Film No. 9. SING SING. (2025). 26th Jan.

 

Film No. 9 (2025)  January 26th.  8:00 PM SOMERVILLE Outdoor U.W.A.                       

"So are you acting at all during this interview?." (John is dumbfounded when asked this question by the parole board chairperson).

WINNER: BSFC Award; Best Ensemble Cast (Greg Kwedar) Boston Society of Film Critics (2024).

Would Donald Trump be empathetically inclined to fund theatre programs, like that depicted in SING SING, for those doing time in the repressive, US prison system? Likely not. The term, empathically inclined, is the key to answering that question.

This quiet film, based in Sing Sing, an old Gothic style prison on the Hudson River, New York, will fill you with hope. A hope that real life prison programs like this one - Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), might spread through other detention centres, world wide. Thus giving hope that troubled people may find redemption. One day in 1996 Katherine Vockins accompanied her husband, an interfaith minister, to his  work. He helped in the rehabilitation of prisoners through reading. She was inspired to do the same through theatre, founding a program called, RTA. This uneven, but profound film tells the story of what followed, through the eyes of Clarence "Devine Eye" Maclin (Colman Domingo) a founding member, and one of the few characters played by an actor. Yes,  the majority of the other actors are former inmates of Sing Sing. 

The heart of this story, however, comes via Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin. This is who we get, the real Clarence and he is divine! This is film at it best, where a real story takes us into a real world, with the real people (baring a couple) who made the magic happen.  11GUMS.