In this documentary, filmmaker Nick Broomfield follows the saga of Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who has been accused of committing a brutal series of murders. Broomfield conducts interviews with Wuornos herself, and his crew films her trial as well as her interactions with religious fanatic Arlene Pralle, who gives Wuornos dubious advice and legally adopts her. The cameras also roll as the accused's attorney ignores the case at hand to negotiate a deal to sell his client's story.
The Real Des: The Dennis Nilsen Story (2020)
Known as a “kindly killer”, this documentary details Nilsen’s moves between 1978 and 1983, after which he admitted to killing as many as 15 young men.
The Condemned (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)
Murder in a Teacup (2024)
When members of a workforce began falling violently ill, locals believed a virus was sweeping the area, but after the death of two men it became clear that the only impurity was a serial poisoner with a toxic past.
Standard Operating Procedure (2008)
Errol Morris examines the incidents of abuse and torture of suspected terrorists at the hands of U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.
The Magnitsky Act. Behind the Scenes (2016)
What started as a drama about a Russian police plot to steal a billion dollars from a US financier and to murder his faithful tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, has become a real life investigation of contradicting versions of the crime.
Young Kids, Hard Time (2012)
Young Kids Hard Time explores the story of young children sentenced to adult prison for decades, through the eyes of 12-year old Paul Gingerich and 15-year old Colt Lundy, both serving 30 years in adult prison for killing Colt's stepdad.
Mob Stories (1993)
They're the real 'goodfellas': 'Joe Dogs' Iannuzzi, Tommy DelGiorno, 'Big Dom' Lofaro. For the first time on television, Mafia turncoats give personal accounts of life inside the Mob. In this shocking documentary, five high-ranking informants tell tales of murder, brutality, greed and vanity--and why they broke the Sicilian code of honor. The first generation of the American Mafia stood on the foundation of loyalty and a code of silence. The second and third generations traded their Sicilian traditions for government protection and instant personal gain. MOB STORIES presents five chilling narratives from five members of the underworld, most of whom are overwhelmed with fear and paranoia with the exception of “Fat Jackie”, a loyal lifelong mobster. Father and son team, Alan and Marc Levin, direct and produce an honest and personal portrayal of the demise of the Mafia.
Privacy of Wounds (2018)
Set as an experiment in a simulated cell in Oslo, three former political prisoners are locked up for three days with no film crew, to revisit their memories of Syria's darkest detention facilities.
Deadly Legacy (2018)
In 2011, Detective Sergeant Jason Moran from the Sheriff’s Department of Cook County Illinois, reopened the case of one of America’s most notorious serial killers, ‘The Killer Clown’ John Wayne Gacy. Although Gacy was convicted of 33 murders and killed by lethal injection in 1994, unbelievably, EIGHT of his victims remain unidentified. Today, 40 years after the discovery of the crawlspace under Gacy’s Chicago home, where he buried most of his victims, Detective Moran knows time is running out to identify the remaining unnamed victims of this sadistic killer.
Dancing with Le Pen (2018)
In France’s last presidential election, Marine Le Pen, a right-wing candidate, won over 30 per cent of the vote after an attempt to rebrand a party long associated with her controversial father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. See how three of her supporters faced similar obstacles in changing the narrative.
Obituary of a Beast (1985)
Between 1962 and 1966, sex murderer Jurgen Bartsch cruelly tortured and killed four children in an old air raid bunker in Germany. This documentary examines the personality of the killer who died in 1976 during voluntary castration surgery at the age of 30. Vilified by the press for his heinous crime, Bartsch also became a case study for famous found criminal psychologists like Alice Miller (who maintains that no one abuses without being abused as a child, and murderers tend to have their own childhood abuse denied by the adults around them). Bartsch never met his birth parents, he was raised in a clinic and later adopted by a cold, unaffectionate couple. By the age of 15, he tortured and killed his first child victim. This informative, fact-filled documentary provides enough details for viewers to come away with a broader understanding of the nature of the criminally insane and society's role in their formation.
Defending Our Lives (1994)
Documentary about the magnitude and severity of domestic violence. This film features four women imprisoned for killing their batterers and their terrifying personal testimonies. It won an Oscar at the 66th Academy Awards in 1994 for Documentary Short Subject.
The Big One (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.
God, Give Us Freedom (2013)
The film is about a woman’s prison and shows how creativity transforms people and gives them strength.
Room Zero (2009)
Wayne Adam Ford is a convicted serial killer on Death Row. Victoria Redstall is a model who trained to be a cop. Together, and against all odds, Ford and Redstall take us on a roadtrip into the mind of a serial killer and attempt to find the identity of his first victim. All that remained of her was a dismembered torso.
Confessions of a Psycho Killer (2023)
When the body of 63-year-old vicar, Anthony Crean, was discovered in the quiet village of Shorne, Kent in March 1975, the community were shocked. Father Crean hadn’t died of natural causes; he had been hacked to death with an axe and left in a bath of blood. One detective was certain the killer was 22-year-old career criminal named Patrick Mackay, but he had no proof.
13th (2016)
An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.