The Corridor

Orange may be the new black, but documentaries that take us behind real jailhouse walls can still provide revelations. What's it like to go to school while incarcerated? It means that the tools in your bike repair class are locked to the table and that classrooms come equipped with panic buttons. It means that room assignments take gang affiliation into account. And it means that exposing your ignorance is seen as a weakness, "becoming prey," as one inmate-student describes it, in a world of predators. These are just some of the challenges that face participants in the San Francisco Sheriff Department's pioneering program to help inmates earn their GEDs. Local filmmakers Richard O'Connell and Annelise Wunderlich trace students' progress from orientation to graduation in this timely and quietly provocative documentary. Observational footage of school and jail routine is supported by a soundtrack of articulate reflections from guards, teachers, and inmates. Intertitles of statistics underline the daunting odds these students face, and their equally impressive achievements. (Mill Valley Film Festival)