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Belly of the Beast Photos

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Movie Info

Ex-convict Kelli Dillon files a lawsuit after doctors perform an unauthorized hysterectomy on her while she is in prison.

Genre:

documentary
Original Language:

English
Director:

Erika Cohn
Producer:

Erika Cohn, Nicole Docta, Christen Hepuakoamana'a Marquez, Angela Tucker
Release Date (Theaters):

Oct 16, 2020 limited
Release Date (Streaming):

Oct 6, 2020
Runtime:

1h 22m
Production Co:

Idle Wild Films

Cast & Crew

Erika Cohn
Director

Erika Cohn
Producer

Nicole Docta
Producer

Christen Hepuakoamana'a Marquez
Producer

Angela Tucker
Producer

Geralyn White Dreyfous
Executive Producer

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for Belly of the Beast

All Critics (16) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (16)

Visually, the first half of the film provides eye-catching contrasts - expansive green fields and semi-trucks, bright days and dark early mornings, inside versus outside.

November 16, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…

Sarah Marloff
Austin Chronicle
At once a thrilling legal drama and heartbreaking depiction of devastating human rights violations that you can't imagine happening in the 21st century.

November 15, 2020 | Full Review…

Katie Walsh
Tribune News Service
"Belly of the Beast" does not reach for happy endings and is most absorbing in its thesis, which makes the stakes of this battle against human rights violations loud and clear.

October 15, 2020 | Full Review…

Lovia Gyarkye
New York Times
Inside the belly of documentarian Erika Cohn's Beast lurks a monstrosity more appalling than horror fiction.

September 22, 2020 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Scott Marks
San Diego Reader
The 82-minute film sheds light on the brutality of mass incarceration, a symptom of the vast social inequality in America.

February 10, 2021 | Full Review…

Joanne Laurier
World Socialist Web Site
Belly of the Beast is an effective introduction to a current issue many viewers would imagine was consigned to the past.

February 2, 2021 | Full Review…

Chris Barsanti
PopMatters
Incredibly, such programs in the state were perfectly legal until 1979...

January 8, 2021 | Full Review…

Dennis Harvey
48 Hills
No one should watch this without becoming exercised over racist exploitation of eugenics.

December 7, 2020 | Full Review…

Martha K. Baker
KDHX (St. Louis)
Tackles a tough subject - the forced sterilization of women inmates at a California prison - with journalistic fire and sensitive artistry.

December 4, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…

Sean P. Means
The Movie Cricket
Demonstrates how exclusionary our social myths around motherhood and giving birth are.

November 16, 2020 | Full Review…

Bedatri D. Choudhury
Hyperallergic
Mature themes, strong language in prison eugenics docu.

October 24, 2020 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Tara McNamara
Common Sense Media
Thorough and incisive, this is a documentary which restrains its anger to focus on the evidence, but many viewers will likely find it harder to hold back. For those who haven't seen this side of the US before, it will be particularly unsettling.

October 24, 2020 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Jennie Kermode
Eye for Film