FILM REVIEW
SING SING
Rated R
105 Minutes
Released August 2nd
Sing Sing is a unique docudrama that cracks open a world unfamiliar to most of the audience. The film is based on the Rehabilitation Through the Arts Program (RTA) at the maximum-security Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Most of the ensemble in the movie are former RTA members. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Fest in 2023 and won the Audience Award at the SXSW Film Fest 2024.
The style here is not a beginning-to-end thread but rather a window into the transformation of hardened incarcerated men, breaking down layers of pain to reveal the vulnerability underneath. You will also see a sense of “family” develop in these men in prison that takes the place of the camaraderie that they would have with their friends “outside.” Not a lot of movies take place entirely in a prison setting, so this is a world that audiences are seldom drawn into, and Sing Sing is based on reality.
It is enlightening to see the transformative power of art in such a restricted setting. Director Greg Kwedar co-wrote the screenplay with Clint Bentley and decided to shoot on film rather than digital to give the movie a gritty texture. The story’s development is haphazard, but the show is driven by the exuberance of the prisoner-actors, most of whom have been locked up for years. The theatrical exercise unleashes emotions, psychology, and communications that have been stifled.
Only two members of the cast are non-prisoner actors: Paul Raci, who plays the prison drama director, and Colman Domingo. The rest of the cast are formerly incarcerated men who are RTA alumni. Domingo’s character, “John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield,” is a real person, and this film is based on his true story. Whitfield was an aspiring young filmmaker who loved Bruce Lee films and, in the 1980s, enrolled in New York’s High School for the Performing Arts. His life abruptly changed one night in 1988 when he was arrested for a homicide he did not commit and was sentenced to prison. There, he read, did legal research, and advocated for his own and fellow prisoners’ freedom. This movie portrays his time working with the RTA program in prison. Whitfield has written four novels and numerous plays, many of which have been produced through the RTA. Writer Brent Buell directed theatre for ten years in New York maximum security prisons and wrote Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code, the play featured in this story. Paul Raci’s character is based on Buell. Raci himself has been teaching drama to the deaf for years. A child of deaf parents, Raci starred in CODA and Sound of Metal.
Actor Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin was incarcerated for 17 years and took part in the RTA program. He plays himself, demonstrating the most extraordinary transformation. His gangster façade melts at a painfully slow pace, but when he rehearses to play “Hamlet,” he brings to the role the tragic agony that Shakespeare probably intended. Former prisoners/ RTA players Sean San Jose, Sean “DMO” Johnson, Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez, and others are equally compelling to watch. In the panel that discussed the film after my screening, Maclin was still guarded yet profoundly sincere in his comments about the experience.
Each person strives to make a statement in the world they can access, whether it’s school, work, family, community of worship, sports, the criminal world or prison. This film shows that despite mistakes they have made in life, many of the prisoners continue to forge meaningful lives inside, learning, thinking, and, in this case, acting and creating. The RTA Program claims that only 3% of its performers return to prison compared to an overall 60% recidivism. Domingo describes the transformation as “humanitarian hope.” Theatre opens the door to anyone to imagine yourself in another life, to allow your inner child to resurface, for audiences and for prisoners alike.
Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com
