“Shit, lock’s still in there.“

Six women return to the now abandoned Holloway Prison to take part in a women’s circle. Sharing some of the most intimate experiences of their lives, they unravel what led each of them to prison, building an eye-opening portrait of failing systems, childhood trauma and discovering their extraordinary capacity to heal through sisterhood.

With Holloway, Sophie Compton and Daisy-May Hudson deliver a film that touches on important questions about the incarceration of women but misses the mark by reasoning like a complaint rather than a demand.

The criminals are all victims

I imagine the intention is to show that people who go to prison are human beings like any other… That these women are not the trash of society. But by presenting them all as victims of their past, you end up thinking that ultimately, this documentary isn’t very credible. Yes, these women had a difficult childhood. Yes, they didn’t have it easy. But is that an excuse to become a criminal? I find the shortcut rather poor. And this isn’t the right way to show the flaws in the system.

Sometimes, you have to accept showing that people have made bad decisions, or even that they weren’t very good people in the past. But that despite this, they deserve respect and dignity. A film that does this well is Dead Women Walking by Hagar Ben-Asher. Possibly the best prison film I’ve seen in my life.

Here, one after the other, their stories reveal surprisingly similar experiences: growing up in an environment of domestic violence and suffering punishment from a very young age. But again, is that a reason? This documentary seems to want to place all the responsibility on “others” and no responsibility on these women.

A lack of objectivity

The film highlights the extremely high levels of child abuse, domestic violence, and experiences with child social services that form the backdrop of women’s imprisonment. Certainly. But why insist on the non-responsibility of these women?

And I have a lot of empathy for these women who really had (for the most part) a life that didn’t give them any gifts. But by only showing the elements that victimize the participants and not really showing the part of responsibility they have in their incarceration, the documentary misses something important.

We are thus left with a film that gives the impression that these “victims of the system” meet to reminisce like people do around the coffee machine at a funeral.

Holloway is not in vain since it nevertheless highlights a global crisis faced by incarcerated women: systemic violence, trauma, and the failure of punitive justice. But its lack of objectivity means the message doesn’t get through.

And was it really necessary to start with a warning for sensitive souls? A warning to say that we will hear prison noises during the film? Wait, really? A film set in a prison, in which we are going to hear prison noises? Good thing I was warned…

Holloway was presented at Hot Docs on April 27th and 29th, 2025.

Exerpt