Welcome to Florence, Arizona: a cowboy
town with a prison problem. Just 8,500 residents
call the tiny community home—but over
17,000 inmates live there, housed in nine jails
spread out over a sprawling industrial prison
complex. The economic fate of the town’s inhabitants
is inextricably linked with the prisons—and
the townspeople are not necessarily
happy about it. Director Andrea B. Scott follows
four colorful characters whose lives are
tied up with the prisons, including the town’s
aspiring mayor, a retired correctional officer
and speed shooter, a barber who longs
for the town’s free-spirited cowboy days, and
troubled teen Marcus, whose parents met
through their prison careers. “Florence, Arizona”
is a richly drawn, humorous look at a
singular small town whose Wild West roots
are still very much alive today in its outlaw
identity.
In Person: Director Andrea B. Scott.
