''The Grey Area'' is a feature-length

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

by Noga Ashkenazi about the lives of inmates at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in

Mitchellville, Iowa Mitchellville is a city located in Polk and Jasper counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 2,485 at the time of the 2020 census. Mitchellville is part of the Des Moines– West Des Moines Metropolitan Statistical Area. The I ...

. The film documents an eight-week

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

class taught by student volunteers from

Grinnell College Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College. Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-st ...

. The Grey Area explores women's issues in the

criminal justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation of o ...

system, including gender, sexuality, class and race. A small group of female inmates share their experiences with motherhood, drug addiction,

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...

and

domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...

Production

Ashkenazi began work on the documentary in 2009 as a 4th year student in

, where she volunteered at the prison and documented the feminism class she taught there. She then moved to Los Angeles, where she hired her crew and completed the film in 2012. Ashkenazi commented to ''The Fix'' that "During my experience working with the female inmate population, I learned that the vast majority of incarcerated women were victims before they became offenders," and that her film "explores the impact of having a history of domestic violence and sexual abuse on these women's lives, and how directly that history of abuse has led them to coming to prison."

Film festivals and awards

The award-winning documentary premiered at the 2012 ArcLight Cinemas Documentary Film Festival in Los Angeles, California and went on to screen at the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival 2013 where it won the Best Documentary award. The film screened at the

Sarasota Film Festival The Sarasota Film Festival is a film festival located in Sarasota, Florida and is held in April. Its mission is "to celebrate the art of filmmaking and the contribution of filmmakers by hosting an international film festival and developing year-lo ...

and at the Through Women's Eyes International Film Festival in 2013, and had additional screenings across the Midwest. The Grey Area is distributed in North America by

Women Make Movies Women Make Movies is a non-profit feminist media arts organization based in New York City. Founded by Ariel Dougherty and Sheila Paige with Dolores Bargowski, WMM was first a feminist production collective that emerged from city-wide Women's Li ...

. Press coverage for the film includes a positive review in

Filmmaker (magazine) ''Filmmaker'' is a quarterly publication magazine covering issues relating to independent film. The magazine was founded in 1992 by Karol Martesko-Fenster, Scott Macaulay and Holly Willis. The magazine is now published by the IFP (Independent Film ...

, a DVD recommendation from the renowned

Ms. (magazine) ''Ms.'' is an American feminist magazine co-founded in 1971 by journalist and social/political activist Gloria Steinem. It was the first national American feminist magazine. The original editors were Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Mary Thom, Patricia Car ...

, and articles in

The Des Moines Register ''The Des Moines Register'' is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa. History Early period The first newspaper in Des Moines was the ''Iowa Star''. In July 1849, Barlow Granger began the paper in an abandoned log cabin by the junctio ...

, The Fix Magazine and the Altoona Herald-Mitchellville Index.

References

External links

Official website

The Grey Area
at

Noga Ashkenazi Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grey Area American documentary films Documentary films about incarceration in the United States Documentary films about Iowa Women in Iowa