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Gays In Prison (Documentary)

By Golu
Ever wondered what is life really like for LGBT people in prison? Reading the title you would think that this is a generic documentary but to my disappointment, this documentary primarily focusses on drag queen Latrice Royale, who became famous after featuring in Ru Paul’s drag race.

We meet Latrice and go through her life on how she was molested as a child, beaten, why she ended up being in jail and what happened inside. We then also look at how, with support from her loved ones and friends, she was able to get back her life on track and is now one of the most successful drag queens. And then we meet some other 4-5 inmates who share their stories of living in prison as an LGBTQ member. They talk about forbidden love, finding love online, making pen pals, forced sex in prison, being raped by both guards and fellow prisoners, hiding their true identity. Some say it was sexual torture, for others it was a fabulous sexual experience. We also witness struggles on trans people. Interestingly most of these inmates came to prison because of drug-related issues and a good percentage turned to drugs after being damaged and rejected by their families. The documentary also focusses on how important yet difficult it is to find a normal job with a criminal background.

As I mentioned earlier, I was a bit disappointed in the overall content because I think this subject could have been a lot more hard-hitting and emotional but the makes failed to capture that. Also I may not know a thing about documentary film-making but I couldn’t help laughing wit the way all the subjects were introduced. They ere made to do these awkward walks across the hall, across pathways etc. It looked ridiculous, staged and so fake. And the same repeated scenes of them doing the same walk came every single time they would come on screen. Initially irritated, I was soon laughing at that. I personally would have liked to see more detailed story about other inmates rather than the just touching the tip of the iceberg. One of the inmates summarises it well. "There's all kind of sex in prison. There's people that are married to each other, people that are dating each other... There's all kinds of sexualities and all kinds of gender in prison that don't necessarily translate to the outside."

An interesting insight into this side of prison life and LGBTQ members. (4/10)
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