The short documentary Inside Time (2007) captures the Canadian bank robber and best-selling author Stephen Reid telling his extraordinary life story amid an 18-year prison sentence. With natural charisma and a sharp, introspective mind, Reid recalls how a difficult childhood and struggles with addiction led to an adulthood spent in and out of detention – including time for his role in the Stopwatch Gang, a prolific and infamously organised group of bank robbers. The film unfolds entirely in his own words as he weaves personal memoir with philosophical reflections on the nature of time, deeply shaped by his years in lock-up. What gradually emerges isn’t a straightforward redemption arc but something far more circuitous – a reminder that self-understanding, like so many facets of life, rarely moves in a straight line.
Reid’s crime novel Jackrabbit Parole, released in 1986 during an earlier prison term, won critical plaudits and became a Canadian bestseller. His second book, an acclaimed collection of essays titled A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden: Writing from Prison, was published in 2012. Reid was released in 2015 and died in 2018, aged 68.
