Pervert Park

The 2014 documentary by Frida and Lasse Barkfors is about a trailer park in Florida where only people with convictions for sexual offences live. The law prevents them from living near places frequented by children; the result is a hundred and twenty people gathered in one place. The documentary's difficulty is letting the residents tell their own stories: among them are people who abused children, and people placed on the register for a relationship with a peer at eighteen. The film defends none of them but listens to all of them, which leaves the viewer somewhere extremely uncomfortable. It won an award at Sundance. Some of the accounts are unbearably detailed. Who it's for: viewers who take on difficult documentaries and are interested in debates about the penal system. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding accounts of sexual offences and child abuse, or wanting a clear moral frame.