Cruel and Unusual is a 2006 American documentary film directed and produced by Janet Baus

Janet Baus

Janet Baus is a documentary film and television director, producer and editor. In 1993, she co-directed Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire Too with Su Friedrich, about activist group the Lesbian Avengers. In 2003 she produced John Scagliotti's film Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World about...

, Dan Hunt and Reid Williams

Reid Williams

Reid Williams is a producer and director of films and television shows.In 2003, Williams produced the documentary Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World, a film about gay and lesbian people in non-Western countries that was narrated by Janeane Garofalo.In 2006, with Janet Baus and Dan...

 about the experiences of male-to-female transsexual women in the United States prison system. It was screened on television as Cruel and Unusual: Transgender Women in Prison.

Sypnosis

According to the film, prisoners in the United States are incarcerated in men's or women's prisons depending on their biological sex (or, more specifically, whether they have male or female genitals), and not their gender identity

Gender identity

A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...

. As a result, pre-operative trans women are incarcerated in men's prisons, and trans men

Trans man

A trans man, transman, trans guy, or FTM is a transgender or transsexual man: a person who was assigned female at birth, but who identifies as male....

 in women's prisons.
The documentary focuses on five trans women, three incarcerated and two recently released from prison. At the end of the film, one of the prisoners has been released while one ended jailed again for other offenses. In prison they are unable to continue taking hormones

Hormone replacement therapy (male-to-female)

Hormone replacement therapy for transgender and transsexual people changes the balance of sex hormones in their bodies. Some intersex people also receive HRT, either starting in childhood to confirm the sex to which they were assigned, or later, if this assignment has proven to be incorrect...

 or to receive counseling for gender dysphoria. According to the film, transgender people are more likely than average to be imprisoned, and when in prison often face sexual violence from other prisoners. Often transgender prisoners are kept in solitary confinement

Solitary confinement

Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...

 to protect them against other inmates. The filmmakers set out to ask whether this situation constitutes cruel and unusual punishment

Cruel and unusual punishment

Cruel and unusual punishment is a phrase describing criminal punishment which is considered unacceptable due to the suffering or humiliation it inflicts on the condemned person...

 and violates prisoners' Eighth Amendment rights

Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual...

.

Background

The film took three years to make. The directors initially made contact with approximately 100 transgender prisoners. Although they had planned to feature trans men in the film, they decided to focus only on trans women due to the different issues experienced by the two groups and the complex nature of the issues faced by them in prison. To this end, they interviewed trans women in six different prisons.

Release and reception

Cruel and Unusual was screened at festivals across the US and internationally including Melbourne and London. It was the Official Selection at the South by Southwest

South by Southwest

South by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...

 (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

, the Barcelona Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and the Copenhagen Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. It won the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the Frameline Film Festival

Frameline Film Festival

Frameline is a nonprofit media arts organization that produces the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, the oldest film festival devoted to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender programming currently in existence...

 in San Francisco and the Audience Award for Best Feature at the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival

New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival

NewFest: The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival put on by The New Festival, Inc., is one of the most comprehensive forums of international LGBT film/video in the world....

. It received the Freedom Award at the 2006 Outfest

Outfest

Outfest is an LGBT-oriented film showcase and festival in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1982 as the "Gay and Lesbian Media Festival and Conference", the name was changed to Outfest in 1994.-Programs:...

 in Los Angeles. It was also nominated for a 2008 GLAAD Media Award

GLAAD Media Awards

The GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives...

 for Best Documentary but lost to For the Bible Tells Me So

For the Bible Tells Me So

For the Bible Tells Me So is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Daniel G. Karslake about homosexuality and its perceived conflict with religion, as well as various interpretations of what the Bible says about same-sex sexuality...

.

Writing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...

, L. A. Johnson called the film "shocking, heart-rending and ultimately somewhat uplifting".