Girlhood

The documentary follows two young women held in a juvenile detention centre in Maryland. Both have been through severe violence and loss. The film tells their story not from the offence but from the road that led there. Daily life inside the centre, its rules and the ties to the outside are part of the account. The work looks at what the American justice system does with children. The two people named in the film are Megan and Shane. The account neither pities nor accuses. The camera stays with the two of them rather than with the institution. Liz Garbus’s American documentary, eighty two minutes long, was completed in 2003.