Dog Pound

Three boys caught between youth and adulthood struggle to survive behind bars in this hard-hitting drama. Alex (Mateo Morales), Butch (Adam Butcher), and David (Shane Kippel) are teenage criminals who have been sentenced to a juvenile detention facility in Montana. Goodyear (Lawrence Bayne), a guard who looks after the young inmates, is tough but fair-minded and urges the youngsters to play by the rules and quietly serve their time so they can earn a second chance on the outside. But the new inmates have to deal with young men who have been in lockup for a while, many of whom have become accustomed to the violence and intimidation of life behind bars. Banks (Taylor Poulin) is a hard case who thrives on bullying those smaller and more vulnerable than himself; once he targets Butch, the new inmate starts down a path of retribution from which there is no return. Dog Pound was the first English-language feature from French director Kim Chapiron, and the film earned him an award as Best New Narrative Filmmaker at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.