The state penitentiary called the Huntsville Unit, situated in the town of Huntsville, eastern Texas, is a medium-security prison for male inmates, and houses the execution chamber of one of the last states to still practice capital punishment. One of the oldest in Texas and nicknamed “The Walls Unit” because of the large brick wall edifice that surrounds it, the prison is also a regional site for the release of discharged and paroled prisoners, who file out of its doors every day in small groups.
In Huntsville Station, a 14-minute, multiple-award-winning documentary by US filmmakers Jamie Meltzer and Chris Filippone, the first moments of freedom of one such group are captured. It begins with them walking in a line along the narrow pavement towards the Greyhound coach station, carrying belongings in plastic bags, many smiling at the smell of freedom after their release minutes earlier. Some break the line to share hugs with those who have been nervously waiting for them, while others, the majority, head for the buses.
They are given a voucher to exchange for their travel ticket, and 100 dollars in cash. They hurry to make phone calls, smoke a cigarette, or try their luck on a lottery scratch card, while others pay 50 cents for a couple of squirts of perfume. Meltzer and Filippone follow them in those first few moments of freedom and record their initial reflections and complex emotions as they prepare to take their separate ways into a world beyond bars.
- Huntsville Station, in English with French subtitles and available for viewing here until October 18th, is one of a regular series of documentaries presented by Mediapart as part of its partnership with Video-On-Demand (VOD) platform Tënk.
Huntsville Station. US. 2020. 14 min // Authors and directors: Chris Filippone and Jamie Meltzer // Cinematographer: Chris Filippone // Sound: Dan Olmsted, Jamie Meltzer and Nico Sandi // Editors: Jamie Meltzer and Chris Filippone // Production: Jamie Meltzer and Chris Filippone
Showing now on Tënk:
- What You Gonna Do When the World’s On Fire?, by Roberto Minervini
During the summer of 2017, one year after the shooting dead by police of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this documentary chronicles the lives and views of the town’s Afro-American population amid the murders of other black men around the US. Selected for competition at the Mostra de Venise film festival in 2018. - Djo, by Laura Henno. In the uplands of the French Indian Ocean Island of Mayotte, men and dogs engage in a filial relationship, one that is almost fusional. Awarded the Jury Prize at the 2019 Champs-Élysées Paris Film Festival.
- Vivant !, by Vincent Boujon. Five gay and HIV positive young men take on the challenge of parachute jumping, encountering a sporting environment that is far from the nature of their personalities.
Enlargement : Illustration 2
Tënk is a VOD website which launched in the summer of 2016. Subscribers (subscription is 6 euros per month, or 60 euros per year) can view seven new documentaries every week, which are presented in themed series (including the environment, politics, the arts, major interviews, festivals, favourite picks, productions from around the globe and film school works). More details are available in English on the Tënk website here.