walk out your front door
documentary
2025
status: on festival run
directed by
kirill pichakhchi
director of photography
émile côté
statement:
what does it look like when
you walk out your front door is
an experimental documentary
which explores the personal,
unseen links between life
within and outside prison
walls through a year of letter
exchanges with inmates
(this short film only focuses
on one inmate). Stories of
their existence, hope, routine,
and introspection. The movie
presents a picture of
daily life in captivity and the
emotional struggle of
preserving relationships
outside of the cell by
combining these written letters
with personal narrative and
observational footage.
The movie shifts from a study
of incarceration into a
conversation about
freedom, decency, and the
ongoing consequences of the
criminal justice system.
Questioning how we envision
life beyond prison and what it
means to be genuinely part of a
community by paying particular
attention to voices that are
frequently marginalized.