Incarceration Nations

Overview

Incarceration Nations: A Global Docuseries is a ten-episode series about mass incarceration around the world. People who have lived through incarceration narrate it, in England, El Salvador, Argentina, the USA, Brazil, Lebanon, South Africa and Sierra Leone. The episodes cover the crisis and the work of INN justice partners on solutions.

The Tribeca Film Festival selected the series in 2021. It has since been shown in prisons, classrooms, museums and community centres. An education guide uses graphics and information from the series.

Incarceration Nations: A Global Docuseries

Project Description

I worked with director Dr. Baz Dreisinger to make the series from hours of interview footage and B-roll. She gathered the footage over years of visits to prisons around the world.

Virtual reality animation

Early in the project, I set up an animation workflow that paints in virtual reality with AnimVR. The animations explore abstract ideas through juxtaposition and dream-like sequences. Combined with the interviews and B-roll, they fill gaps in the footage and give the series its visual identity.

Virtual reality animation

Virtual reality animation

Virtual reality animation

Visual effects

The series moves from country to country, so each place needed a sense of location. I made visual sequences in TouchDesigner from B-roll shot at the interviews, aerial and satellite images, and found footage from each city. Places blend into one another, and a depth map shows the world as computer vision sees it. The sequences point to the disorientation of returning to society after prison, and to how the system dehumanises people.

Interview title card

Interview title card

Infographics

Infographics and information cards give key facts about mass incarceration. I made them in After Effects, TouchDesigner, Procreate and Photoshop. Matthew Wilson drew the hand illustrations used throughout the series.

Infographic

Infographic

Sound design

To place each interview, I sampled public field recordings and ambient music from each country’s region. Danny Taylor mixed the final sound.

Soundscapes: John, Ivan, Almar, Santos, Ahmad

Technology Stack

• Premiere Pro
• After Effects
• TouchDesigner
• AnimVR
• Ableton Live
• Procreate, Photoshop

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Sydney MacDonald for coordination, Matthew Wilson for illustrations, Nicolas Motyka for assembly and editing, and the many people who shared their stories.