When I first got on the prison bus, my intention wasn’t about making a film on this journey. My fiancé, after being charged 7 to 14 years in prison had been transferred to Clinton Correctional Facility 15 miles away from the Canadian border and my main focus was to help him cope with the situation by visiting him every weekend. The charter bus was leaving the city every Friday for various prisons located at far corners of upstate New York. The passengers were mostly women- the inmates’ mothers, daughters, wives or girlfriends who would make a 15 hour trip just to spend a few hours with someone they care for. I was one of them at the same time I was a total stranger in that bus. Not only I wasn’t American but also I had no clue about how the prison system functioned in this country.

I married my fiancé at Clinton Correctional and made this trip for about 4 years during which I met many women from different backgrounds sharing the same problems, struggles and hopes. I experienced from the bottom how the American justice system functioned. That was maybe the best way to conceive some truths about this country at large. I became familiar with various characteristics of the Correctional Department that made me realize that the system itself is at fault. But the stories that I witnessed weren’t all desolate. At times we were simply thankful.

I haven’t made the trip for about five years since our relationship didn’t last but this detachment from the visitors’ culture served me as a filmmaker and I’ve found the necessary emotional distance to be able to direct my camera on the subject. The film is not a journalistic report but the reflection of a personal story, which was a responsibility for me to tell.