Something to watch tonight: Friday 28 March
Sing Sing (Kwedar, 2023)
For New Zealand readers, I want to draw your attention to a new feature that’s been launched by our friends at AroVision (the locally owned digital rental service). You can now gift a movie rental to someone you love. Click the ‘gift’ icon on any film detail page and then send the link to anyone in New Zealand1 with an email address.
It’s like a recommendation on steroids.
The first film you should give from AroVision is Sing Sing, which I reviewed for RNZ’s At the Summer Movies back in January:
Sing Sing is the name of a nearly 200-year-old prison in upstate New York. There, 1500 maximum security prisoners see out their sentences.
They don't execute people there anymore, although over 600 prisoners perished in "Old Sparky" before the practice was abolished in 1972.
Still, it's a bleak environment. Like many prisons, the term 'correctional facility' seems to be inapt to say the least. There doesn't appear to be much correcting going on.
The film Sing Sing shows us one of the exceptions - a programme called Rehabilitation Through the Arts that offers some lucky incarcerated men the opportunity to reestablish something of themselves through creativity, teamwork and fellowship.
Sing Sing isn't a documentary but it has deep authentic roots.
Most of the cast are themselves alumni of the RTA and co-lead actor Clarence Maclin plays a version of himself - an inmate who found a way out through the programme.
The central character, though, is Divine G - played with deep wells of pain and pride by Colman Domingo in an awards-contender performance.
Divine G is the victim of a miscarriage of justice and has been spending his years fighting for freedom. And writing and acting for the RTA in his spare time.
Maclin - known as Divine Eye, which was a little confusing for a while - joins the troupe but at first, is brittle and resistant to what's required to put on a show.
Guilt, shame and fear are emotions that don't tend to serve you very well in a prison environment, but you have to be able to access that vulnerability in order to make art.
Like the recent Netflix documentary Daughters, which showed us what happens when the children of inmates are allowed to actually visit them and celebrate a Daddy-Daughter Dance, in Sing Sing we see what happens when we - as a society - decide to treat people with grace.
But when we choose the path of dehumanisation - as we so often do - we shouldn't be surprised at the results we get.
Both films have some astonishing statistics at the end that should convince anyone watching of the value of investing in these programmes.
If you choose to listen to the audio version, there are some clips from the film which will illustrate what I’m talking about.
Also reviewed in that edition of At the Summer Movies: the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, Upper Hutt’s Wolf Man, and Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh in the weepy We Live in Time.
Where to watch Sing Sing
Aotearoa: Digital rental from AroVision and others
Australia: Digital rental
Canada: Streaming on Prime Video
Ireland: Not currently available
India: Not currently available
USA: Streaming on Max
UK: Streaming on Prime Video
This offer only applies within New Zealand because of those dastardly geoblocking rules.