Our Best Short Film winner will receive our custom Global Shorts statuette which we ship anywhere in the world, free of charge. The award is manufactured by Society Awards, the same awards company that manufactures the Golden Globe and the Emmy. All winners will receive our Global Shorts Winner laurels in black, white, and gold.
Title: Complex
Runtime: 13 min
Country: USA
Director: David Taylor
Placement: Award of Excellence
Competition: March, 2024
Synopsis: COMPLEX depicts the vast system of privately operated prisons which incarcerate migrants and refugees under contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the United States. In 2019 the average daily population in ICE custody reached 50000 with upwards of 70% incarcerated in for-profit facilities. Narrated entirely by refugees who were in detention as the global pandemic began to infect prison populations, this short documentary focuses on the La Palma Correctional Facility located in Eloy, Arizona. Functioning as a chapter in a larger project, the documentary suggests the pervasiveness of the border security industrial complex in the American geography and reveals the commodification of human displacement.
