The Work is a documentary film that follows a group of outsiders into California’s Folsom Prison to join inmates in an intense four-day therapy session intended to help prepare them to succeed back outside prison.
The film was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival 2017, and Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2017. Directed by Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous, The Work will open in New York on Friday, October 20, and in Los Angeles on Friday, October 27, with a national rollout to follow.
Set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, The Work follows three men from outside as they participate in a four-day group therapy retreat with level-four convicts. Over the four days, each man in the room takes his turn at delving deep into his past. The raw and revealing process that the incarcerated men undertake exceeds the expectations of the free men, ripping them out of their comfort zones and forcing them to see themselves and the prisoners in unexpected ways. The Work offers a powerful and rare look past the cinder block walls, steel doors and the dehumanizing tropes in our culture to reveal a movement of change and redemption that transcends what we think of as rehabilitation.
