Tuesday, June 11th, 2024. A24’s, ‘SING SING‘ Film Screening, Manhattan, New York.
The cutting edge independent entertainment company, A24 Films, more popularly known as A24, founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges, has cultivated another moving film that lives up to their reputation for delivering unconventional stories told through the lenses of atypical characters; characters whose unique messages, linger long after the credits stop scrolling.
SING SING, Directed by the ingenious Greg Kwedar, is an urgent document of our time that, on its surface, centers around a theater program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York, one of the world’s most notoriously recognized prisons, but unfolds as a healing balm and gateway to rehabilitative efforts for incarcerated men.
Starring Oscar nominee Colman Domingo, gives a heartfelt and maintains an engaging performance in the film. Sing Sing challenges our “conventional” thinking, our individual prejudices and the societal biases that surround incarcerated men. The film holds a mirror up to our minds and causes us to reflect on our limited beliefs, hopes, or the lack thereof, in the ability of the human spirit to be holistically restored and reconstructed into the healed version of itself.
This powerful film is based on a real-life rehabilitation program and is a collaboration of formerly incarcerated actors including the talented Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, who makes an impressive on screen debut in the film. Pushing the boundaries of traditional casting, the film also featured newly rehabilitated Actors of the SING SING Rehabilitation Through Art program, Sean San José, Paul Raci, and, in addition to their appearances, many other brilliantly talented men who have served prison sentences while taking part in the RTA program or are current rehabilitating participants in the program at the facility.
The film starts off highlighting the genius of a real-life prisoner, “Divine G”, depicted by Colman Domingo, a communally beloved and respected playwright, and an eternal lover of the arts, a former ballet dancer who is now classified by the judicial system as a convicted felon, an African American male that found himself in less than favorable circumstances, sentencing him to serve a life sentence at Sing Sing.
Between clemency hearings and his relentless pursuit to declare his innocence of a wrongful murder charge and a request to be pardoned for his illegal possession of narcotics; Divine G devotes every waking moment of his time in the prison to supporting the rehabilitation and artistic expression of his ‘brothers’. His character, encouraging and uplifting, is often accompanied by his close companion, ‘Mike-Mike’, who supports Divine G’s leadership, overseeing the acting troupe and the recruitment of new candidates to the RTA program. Enters in, “Divine EYE”, to the RTA program, a former version of actor Clarence Maclin’s true self, whose CPTSD from navigating the prison, is easily triggered and reactive to motions as subtle as stage blockings and director cues.
Divine EYE, void of intimacy and connection during his sentencing, initially takes interest in the RTA program to meet the female volunteers that act along side the men; but eventually finds a safe space to release the heavy-laden experience of navigating Sing Sing. As “Divine EYE” (Maclin) becomes acclimated to the program, he takes his own healing journey through the arts, a journey that rewards his act of faith to stick with the program and learns to trust the process. Divine G (Domingo) on the other hand, finds that his journey requires the virtue of long-suffering, met with a measure of patience that brings him to his breaking point and threatens his longtime good standing within the RTA program.
What echoes brilliance in this film is the symbolism and the parallels that Writer-Director Greg Kwedar threads into the fabric of the story: men being locked behind bars, unable to fully experience their lives. This glaring message muscles its way to the forefront of the film: that there’s a dangerous and debilitating restriction placed on men that hinders their emotional intelligence and development.
This restriction comes in the form of a lack of community support, toxic masculinity in the form of taunting from other men, constantly challenging their self worth in the belittling other men; the ongoing test of wits and of brawn by way of combat (which Kwedar carefully conveys mounting tensions with resolutions through the film) or through pressure to obtain status in the ranks of social hierarchy; their freedom to experience any form of sensitivity; the suppression of their basic psychological need for self-expression and the unmet need for emotional freedom at every corner.
I appreciate that this conversation is presented as the bedrock of this film, especially in an environment, such as Sing Sing prison, where men are faced with unsurmountable conflicts, unfavorable circumstances and their chosen or forced affiliations become a matter of life or death. The conversation needs to be had, in an open forum, and the Director present it, objectively, informatively, empathically, that men are not typically afforded the space, resources, self awareness, avenues of self expression or the opportunities to healthfully release what causes them stress in the safest way possible.
It is my hope, and I would imagine, the hope of the creative minds behind the conceptualization of this documented work, that many will view and take away from it, a fresh set of eyes, releasing any and all toxic beliefs centered around men who show one another support, love, compassion and affection in a consensual and platonic way. ‘SING SING’ speaks to the need for society to create spaces for men to experience the full range of their emotions so they can be released from the mental cell of maintaining a “hard shell.”
SING SING is a beautiful portrait that showcases the power and joy of theater.
The film will debut in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles on July 12th, 2024. View the official A24 Films trailer for SING SING.
