Cancelled Lives: Letters From The Inside

Taking its cue from the powerful 1988 documentary Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam, this portrait of prison life purportedly seen through the eyes of prisoners is an overblown MTV-style mishmash that seems miles removed from its intended objective: "to show kids and their parents the tragic realities of getting involved in the justice system." The film is divided into four parts: "Arrest, Booking, and Juvenile Hall," "Juvenile Prison," "County Jail," and "Prison." During each section a handful of letters are voiceover narrated by Hollywood celebrities such as Kevin Bacon, Ted Danson, Corey Feldman, Kelly McGillis, River Phoenix, Mary Steenburgen, and others. Do these people have the slightest idea of what life in prison is like? Of course not, and it shows. With rare exception, the readings are singsong, hollow renditions, where heavy emphasis is only placed on just about every other word. This super busy film has music playing most of the time, with selections ranging from R.E.M.'s cryptically menacing "The One I Love" (which opens "this one goes out to the one I love," which seems natural for a visual of a person writing a letter--except that singer/songwriter Stipe makes a very strong case in the lyrics that he's talking about a bullet not an epistle--under the circumstances, this particular song is about as inappropriate as you can get for the subject of the film) to Rod Stewart's gratingly plastic teen anthem "Forever Young." Cancelled Lives only descends to the real on a few occasions where prisoners are interviewed (and the stories they tell are both compelling and delivered in a natural voice--which the letter-readers never come close to emulating). The majority of the visuals in the program are given over to convicts posing. By posing, I don't mean copping an attitude, I mean posing as if they're looking at Richard Avedon. What's the point? Ultimately, that is what I couldn't figure out. What are the filmmakers trying to say? That prison life sucks? Then why the make-up and the arty camera angles? The suggested audience for this film is "junior high to adult," but only junior high kids who require their media spoonfed will appreciate most of this film. The rest of us will want a little less flash, and a little more substance. Be that as it may, two items are worth noting: 1) the film has won awards at the Houston International Film Festival, the Philadelphia Film Festival, and the National Council on Family Relations, and 2) all proceeds go to a charitable foundation devoted to helping inner city kids. We, however, cannot recommend the film. (Available from: Milestone Media, Inc., 3463 State Street--#284, Santa Barbara, CA 93105.)