"PUNISHMENT PARK is one of the most incendiary documents of radicalism ever made."
(Toronto EYE Weekly)

1970. The war in Vietnam is escalating. There is massive public protest in the United States and elsewhere. President Nixon declares a state of national emergency and the federal authorities are given the power 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 National 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.

Special features

Specially-filmed 28 minute introduction by Peter Watkins
Feature-length audio commentary by Dr. Joseph A. Gomez, Founding Director of Film Studies at North Carolina State University
The Forgotten Faces (1961), an 18 minute amateur film made by Peter Watkins in which the 1956 Hungarian Revolution is recreated in the back streets of Canterbury
Optional English and French subtitles
Text essay by media critic Scott MacDonald on audience responses to PUNISHMENT PARK
Original 1971 Press Kit
Peter Watkins filmography
24 page booklet with chapter on PUNISHMENT PARK from Joseph Gomez’s 1979 book Peter Watkins

FRANÇOISE FILMS presents "PUNISHMENT PARK" Photographed by JOAN CHURCHILL • Music by PAUL MOTIAN Sound by MICHAEL MOORE • Art Director DAVID HANCOCK Edited by PETER WATKINS and TERRY HODEL Produced by SUSAN MARTIN • Directed by PETER WATKINS

1971 / U.S.A. / colour / 1:1.33 / mono / 88 minutes PUNISHMENT PARK was shot on 16mm and has been digitally re-mastered from a new 35mm print struck from the restored blow-up negative held in Paris.

"PUNISHMENT PARK is one of the most incendiary documents of radicalism ever made." (Toronto EYE Weekly)

Special features

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FRANÇOISE FILMS presents "PUNISHMENT PARK"
Photographed by JOAN CHURCHILL • Music by PAUL MOTIAN
Sound by MICHAEL MOORE • Art Director DAVID HANCOCK
Edited by PETER WATKINS and TERRY HODEL
Produced by SUSAN MARTIN • Directed by PETER WATKINS

1971 / U.S.A. / colour / 1:1.33 / mono / 88 minutes
PUNISHMENT PARK was shot on 16mm and has been digitally re-mastered from a new 35mm print struck from the restored blow-up negative held in Paris.

"PUNISHMENT PARK is one of the most incendiary documents of radicalism ever made."
(Toronto EYE Weekly)