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Reviews
Mothers of Bedford (2011)
Powerful documentary about incarcerated mothers
Mothers of Bedford follows the lives of five women in prison, and their challenges as they struggle to raise their children from behind bars. With deep compassion, Jen McShane allows these women—and their families and loved ones—to tell their stories, with heartbreaking honesty and, in some cases, startling insight. These women are not career criminals so much as victims of circumstance—poverty, drugs, discrimination, or just bad choices—but if there was any self-pity in these interviews, any wringing of hands or self indulgence, it wasn't evident in the final cut. Instead we see them loving and missing their kids, nagging them and talking to their teachers (by phone), and trying to negotiate the same kind of challenges that any mother has, yet compounded enormously by their incarceration. Their stories will stay with you long, long after the film is over.