CAGE(D)

ABOUT THE FILM

This film is the result of a collaboration between Sarith Peou, a writer and inmate serving a life sentence in Stillwater State Penitentiary in Minnesota, and our Artistic Director Carl Flink. The two were brought together by the social justice organization We Are All Criminals. This film is the first outcome of this collaboration. 

In the film Peou tells the story of his experiences as a young man during the horror of the Khmer Rouge era in Cambodia, his escape as a refugee and his journey to the USA that eventually resulted in him going to prison for a serious crime he did commit. 

The recording of Sarith was done during phone calls through the prison phone system that can only be 15 minutes in length. Flink and Peou have never been able to meet in person due to prison regulations. Started in 2020, this ongoing collaboration that started has purely been conducted via phone and electronic messages through a system called JPAY.