A groundbreaking contribution to the study of non-theatrical film exhibition, Carceral Fantasies tells the little-known story of how cinema found a home in the U.S. penitentiary system and how the prison emerged as a setting and narrative trope in modern cinema. Focusing on films shown in prisons before 1935, the book explores the unique experience of viewing cinema while incarcerated and the complex cultural roots of cinematic renderings of prison life. Considering a diverse mix of cinematic genres, from early actualities and reenactments of notorious executions to reformist exposEs of the 1920s, Carceral Fantasies illuminates how filmic representations of the penal system enacted ideas about modernity, gender, and the public, providing a surprising account of how incarceration shaped the social experience of cinema.