway ithink you struck a nerve with citizens here who didnt know bleaker aspects of town and especially the powers that run and prosper here...i salute you.....but after all your film was about prisons and their impacts and these people seem to forget that.....loved the opening sequence...tho i think these people wouldve liked to see balloons,parades and smiling babies with happy music which of course would fit in with a prison documentary...lol.....anyway again a slick production which at least has raised questions in peoples minds altho uncomfortable ones which in my experience which most people tend to shy away from....
    aloho,au revoir,and peace out whilst fighting the powers

    ps missed chatting with you but i think christo is going to be here next week if i heard true ill try and chat with him....and oh yeah within a week of your film being on local news the town has ripped down the canon city beautiful sign...well see if it is part of their usual roadwork or if they build some new grand temple of a sign there because of your film...if so ill be laughing and thinking......merci


    pps to commentaries above get a grip it was their movie about their topic make your own movie if you want about canon...it is still almost a free country...
  23.  
     
    Contrary to popular belief, I think it's a fine documentary. I wish he coulda interviewed some of the other regular good working people as well, though.
  24.  
     
    After a few minutes of watching this documentry I told my wife "think we need to keep an open mind when whatching it". Like many others have stated "prison valley" where that come from, never heard it before. I have worked and lived Canon City for 21 years. Yes, I am a correctional officer, prison guard, baby sitter, overpaid baby sitter or whatever you want to call it. Oh you ask me what I call it, well i'll tell ya. I call it a profession i chose to do many years ago. I do my job well or i think in do. After this many years i think i have a grasp of it. Anyway, my wife and i raised our daughter here, i'm proud of that. this documentry i feel is a stage to start discussion or continue discussion of many aspects of prison life inside or out. i didn't agree with many of the descriptions of the area i live in, the lady with a husband in the fed joint - my house was built in1948 and yes it needs a little tlc. if you don't want to buy anything here cept gas and a room well thats you choice. David and Phillipe I personally invite you back to this area and continue this project. i find it very interesting.
  25.  
     
    I read an article about this documentary and decided to check it out for myself. What a complete load of crap it is! First off, i wouldnt call Canon City a "god forsaken place in the middle of nowhere." You couldnt even get your facts straight at the beginning. The riviera motel is NOT in canon, it is in Florence which is about 5 miles from Canon. And as for calling Canon a "cleaner version of hell," you obviously spent only the time in town that it took you to find and take pictures of the few not so picturesque back alleys we have here. Canon City is ripe with interesting history not only of the town but of the state. When you live in Canon as long as i have, you dont see the prisons half the time. It's just a part of life that youre used to. I worked for the Department of Corrections and as far as I was concerned, it was just another job like any other. Most of my family has been employed for DOC at one point or another. Ill admit, Canon probably wouldnt be what it is today without the prison system, but as for having nothing else to offer, you might like to know that the Royal Gorge canyon is one of the most commercially rafted rivers in the country, The Royal Gorge bridge is the worlds highest suspension bridge, The Greenwood Pioneer Cemetery contains the gravesites of not only past Colorado Govenor Peabody but that of Amanda Felch, who was the first woman to recieve a pension from the military. Many movies have been filmed in the area starring some of hollywoods best including Cuba Gooding Jr. and the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

    I cant speak for the entire town, but as for the way I feel, I dont feel like living is Canon is like being imprisoned as well. Canon is a beautiful town full of interesting people and ripe with history. The prisons are a part of Canon that I pass by and most of the time, dont even give a second thought to because im used to it. Youre "documentary", I'm using quotes because usually in a documentary, they tend to try to get facts correct, is more fiction than fact. Next time I suggest you take the time to make sure that your facts are correct before posting something because people may actually think its the truth. I'd hate for someone to watch that and actually think that is what Canon City is like.
  26.  
    • ILOVECC
    • May 16th 2010 (edited May 16th 2010)
     
    I just had to laugh while watching this. I did not watch the entire "documentary" and most likely won't return to the website. It is a pathetic waste of my time. I was raised in Canon City and then followed my husband all over the US and to Europe during his military career. I look forward to the day when I can return to Canon. The economy is tied to the prisons in Canon, but I know a lot of people who work in Colorado Springs and Pueblo and live in Canon.
  27.  
    • David Dufresne Prison Valley Team
    • May 16th 2010 (edited May 16th 2010)
     
    Dear Heather Newman Ward,

    Thank you for your comment.

    About the long and great story of Cañon City and the movie industry, you'll see we went even further than what you were wishing for: we have made an ensemble of movies, bonuses, archives around the industry of cinema in Cañon City. You'll find we put a lot of heart and efforts in telling this not so well known part of the history of your town:
    http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/en/#/skyline-theater/

    @Heather Newman Ward
    @ILoveCC

    About touristic issues and eveything else you wrote about, please take a look here:
    http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/en/forums/discussion/139/answers-to-comments-posted-by-some-fremont-county-residents-faq/

    Thank you.
  28.  
     
    I don't like being quoted if your not going to get the intent of the quote correct.

    "Yes the restaurants on average are kinda crappy........there are a few really good ones (did you try the french restaurant?) And I would argue with you that that isn't a great pizza. My point would be ,it doesn't matter that our food is crappy or not ,that isn't a determiner of how good of a place it is? It would have been much more objective to ask what the prisoners ate? or ask the guards that eat with them? or go to the culinary classes offered to the prisoner?
    I wanted to point out that there was a lack of objectivity to spend time talking about the merits of our food (GOOD OR BAD) without addressing what prison food for was like (GOOD OR BAD).

    also I was addressing the tone that you were trying to portray about "force" used in our town and how presented the way you did that the viewers from around the world might get the impression that it was fear and force that kept this community and the prisons going, and truthfully I think you portrayed it that way on purpose in a non objective way. If you were able to honestly look at the prison system you would see that it works on a consequence and a reward system not brute force.

    my quote:
    "I thought your excessive use of fire arms was a attempt to overtly "red neck" my town. Yeah, people like their guns in Canon and this isn't coming from NRA member, I'm a vegetarian anti-gun person! If you wanted to give the image that guards were strapped to the nines on the job, your mistaken, nobody is allowed to take a gun into any of the facilities. Yes, there are guns but those are locked away for riot and escapees ,as you expect? Also, at the minimum security prisons inmates get keys to their rooms, and there isn't any master that locks them all up. Trust that the relationship between guards and prisoners is far more communal than portrayed, if the prisoners wanted to riot there would be very little to stop them. There is a much more complex story to tell."

    The orange sequence: If your doing a documentary about prisons and a prison town "making up" some bizarre fascination that we might color our lives with the color of our inmates uniforms is not poetic its an intentional misdirection and was meant to portray our festival with the shadow of prison life.

    Please answer for me, Was in the opening sequence the "news paper" on the second seen of the table the news paper was called "The Alcatraz of the Rocky's" and the main headline stated "New federal prison fail to bring boom times to Florence"
    Was that a real paper? or was it fabricated.

    I guess my point would be that you say that you don't fall into "Manichaean" philosophy but i would say that you were far far from objective in this documentary, I don't argue with you that there are some broken parts about the prison system, but you documentary isn't the plain observed truth that you would make it out to be. you clearly stand on a side "It is a matter of points of view and perspectives. Just like the art of documentary is." I hope that you're speaking about the "art of making" not that documentary are considered art. but i guess i should judge your perspective if what you were attempting was "ART" not the telling of information

    Perpetually annoyed.....

    Jacob
  29.  
     
    Wow, that was the funniest "documentary" I have seen in years. Boy, those French can really write some funny stuff. I can't wait for the sequel, "Hell on Earth, where we also have a Wal-Mart." We should just kill off the inmates or, at the very least, behead them or cut their hands off when they steal a sucker. Let's ask the French what they do with their inmates. Feed them paté and give them a rub down? Love it, love it, love it ... NOT!

    I really love the fact that Florence and Canon City are one in the same. The federal prison is only 2 blocks away from Canon? That right there says how much credibility these French bastards really have. I must have been living in hell my whole life ... funny, I love seeing deer in my front yard, being surrounded by the most beautiful mountains in the country, living among folks who are the most down to earth, polite, and HONEST (unlike those that wrote this) people you will ever meet. I have never heard the term "Prison Valley" yet I have lived here for almost 40 years. My father was a guard at the prison and still works for DOC after 35+ years. He is probably one of the most emotional, personable, and approachable people you will ever meet. Of course this documentary had a slight iota of truth to it only to be obscured by a small faction of so called "film makers" who only spent a blink of an eye in our community and served it up as full fledged truth. Where do these people come from? I think HELL.
  30.  
     
    @novasil

    Same critics as above (touristics issues, geography, «Prison Valley» nickname, guards), same answers
    Please read our FAQ: http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/en/forums/discussion/139/our-answers-to-the-residents-of-fremont-county-faq/
    You'll find all anwsers you ask.

    About situation in French prisons, please read this and you'll see how it is awful:
    http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/en/forums/discussion/42/the-state-of-frances-prisons/


    @Jacob,

    Everybody could still read your first post above. No problem.

    About the food served in Prison, dear Jacob, yes, we said two times food seems to be... good:

    In the movie, the voice over says:
    the sheriff "told us again: ‘In a prison, the food’s the key. If you serve bad food, you create frustration. And that causes trouble.’"
    http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/en/#/chapter-3/fremont-cdc/

    And you can read about it in this portfolio:
    http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/en/#/portfolio/portfolio-fremont-cdc/

    About the newspaper, it comes from the Denver Post, Sunday may 17, 1992, as you could see here:
    http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/css/img/PV-Doc-29.jpg

    This was given to us by people from Cañon City.

    Thank you.

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