Cameroon’s New Bell prison has reached an audience far beyond Douala after a documentary about Jail Time Records won three prizes at the Tribeca film festival last month, including best documentary feature. The film’s recognition has put an on-site music studio and label inside the prison in front of viewers who may never have heard of the place before.
Steve Happi and Dione Roach
Steve Happi, a former inmate and co-founder of Jail Time Records with Italian artist Dione Roach, described the project as an instrument of resistance where prisoners can share friendship, love and have their voices heard. He also said, “We don't think anymore about the four walls - we find the freedom.”
The documentary was filmed in New Bell over 6 years, a stretch long enough to show how the label moved from a prison studio to a film subject with international recognition. Taika Waititi and Rita Ora served as executive producers, and Taika Waititi said, “The music that comes out of there is amazing.”
Stone inside New Bell
The film also follows Stone, who was sentenced to 10 years in New Bell for robbery and illegal possession of firearms after serving in Cameroon’s presidential guard. In the studio, Stone rapped, “Heart of stone, it's war. My senses shatter like broken glass,” and later, “I'm closed and tight like a cell door. No solid ground I slip like a fish.”
Stone is shown trying to reach his young daughter Maira on the phone, including after a failed attempt when he sent a voice message saying, “It's been a long time. She needs to hear my voice from time to time, so she doesn't forget about her father,”
New Bell's prison economy
New Bell is described as a notorious prison with its own taxis, law enforcement and market inside the facility, yet inmates have also built an active music scene around Jail Time Records. Empereur, another prisoner featured in the project, has drawn 24,000 YouTube views with a music video filmed entirely in prison, and songs from the inmates have found fans from South Africa, the US and Argentina.
Jail Time Records also staged a huge concert for prisoners in New Bell’s courtyard earlier this year, showing how the studio’s reach extends inside the prison as well as outside it. The documentary’s Tribeca win gives that work a wider audience, and the next question is how much further the project can travel now that its story has already crossed from New Bell to an international festival stage.
