Screens/Movies

Sing Sing
Where: In theatres
What: Movie, 105 mins.
When: Fri., Aug. 2
Genre: Fact-based drama
Rating: NNNN (out of 5)
Why you should watch: Authentic, impactful telling of revolutionary arts program that helps incarcerated people — starring many of the same people who went through the program.

SING SING IS A superb, authentic fact-based prison drama created with behind-the-scenes input as well as on-screen performances from incarcerated men and previously incarcerated men who participated in the real-life Rehabilitation Through Arts (RTA) program in U.S. prisons.

Tony- and Emmy Award-winning actor Colman Domingo is a powerful lead among a largely amateur crew of actors, the experience gap never apparent in the performances. Divine G (Domingo) is wise, thoughtful and, according to him, wrongly imprisoned in New York state’s Sing Sing prison where his deep involvement in the RTA theatre program and its productions gives him and other incarcerated men meaning, life skills and joy. The real-life program sees a three per cent recidivist rate among formerly incarcerated people who have participated in the program.

Playing himself, Clarence Maclin a.k.a. Divine Eye no doubt powerfully draws upon his own experience served in prison and participating in the RTA program. Scenes between Divine Eye and Divine G are breath-pausing intense — and real. It would be impossible to classify Maclin or any of the other once-incarcerated actors’ performances as amateur.

The filmmaking is as strong as the acting. From the opening scene as the camera draws you inside the claustrophobia-inducing walls of the prison, Sing Sing conveys the quiet clarity of what being “inside” means. We don’t need guards yelling in our faces to understand the power relationship behind walls and who gets to go home and see the full night sky at the end of the day.

What the film isn’t is sentimental or superficial. In other hands, Sing Sing’s story could be told as a maudlin, over-blown celebration of acting and “good deeds,” but in the hands of director Greg Kwedar (Transpecos), aided by those with first-hand experience of the prison system and the RTA program, it’s a compelling non-preachy drama with great, rich performances and storytelling. Domingo and Maclin might get some Oscar consideration for their roles.

You don’t want to miss this surprising summer highlight.