30 Second Bottom Line: A young woman in prison has an opportunity to meet and know her mother for the first time. She was given up at birth and the mother is now serving a life sentence.
Story Line: Treasure (Yolanda Ross) is a young criminal who has been incarcerated in various types of institutions for some time. Juvenile placements and county holding cells, have been replaced by prisons, for hardened criminals.
Treasure's girlfriend, Shadow (Latonya `T' Hagans), tells her that the word is her mother, Brownie (Davenia McFadden), who Treasure thought was dead, is in fact in a state prison doing a life term. Treasure intentionally commits a crime, to get her assigned to that maximum-security prison, on her 21st birthday.
In this prison Treasure is a "new fish," someone fresh to a system, who must learn how to go along to get along. With the help of prison guard Nelson (Marc Vann), contraband comes into the prison and a social order is established. The top floor is level A, where those in for life reside. The second floor has the short termers, where Treasure stays. On the bottom floor, are those dark cells where inmates are put into isolation for various infractions, both real and imagined.
Treasure gets a chance to meet Brownie, after she bribes another inmate who has access to level A. When she arrives there she learns that Brownie is like a queen. She has her lover and her children, one of whom is Kit (Rain Phoenix). Kit in particular does not take kindly to Treasure, who is truly Brownie's daughter, by natural birth.
Over time Kit and Treasure develop an insightful love/hate relationship; which tells us a lot about our social needs for acceptance and self image, as well as how to survive in a hostile environment. Shadow has seen Brownie operate for an extended period of time, and while she and Treasure are doing some serious bonding to make up for lost time, she warns her friend to not trust her mother. Brownie is an inmate and prison survivor first, and a mother second.
Treasure thinks she knows what she wants to be and what she hopes to get from life. As she spends time with Brownie, she finds out who she really is and what is most important to her future.
Tell Me More About It: The saying "Be careful what you ask for, because it may come true," becomes very applicable for Treasure. She is molded, by being around people who have major, deep-rooted problems. The film deals with people as they are, rather than on the crimes they committed to be where they are.
Kit is also jealous of Treasure because Sugar (Patrice Fisher), who clearly is Kit's lover, has eyes for Treasure. The need for a "meaningful" sexual relationship, beyond masturbation, becomes clear when Kit is making love to Treasure and afterwards she reenters the prison population with a smile on her face and lots of spring in her step.
Intertwined with the story of Treasure and her mother are insights into life in prison, from the perspective of women of various ages, races and backgrounds.
Some women have sex with male guards and no one is being taken advantage of. The woman wants what the man has to offer as much as he wants her. It's somewhat like workplace sex between the boss and his secretary, in which she drops the bait and he is too weak not to bite. It's not right, but the man is not necessarily a sexual predator.
During group therapy sessions, the inmates talk about the problems they don't have, which shows a high level of self-denial. They are not angry, they say, yet their eyes bulge, nostrils flare, and voices are raised to the level of shouting. Some of the women in these sessions are real inmates, so the reason it feels real is because it is.
If there is a message in the film that trumped all others, it may be the one of self-discipline. Leisha (Medusa) sure seemed like she was ready to make it on the outside. But all it took was the freedom of expression, which was her skill as a rapper, to focus on the good times of partying and to forget the cause and effect relationship of being a free person. She is a person who follows normal rules of society only in a lock down situation.
People who don't have common sense let small transgressions lead to bigger ones. They may look good in a TV interview, or come across to a parole board, as ready to leave jail; but more often than not, what we are seeing is a con. I may not be qualified to make additions to Webster's dictionary, but I now understand why the word convict starts out with the letters c-o-n.
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