JAIL TIME RECORDS (Tribeca 2026) – Review by Leslie Combemale
New Bell prison in Douala, Cameroon was built for a capacity of 800, but now houses nearly 6000 men. This overcrowded location is wall to wall with inmates from all walks of life, and is the backdrop of a story of creativity, artistic expression, and emotional authenticity that is Dione Roach and Steve Happi’s Jail Time Records. The documentary expertly juxtaposes cinema verité scenes of prison life with musical interludes using songs created behind the walls of New Bell. It’s a beautiful, visceral, invigorating movie that is as dynamic and hopeful as it is rage-inducing and heartbreaking.
The insider view, the way audiences will feel they are right there, is because co-director, co-producer and composer Happi was incarcerated there for nearly two years, creating hundreds of musical tracks during that time. The hyper-colorized visuals, the palpable energy of vacillating rage and release might be co-director, co-producer, and cinematographer Roach’s contribution. The two met in 2018, when Roach was volunteering on a social impact project and Happi was still incarcerated. A partnership was born, and went on to shoot over six years inside the prison.
Jail Time Records, a non-profit record label and recording studio, was co-founded by Roach and Happi in 2018, to give incarcerated and formerly incarcerated folks a way to express themselves, as well as a pathway to rehabilitation. Roach had been running creative workshops at New Bell, and recognized a wealth of musical talent within the prison population. She collaborated with Happi to build and run a studio from behind bars. The documentary features songs performed by a number of inmates. Happi is behind the music, and Roach is behind all visuals, and together, they make a spectacular film and music making duo. They co-created with those filmed as subjects, giving them agency and an outlet for expressing their most intimate and heartfelt insights through their words and music.
As part of the proceedings, we are shown through the prison by a guide, (called “La PJ” or secret police in the film) who explains to us who does what. He is the one that introduces this first record studio from inside a prison.
This isn’t just “up close and personal” filmmaking, it’s often within inches of the inmates. The documentary blends recorded moments of prisoners expressing their fears, hopes, and struggles, with the musical scenes which take an already intense energy and ramp it up. In no way preachy, there isn’t a moment in Jail Time Records that isn’t compelling, equally drawing viewers in with the performances and the profiles of specific artists/inmates.
Seeing the artistry born of frustration, fear, hope, rage, love, and everything in between does so much more to argue for safer, more humane prisons than any traditional straight-ahead documentary. Throughout the film’s running time, viewers become attached to the featured inmates, including those who did some pretty bad things to land in prison, making the “in memoriam” section towards the end of Jail Time Records truly heartbreaking.
Visually stunning, emotionally intense, and filled with musical artistry, Jail Time Records should be distributed widely around the world, especially as for-profit prisons continue to proliferate, at great personal cost to those inside.
5 out of 5 stars.
