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The UK is currently in the midst of the largest prison expansion in more than a century. In Friends on the Outside  we hear from Jamie, an incarcerated man with a love for foraging and caring for birds, exploring how the non-human world can take care of us and offer moments of connection in the spaces of the state's neglect.

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Why do we naturalise prison as the only response to harm?

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With nine out of ten of the incarcerated population in the UK facing a mental health or substance misuse struggle, resources should be allocated to the root causes of harm, instead of to the expansion of a system that intentionally isolates and perpetuates cycles of violence.​

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There is an inspirational wildness to weeds; they resist confinement and offer freely available medicine to those who seek them out. To many, they are friends and allies in our resistance to forces acting against our wellbeing.

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A Bridging the Gap Production

Supported by Screen Scotland and the Scottish Documentary Institute

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Directed, filmed and edited by Annabel Moodie​

Produced by Lea Luiz de Oliveira

Edit consulted by Lindsay Watson

Exec Produced by Sinead Kirwan

Composition and Sound Design by Callum Rankine

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 Documentary Short Grand Jury Prize                           Slamdance '24

Scottish Short Film Award             Glasgow Short Film Festival '24

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Edinburgh International Film Festival  '23

Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival '23

Inverness Film Festival '23

True/Fasle '24

Regard '24

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