It was my last week in London, and I had started to miss the activities that made me feel at home. Just at that moment, while browsing the BFI website, I saw the film Sing Sing and a talk as part of the S.O.U.L. FEST. I needed a bit of the healing power of art, and Sing Sing gave me just that.

A movie can do so much. It can make you laugh. It can make you cry. Some movies can do both. Some movies can take you to a world unimaginable. Some can make you face the harsh realities of the world today. But the greatest of movies can do all of these things and leave you with something never before experienced. Sing Sing is one of these films. -HEYGUYS

SYNOPSIS

Divine G (Colman Domingo), impresoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men, including wary newcomer Divine Eye (Clarence Maclin), in this stirring true story of resilence, humanity, and the transformative power of art, starring an unforgettable ensemble cast of formerly incarcerated actors.

REHABILITATION THROUGH THE ARTS

An in-prison theatre programme, that guides participants through the process of staging a production, RTA’s programme has created remarkable results: while the US national rate for people returing to prison after incarceration was over 60%, less than 5% of RTA gradutes ever returned.

Domingo portrays John “Divine G” Whitfield, the visionary and inspiring driving force behind the Rehabilitation Arts Program and a prisoner who wrote many plays for the program. While the real Divine G has a brief cameo in the film, the group’s star performer, Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, a tough man transformed by his encounter with Shakespeare, plays himself and does so with great talent.

Although the film is an American production, it does not have the typical Hollywood clichés you are used to. One of the main reasons for this, I believe, is that writer-director Greg Kwedar and his co-writer Clint Bentley developed the project by conducting interviews with the real people in the story after purchasing the rights to John H. Richardson’s 2005 Esquire article ‘The Sing Sing Follies.’ Another aspect that distinguishes the story from other films is their decision to cast individuals who had participated in this program as actors.

In the film, since the theater’s fiction is conveyed during its creation, you feel as if you are part of the film. It conveys each emotion in the moment as naturally as possible, allowing you to feel the emotions of everyone on stage.

BELONG SOMEWHERE

Having to leave your home for any reason and turning the new place you settle into your home can be quite overwhelming. Although the movie takes place in a prison, that place eventually starts becoming the prisoners’ home. What I’m referring to here isn’t the warmth of a real home or the feelings we first think of when we hear the word “home.” It’s about their lives shaping according to the conditions and rules there, becoming their new normal.

When you start living in a new place, you inevitably find yourself searching for a sense of belonging. In Sing Sing, the prisoners discover this feeling of belonging through the healing power of theater and art.

We need art to thrive. You take away the art, you take away the soul, you take away the humanity…

DYING IS EASY, COMEDY IS HARD

This program, intended as a reintegration program, has been largely played with drama and pain until the Divine Eye, the film states that while dying is easy, comedy presents a greater challenge.

However, in life itself, both exist together, and often we don’t even realize how genuinely we laugh; in fact, our laughter is quite abundant. Yes, life is not always a cheerful place; I am aware of that, but we can not live in constant drama. There needs to be a certain balance between the two so that we can experience the difficulty and beauty of being human by feeling all emotions.

Sing Sing gives you exactly that. It tells the story of people who seem to have their lives ended, showing that perhaps their lives are just beginning, highlighting the opportunities they can seize to be accepted as humans again in the face of difficulties.

I think the most important thing is that it does this using a narrative style that touches all your emotions. Smiling can be difficult, but we need to try.

We are here to become human again.

KAYNAKÇA

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