TV DOCUMENTARY 01 Leuven Hulp At the beginning of 2009 a number of prisoners from the Leuven Help auxiliary prison in Leuven took part in a theatre workshop. The improvisations and rehearsals within the prison walls were filmed over a period of three months, culminating in a performance in front Belgium of an audience. For three months prisoners were filmed, often day and night - including in the cells, in which they were locked up 22 hours a day. The viewers are thus privileged witnesses of the day-to-day life of Entering organisation: Nico, Bogdan, Dilges, Christos, Peter, Antonio and Ali. They see Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep - VRT them as they walk round the prison courtyard, as they go about the Contact: Franky Audenaerde tasks they are given to do and in their cells. They see them during Email:
[email protected] the day, but also during the long nights. They observe their troubled relationship with the outside world, their often hopeless situations Author/s: and their survival strategies. Joeri Weyn, Yoohan Leyssens, Luc Haekens As a viewer you are constantly subjected to a conflict of feelings: on Directors: Joeri Weyn, Yoohan Leyssens, Luc Haekens the one hand you empathise with the person, on the other hand you Camera: Joeri Weyn & Yoohan Leyssens cannot avoid the reprehensible, often violent deeds of the criminal. Commissioning editor: Michel Vanhove Nico says to theatre-maker Thomas, ‘You often say ‘experienced’ but Email:
[email protected] you should see it as ‘committed’. Dilges raps in his cell, ‘You know, Production company: Woestijnvis but you do it anyway, yo’.