Doing time is hard, but healing is harder.

Adelaide filmmaker Shalom Almond’s artistry in offering audiences unique access to a closed world shines through in her latest exceptional documentary. A group of incarcerated women signs up to learn an instrument and write their own songs, as part of a unique music program in an Australian prison. The women come to the program low in confidence and self-worth but are thrown into a world of creativity and find a blossoming self-determination. The music becomes a tool for self-discovery and their stories become deeply personal songs about love, pain, freedom, motherhood and hope. But the process opens deep scars around trauma and addiction, putting at risk the opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime prison performance with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Can the women prove that music has the universal power to heal, even in the complex world of prison? Almond’s intimate, direct style and dedication to her participants results in a journey that is both confronting and deeply moving.