PUNISHMENT PARK

1970. The war in Vietnam is escalating. President Nixon has decided on a secret bombing campaign of Cambodia. There is massive public protest in the United States and elsewhere. Nixon declares a state of national emergency, and authorizes Federal authorities, without reference to Congress, to detain persons judged to be "a risk to internal security". In a desert zone in southwest California, a civilian tribunal passes sentence on groups of dissidents and gives them the option of participating in law enforcement training exercises in the Bear Mountain Punishment Park. In an atmosphere of aggression and intimidation and in soaring temperatures, the prisoners have to fight for their lives as they are hunted down by the forces of law and order. In light of the recent controversy surrounding Guantanamo Bay and its questionable egality, PUNISHMENT PARK is as relevant today as it was in 1970 and just as blistering and scathing against the current US and Australian governments in their unlawful treatment of its citizens and others under the guise of homeland security. PUNISHMENT PARK was shot on 16mm and has been digitally re-mastered from a new 35mm print struck from the restored 35mm blow-up negative held in Paris