The Work

The Work shows a group therapy program set in Folsom Prison, where a set of convicts, with brutal histories and broken lives, sit down with a few volunteers from the outside world and share their pain with each other in the most civilized manner possible.

The film does not sugarcoat anything, showing everything as it is, with honesty, but never exploiting or lessening the integrity of its subjects. The life stories and decisions the prisoners made in the past are gruesome and dark, but the program and documentary makes an effort to refrain from judging them by their actions alone, demonstrating that they are not that different from anybody else, they are human beings. There's the same amount of respect and emphasis on the volunteer's demons and struggles, which further reinforces the previous statement. The Work makes the wise choice of singling out a few characters, people and concentrate mainly on them and their baggage. Though I would have loved to hear everybody's story, this decision makes for a tighter and much more focused "narrative" and a more accessible documentary.

Throughout the film we meet some extraordinary men, get to explore their psyche and empathize with their life story. The Work is an intense, brutally raw and tearjerking look at manhood, humanity and the depressing reality of a life lived behind bars. It shines a light to this incredible therapy program and makes the viewer reflect on their own lives. One of the best and most affecting documentaries I've ever seen.

'The Work' was an extraordinary experience exploring individual personal extremes of violent feelings towards others and oneself. The group therapy sessions with three facilitators and about 10 violent prison inmates resonated excruciating memories, with individual outbursts requiring intense therapeutic physical restraint by many peers. Each prisoner's soul searching self disclosures clearly presented to all viewers the fact that violent hatred of others has its source in one's self-hatred. I have experienced these revelations working in therapeutic holds with violent hateful severely disturbed adolescents at Tri-County Youth in Northampton, MA. The notion that hatreds of others are acquired but unrecognized self-hatreds has ramifications beyond group therapy to the world at large. Racism, genocide, wars, colonialism, slavery and much beyond are at their source unrecognized self-hatreds. Christ's forgotten admonitions, 'Don't judge!' and 'Have empathy for your enemies' ring true worldwide as our forthcoming non-violent future. Violence was virtually reduced by half in the 20th century. We're but a few centuries away from our thousands of years of peace.

This film would not succeed without brilliant characters, brilliant moments and brilliant editing, and this film has all three, to the point that it's astonishing that this film isn't a work of complete fiction. There are so many intimate, raw, emotional breakthroughs, to the point that this film could have used some clearly defined moments of pure levity to avoid dulling them as the film goes on. This film's structure is incredibly well organized, with every character getting the spotlight in a way that seems bizarrely coordinated. There is so much character to all the characters, and they are all memorable. The filmmaker's ability to articulate the shared struggle made me cry, and as of writing this, this is the only film that has made me cry purely because of the quality of the filmmaking. It's especially impressive that not only that the three members of the public that are focused on have their moments of emotional enlightenment, but that their emotional struggles also seem thematically linked, and this thematic link is even acknowledged through a line of dialogue by one of the inmates. I sometimes forgot that I was watching a documentary because of how smooth the journey was, but even the elements of the film which remind me that this wasn't filmed in a controlled environment only enhanced their scenes. If this film turned out to be completely fabricated, I would not be surprised, nor would it devalue the film for me whatsoever.

One of the most impressive aspects of this beautifully photographed, riveting documentary is the way the filmmakers catch the generosity of the prisoners who give their all to help the non prisoners and fellow inmates. The organizers of The Work and the participants deserve a lot of credit. I don't know of a single man, including my male patients who couldn't benefit from this four day event. Hopefully, women who watch this will understand some of the internal pain that most men carry.

Anybody who has had any kind of meaningful therapy knows one unequivocal truth...if it isn't HARD it's not effective. This movie at its core is a thoughtful examination of group therapy for MEN....the presence of any female would have changed the dynamic entirely. Men on the outside get up close and personal with real life CONVICTS...there could probably be an interesting movie made solely about any of these men but the movie doesn't linger on their stories....what this therapy (and this movie) does is focus on the themes that ALL men struggle with...betrayal, hurt, loss. My voyeuristic side wanted more of the back story of the convicts but the movie wisely did not dwell on that...another truism about REAL therapy is that it often leads to more questions than answers.