Bank robbers have long been romanticized in Western culture, but few have been able to tell their own story with as much self awareness as Stephen Reid. This absorbing documentary is about an extraordinary man, a notorious member of the "Stopwatch Gang," who once lived out the crazy, frantic life of the outlaw bandit. Now sentenced for eighteen years to a prison cell, Reid has a lot of time to reflect on the journey that brought him to this moment.
Inside Time is a cogent expression of being acutely conscious of the here and now. Reid is, in effect, "doing time," but the experience of imprisonment has forced an intense awareness of the preciousness of life. Instead of racing against or fighting time, whether through heroin addiction or robbing banks, he is now compelled to contemplate the present.
Award-winning filmmaker Jason Young has harnessed music and image to shape an artful visual essay on the experience of time through the life of this legendary bank robber. Reid's story is gracefully set against vivid images that speak to the different rhythms of his experience. Indeed, viewers will find themselves drawn deeply into this film, willingly losing their sense of time.
2007, 35 min 08 s
National Film Board of Canada Production
© All Rights Reserved, 2007
