A Hard Name

{{Infobox film

| name = A Hard Name

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| director = Alan Zweig

| producer = Kristina McLaughlin
Michael McMahon

| writer =

| starring =

| music =

| cinematography = Alan Zweig

| editing = Randy Zimmer

| studio = Primitive Entertainment

| distributor =

| released = {{Film date|2009|5|3|Hotdocs Film Festival}}

| runtime = 100 minutes

| country = Canada

| language = English

| budget =

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}}

A Hard Name is a 2009 documentary film by Alan Zweig that explores the lives of ex-convicts.{{cite news|title=Hot Docs turns focus on 2 Toronto directors|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/hot-docs-turns-focus-on-2-toronto-directors-1.1105095|access-date=12 February 2011|newspaper=CBC News|date=18 January 2011}}

In the film, Zweig interviews seven ex-convicts about their times in prison and their lives on the outside.{{cite news|last=Papamarko|first=Sofi|title=Behind Alan Zweig's A Hard Name|url=http://ca.eonline.com/uberblog/b121185_behind_alan_zweigrsquos_hard_name.html|access-date=14 February 2011|newspaper=E! Entertainment Television|date=29 April 2009}} The men talk about insights they have gained about their lives, including how childhood abuse led to a life of crime. Film subjects include one man who stabbed fellow inmate Clifford Olson 21 times, before Olson committed his serial killings.{{cite news|last=Sumi|first=Glenn|title=A Hard Name|url=http://www.nowtoronto.com/movies/story.cfm?content=172666|access-date=14 February 2011|newspaper=Now|date=2 December 2009|location=Toronto|volume=29 |number=14}}

Another of the film's subjects was abused as a child while a resident at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. A Hard Name ends with archival television footage of him performing, playing the guitar and singing for other young residents of the home.{{cite news|last=Barnard|first=Linda|title=A Hard Name: Ex-convicts out of jail but far from free|url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/article/734335|access-date=28 April 2011|newspaper=Toronto Star|date=4 December 2009}}

Zweig admitted to be intimidated about doing these interviews:

{{Blockquote| "[...] Intimidated, I guess. Less by their danger and more by a male competitive thing, in a way…they’re going to see through me. They’re going to see that if I went to jail, I’d be an easy mark. I’m not as tough as them. I haven’t survived what they’ve survived and they’re just going to dismiss me as a weak citizen.”}}

However, the ex-convicts interviewed were surprisingly open to Zweig and allowed themselves to be shown as vulnerable.