''Belly of the Beast'' is a 2020 documentary film by Erika Cohn about the illegal sterilization practices in the Central California Women’s Facility and other female penitentiaries. Made over a period of seven years, the 82-minute movie documents the fight of one inmate (Kelli Dillon) and her lawyer against the Department of Corrections. Their investigations inside prison, with assistance from outside allies, uncover statewide criminal practices ranging from poor healthcare, sexual abuse and assault, coercive sterilizations, and the targeting of women of color. The film was supported by the

Tribeca Film Institute The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) is a year-round non-profit arts organization founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff, based in New York. The Tribeca Film Institute was created in 2003 in the wake of September 11, 2001. TFI t ...

through the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund (2015), the TFI Network (2017), and the TFI Pond5 Program (Spring 2019). 20% of proceeds from the film went to support the
Women and Justice Project
''

Reception

It was the Opening Night Film at the

Human Rights Watch Film Festival Human Rights Watch Film Festival is an annual film festival held by Human Rights Watch organization in more than 20 countries which previews human rights films and videos in commercial and archival theaters and on public and cable television. This ...

in 2020 and was named a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

Critic's Pick. The Washington Post listed the film as "a movie to stream" in October 2020. It was in the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

's 2022 list of Notable Films for Adults. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an aggregated score of 100% based on 17 critic reviews.

References

External links

* * * {{Rotten Tomatoes, belly_of_the_beast_2020 2020 films 2020 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about women Documentary films about health care Documentaries about racism 2020s English-language films 2020s American films