2026 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW! It’s non-stop jailhouse rock around the cell block in the outstanding prison music documentary Jail Time Records, directed by Steve Happi and Dione Roach, who both developed the film’s concept with Uberto Rapisardi. The audience is dropped in the middle of the Douala prison in Cameroon, Africa, the place where “the mouse eats the cat.” This motto springs from how hard it is to control the notoriously overcrowded prison, which was built with 800 beds but currently houses 6000 inmates. All the prisoners without beds mingle in the yard all day and sleep under the night sky, which earned them the nickname of penguins.
Douala is also home to the first music studio built in a central African prison, Jail Time Records. In the studio, current and former inmates record prisoners’ songs for release both in the yard and outside. They also make music videos, with several inmates busting moves for the camera behind the rappers. These videos get posted on Instagram and head out across the planet. We meet the incarcerated artists, Josue Aristade Ticky Moulende, also known as the Empereur, Belgie Ludrovic Abantsia a.k.a. Stone, Hamadou Daibou, a.k.a. Transporteur, Dilan Nyamsi a.k.a La PJ, and director Happi, who goes by Steve.
You absolutely cannot get more gangster than this, as these records get made literally on death row. You won’t find any fronting in Jail Time Records, as these guys are the real deal, all with their backs against the wall. The Empereur is more than just a performer name, he also runs roughshod over the other prisoners, working the drug distribution with an iron rolling paper. Transporteur, who writes these goofiest lyrics that somehow work, has been waiting over three years for his sentencing on an anti-government charge that could put him away for decades. They are not players, because this is not a game, it’s f*****g real.
“The audience is dropped in the middle of the Douala prison in Cameroon, Africa, the place where ‘the mouse eats the cat.’”
Jail Time Records drops the audience in the middle of the yard like fresh fish, with no narration or explanation. The viewer is pushed around among the prisoners and scrambles with everyone else when rations are available. You are made to look after yourself until La PJ, sporting his bad a*s sea captain’s hat, turns to address the camera for a tour of the prison. After that, the audience is left again to figure it out on their own, learning names and picking up story threads to follow. Nothing is spoon-fed to the viewer because there are no more spoons to go around. This method allows those watching Jail Time Records a full immersion experience like no other, as you are right in the mosh as well.
There are many profound moments where there is transcendence above the misery that glows bright. There is a scene where La PJ takes a hit off a joint and looks up in the sky as his exhaled smoke seems to turn into a bird, which flies off. There are also these shots, hall after hall of crumbling hallways, until we reach a field of lush green palms painted on the walls. There are instance after instance that show how art can make an escape when there is no way out. The camera also acts like an escape hatch from the misery. Anytime a prisoner gets the camera turned to him, a performance that bends the narrative of reality ensues. It is the musical endeavors that keep the walls from being pulled down, as everyone has something to look forward to, either making tunes or hearing them.
Jail Time Records explodes with the best unheard music in a documentary since Buena Vista Social Club. All the songs are beyond incredible. I would line up at 5 AM on Record Store Day for a vinyl LP of the soundtrack. The super music videos are out of this world, with excellent dance choreography, as well as striking visual imagery that reaches Jordowsky-level surrealism. I am not suggesting aspiring musicians get themselves in trouble in Cameroon to get in on this moment. I am just saying this is the best new s**t I have heard in a long time, so yes, maybe a tour of Douala would do those trying to break out some good. Jail Time Records is a musical like no other, from the least likely place on Earth, that will lock down your fascination for a life sentence.
"…explodes with the best unheard music in a documentary since Buena Vista Social Club."
