Our next Film Society movie, Sing Sing, is an inspirational true story, one that ABC News calls one of the best and most powerful movies you’ll see this year.
The film is about theatre as a form of rehabilitation at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. It features a Best Actor Oscar-worthy performance by Colman Domingo, who is one of only a few professional actors in the movie – the rest being former inmates.
At the heart of the film is the profound bond between John “Divine G” Whitfield (Domingo), who’s trying to prove his innocence of the homicide he’s serving time for, and Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin (playing himself), once among Sing Sing’s most feared inmates.
Divine G is the star playwright and performer and a co-founder of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program in the prison, Divine Eye is a reluctant recruit to the program. Divine G has always promoted dramas for their productions, but Divine Eye pushes for a lighthearted comedy, a choice supported by the inmates.
The two work together staging the original time-travelling musical comedy and we follow the incarcerated troupe as they practice lines, do acting drills and attend dress rehearsals. We see the inmates changed by the theatre program as they experience the joy and escape of creativity. And the Divines help each other heal as they unpack the pain of their past.
With some violence and coarse language, Sing Sing is a moving celebration of art’s redemptive power. Whitfield himself said: “I would love for audiences to walk away with a deeper understanding of the complex humanity you can find in a prison setting.”
The film closes with real-life footage from the RTA program, featuring the real prisoners who played themselves in the film, performing in past productions. It plays at the Salmar Classic at 5:00 on Saturday October 5.
