Cinema and audiovisuals in French prisons

For the past 20 years, Lieux Fictifs has been developing a permanentaction for audiovisual training and creation at a special studio set up inside Marseille Prison. The specificity of this action is to combine a professional training dynamic with a production and creation-driven one. This allows prisoners to be treated as professional trainees remunerated for their work, but also to benefit from contracts as authors and actors. The production/creation dynamic includes a strong relationship between the "inside" and the "outside". Cultural programmes are produced in partnership with the region's cultural structures, and are broadcasted on the prison's video channels. Prisoners also work with artists in collaborative creative projects, often involving participants from the "outside". These artworks are presented in cultural infrastructures thanks to a French legal device, i.e. the agreements for the right of personal portrayal. Lieux Fictifs also supports prisoners, once they are released, in their professional or training cultural projects. The organisation's funding sources are diverse and trans-sectoral, public as well as private.