The true story behind The Quilters on Netflix, explained

The Quilters is a short documentary coming to Netflix on Friday, May 16, 2025. It premiered at the DC/DOX Film Festival in 2024 and was shown at other festivals like the DOX NYC Film Festival. The film has won several awards, including Audience Awards at the BendFilm Festival and Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, and a Jury Award at the Santa Fe International Film Festival. It was even considered for an Oscar.

The Quilters is a short documentary, clocking in at only 32 minutes, which outlines the story of a group of men in a high-security prison who make beautiful quilts for distribution to foster children in the area.

Ahead of its release on the platform, Netflix has released a trailer for the upcoming documentary. The official logline, as per Netflix, is:

"In this award-winning short documentary, men in a Missouri maximum-security prison design and sew beautiful, personalized quilts for foster children."

The Quilters has been directed and produced by Jenifer McShane, with cinematography by Scott Alexander Ruderman. The documentary has been edited by Will Rogers and Toby Shimin, while Abigail Disney, Josh Braun, and Ryan Harrington served as executive producers. The global rights to the short documentary were acquired by Netflix, which will be releasing The Quilters as an Original.

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The real story behind The Quilters

As mentioned earlier, The Quilters follows the lives of a group of incarcerated men at the South Central Correctional Center in Licking, which lies to the south of St. Louis, Missouri. This Level 5 maximum security prison has a program entitled Restorative Justice Organization (RJO), which allows the prisoners to get some respite from their cells.

Several prisoners volunteer for the RJO to sew quilts. These quilts are designed by the men themselves, who take particular care in creating each and every little detail. These quilts are then distributed to foster children or disabled children in and around St. Louis on their birthdays.

The idea for this documentary came to the director, McShane, through the editor Toby Shimin. In an interview with Deadline on December 4, 2024, McSchane stated:

"The idea of quilters in a maximum-security prison that were male, I was just intrigued. So, I went out and just visited for a while without my camera and I was really struck… And then [the prison] provided me a surprising amount of access."

True to the narrative, The Quilters does not really delve into the past of the prisoners or what led them there. Rather, it chooses to focus on how they have decided to utilize their time moving forward.

The documentary provides a beautiful and wholesome image of making the best of second chances and the opportunities at hand.

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How does quilting affect the prisoners

Most men imprisoned at the South Central Correctional Center have no hope for release. So, for those who volunteer as quilters, this creative pursuit brings a sense of self, pride, and belonging, as they immediately become a part of a community.

The men work under the patient mentorship of Ricky, who himself is incarcerated, but helps and guides everyone else in the program. The men working here feel a sense of camaraderie with each other and quilting is their way of staying connected with the outside world.

In the trailer for the documentary, the men describe themselves as a "little community within a big community" while they describe their sewing room as "organised chaos". Healthy debates about patterns, colours, and fabrics are part and parcel of their world.

In a special screening of this documentary in the sewing room, the creators of the quilts were deeply moved when they saw footage of their laborious work being presented to the children outside the prison walls.

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Watch The Quilters on Netflix from May 16, 2025.