A Hard Name

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A Hard Name
Directed byAlan Zweig
Produced byKristina McLaughlin
Michael McMahon
CinematographyAlan Zweig
Edited byRandy Zimmer
Production
company
Primitive Entertainment
Release date
  • May 3, 2009 (2009-05-03) (Hotdocs Film Festival)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

A Hard Name is a 2009 documentary film by Alan Zweig that explores the lives of ex-convicts.[1]

In the film, Zweig interviews seven ex-convicts about their times in prison and their lives on the outside.[2] The men talk about insights they have gained about their lives, including how childhood abuse led to a life of crime. Film subjects include one man who stabbed fellow inmate Clifford Olson 21 times, before Olson committed his serial killings.[3]

Another of the film's subjects was abused as a child while a resident at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. A Hard Name ends with archival television footage of him performing, playing the guitar and singing for other young residents of the home.[4]

Zweig admitted to be intimidated about doing these interviews:

"[...] Intimidated, I guess. Less by their danger and more by a male competitive thing, in a way…they’re going to see through me. They’re going to see that if I went to jail, I’d be an easy mark. I’m not as tough as them. I haven’t survived what they’ve survived and they’re just going to dismiss me as a weak citizen.”

However, the ex-convicts interviewed were surprisingly open to Zweig and allowed themselves to be shown as vulnerable.[2]

Release

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A Hard Name premiered May 3, 2009 at the Royal Cinema in Toronto.[2] The film received the Genie Award for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 30th Genie Awards in 2010.[1] It was also chosen as one of the top ten audience favourites at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.[5]

References

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