Built between 1865 and 1876, Yerwada Central Prison (YCP), Pune, is one of the oldest prisons in India, with over 2500 inmates. In this video, six poets and artistes of the YCP share their work, their lives… Through their poems and musings, the film explores the modes in which they creatively cope with the pain and stigma of incarceration, in the process questioning their selfhood and the socially constructed divides between ‘us’ and ‘them’, between the ‘normal’ and the ‘deviant’.

Awards

• Certificate of Merit, Mumbai International Film Festival, 1998
• Jury’s Award for Best Innovation, Astra Festival of Anthropological Documentary Film, Sibiu, Romania, 1998

Festival Selection

• Astra Festival of Anthropological Documentary Film, Sibiu, Romania, 1998
• Sakshi Film Festival, Bangalore, 1998
• Dhaka Film Festiva,l 1999
• 6th International Festival of Ethnographic Film, Royal Anthropological Institute, London, 1998
• New Delhi Video Festival, 1999
• Munich International Film Festival, 1999
• Himal South Asia Documentary Film Festival, 1999
• Parnu Film Festival, Estonia, 2002
• Social Communication Cinema Festival, Calcutta, 2002