"A picture is worth a thousand words" is a common expression for good reason.

After his first documentary "Prigioni d'Italia," made last year, Andrea Gualtieri has followed this up with a new film that looks at the world of juvenile prison.

Seeing both hardship and beauty

"Ragazzi fuori" (“Kids out”) is a web documentary series that portrays the lives of young offenders aged 16 to 18 who have been detained for all kinds of felonies.

The distance, the line between life outside prison and inside prison is made short by their images and testimonies. We can see multiple scenarios and subjects: the importance of family, work, dignity, or even sacrifice.

It’s almost like a reality TV show: it’s possible to see them cooking, interacting and working, while at the same time seeing their new "home" décor and the often overcrowded space they must share. One of the most beautiful things to watch is when they play, to know they haven’t lost their inner child.

What comes out of Gualtieri's short videos is a whole new universe, presenting a whole different reality, presenting the inner, emotional, human side of kids.

The human side of the story

There are several common feelings that arise when looking at the videos. The feeling of being alone or far from family, the need and the lack of liberty, the adaptation process of living in a community, the internal and external fight not to believe one is "bad blood" or "lost forever," the need for hope, and the need to project oneself with a future.

The series also shows some of the projects that are created for the juveniles as a personal plan. This highlights the importance of one’s dignity, one's sense of self-worth. Everyone deserves to have the chance to achieve that.

Giving work to these very human persons can be more than helpful for them to rediscover their capacity to work by themselves or in team. It can even help them realize their capacity for socializing.

Helping them to develop themselves in an everyday environment seems to be the most precious key to be given as illustrated by the web-documentary.

The emotional support of detainees

The web documentary shows that the family apparatus of detainees can influence their rehabilitation outcome. Some lose contact with their family, especially when relatives are also involved in felonies, particularly with the mafia.

Thus, for some more than others, the path to get outside prison can be a tougher one. This hard reality proves again the need for detainees to work or study and therefore have something - developed through their own hard work - to hold onto when they are out of prison.