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“Burned: Life In and Out of Texas’ Youth Prisons” is a feature-length documentary that follows a year in the lives of two boys committed to the maximum-security youth facilities in Texas.

“Burned” was selected from among hundreds of entries from across the globe to screen at the 2010 BareBones Film Festival, and has been nominated for the “Best Documentary” prize. The film will screen at 1 p.m. Wednesday at The Roxy Theater, 220 W. Okmulgee Ave. 

“Burned” Producer/Director Emily Pyle will attend the screening to present the film and will be available for questions afterward. 

When Joseph is released after five years of incarceration, he struggles to adjust to life at home with his family. Meanwhile, Justin stands trial for an escape attempt he made after a prison psychologist told him he would spend the rest of his life locked up. Supplementing these tense, personal narratives with interviews from experts such as juvenile detention system employees, civil rights attorneys, youth advocates, a juvenile justice historian and a juvenile court judge, the film examines the troubled Texas juvenile justice system, which sees 50 to 75 percent of its “graduates” go on to serve prison time as adults.

The film directly addresses current topics in the field of juvenile justice such as mental illness in juvenile offenders, the school-to-prison pipeline, conditions of confinement in juvenile facilities, re-entry, and the need for community-based alternatives to incarceration, according to a media release. 

Raised in Chickasha, Pyle is an investigative journalist based in Austin, Texas. 

After covering a riot at a juvenile facility in South Texas in 2006, she became fascinated by the stories of offenders as young as 10, incarcerated in conditions little different from the adult prisons in which statistics show many will spend much of the rest of their lives. 

Following a 2007 scandal in which wide-spread physical and sexual abuse of young inmates in Texas facilities became public, Pyle began working on “Burned.” Filming would take more than a year and would dive deep into the stories of troubled youth and their families, asking whether the justice system is meant to rehabilitate young offenders, or merely to punish them. 

Information: Pyle, (512) 799-3692 or emilyapyle@yahoo.com. 

For information about the BareBones Film Festival, or to buy tickets, contact Oscar Ray, marketing director, at 616-1335 or barebones@yahoo.com.