Pack Strap Swallow

Director: Holly Paige Joyner
TRT: 83 min

pack, strap, swallow is a feature-length documentary that takes us inside the walls of a women's prison in Ecuador where we meet five foreign nationals incarcerated on drug trafficking charges. Hailing from the U.S, Europe and South Africa, the women reveal how they got there and how their lives persevere behind bars. Through the lens of this small group of women, who were recruited --in some cases unwittingly -- as drug mules, the film offers an unflinching, sometimes shocking picture of life on the other side. Pack, strap, swallow opens a window into the reality of life for foreign prisoners in El Inca, the woman's prison in Quito and reveals the consequences of that decisive moment when they packed, strapped or swallowed narcotics.