A prison in Douala, Cameroon has become known for an on-site music studio and record label, Jail Time Records, which has turned some inmates into modest online stars and become the subject of an award-winning documentary. The project, founded in 2018, gives prisoners at New Bell an outlet for creativity within a facility that already runs much of its own informal economy and order, and its story has drawn attention from high-profile figures in the film industry, highlighting the redemptive potential of art in incarceration.

Songs recorded at New Bell have attracted listeners as far afield as South Africa, the US and Argentina, with the artist Empereur's music video amassing 24,000 YouTube views, and the label staged a large concert in the prison courtyard earlier this year. The accompanying documentary, co-directed by co-founders Steve Happi and Dione Roach over six years, won three awards including best documentary feature at the Tribeca Film Festival last month, and was executive produced by Taika Waititi and Rita Ora. It follows inmates such as Stone, a former presidential guard soldier serving 10 years for robbery and firearms offences, who raps and produces music while struggling to stay in contact with his young daughter.