Camillo LoVacco, Cecily Lyn, Clarence Maclin, Colman Domingo, Cornell Alston, David Giraudy, drama, film festivals, Greg Kwedar, James Williams, Johnny Simmons, Katherine Vockins, Mosi Eagle, movies, Patrick Griffin, Paul Raci, reviews, Sean Johnson, Sean San Jose, Sharon Washington, Sing Sing, TIFF
July 12, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Greg Kwedar
Culture Representation: Taking place in 2005, at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, the dramatic film “Sing Sing” (inspired by true events) features a predominantly African American cast of characters (with a few Latin people and white people) people who are in some way connected to Sing Sing.
Culture Clash: Several residents of Sing Sing become involved in doing a stage production of the original play “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code,” as they battle their own personal obstacles and insecurities.
Culture Audience: “Sing Sing” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Colman Domingo and unique dramas about the art of acting, where the actors happen to be in prison.
“Sing Sing” is a wonderfully acted story about a group of people finding joy, vulnerability, and personal challenges in being stage actors. They happen to be residents of a prison, which affects them but doesn’t define who they are and their abilities. Colman Domingo gives another standout performance in a long list of first-rate performances that he has done on stage and on screen.
Directed by Greg Kwedar, “Sing Sing” is inspired by real people and true events. Kwedar co-wrote the “Sing Sing” screenplay with Clint Bentley. The screenplay is based on John H. Richardson’s 2005 non-fiction Esquire article “The Sing Sing Follies” and Brent Buell’s original play “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code.” “Sing Sing” had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
“Sing Sing” tells the story of a group of residents at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, which is considered one of the toughest prisons in New York state. (Parts of the movie were filmed in the real Sing Sing.) The Sing Sing residents featured in the movie who participate in a nationwide program called Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), which gives people who live in prisons opportunities to become artists, such as being actors in stage productions that take place in the prisons.
Many of the actors in the “Sing Sing” cast are real-life RTA graduates. The RTA program has gotten media attention for having a positive effect on those who are incarcerated. According to RTA, about 60% of formerly incarcerated people in the U.S. return to prison, while only 5% of RTA graduates return to prison. RTA’s rehabilitation rate is impressive by any standard.
“Sing Sing” (which takes place in 2005) uses the real names of the real people who went through many of the experiences depicted in the film. Domingo has the starring role as John “Divine G” Whitfield, who was wrongfully convicted in 1988 of second-degree murder and illegal weapons possession. In the movie, Divine G (who was sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder charge) has been trying to prove his innocence ever since. He has an upcoming clemency board hearing that is an emotional cornerstone for this movie.
Divine G is mild-mannered when it comes to most things, except for his passion for the arts. He is the unofficial leader of the plays that he and his fellow RTA colleagues act in at Sing Sing. Divine G is also playwright and a book author. His book “Money Grip,” an action-adventure story in an urban setting, is well-known in prison populations. There’s a scene in the movie where Divine G is asked by another Sing Sing resident (played by the real Whitfield) if Divine G can autograph this book, and a flattered Divine G willingly obliges. Before Divine G was incarcerated, he worked as a party/nightclub DJ.
The movie’s opening scene shows Divine G as the lead actor in the RTA production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The production gets praise, and the cast members are happy with their performance. However, Sing Sing’s RTA members are eager to do an original play, possibly a comedy. Some of the RTA members ask Divine G if they can act in his next play, but Divine G modestly says that the new play he’s been working on isn’t quite ready. This fictional play is called “A Fine Friend.” It’s about a music producer named Zahar Turner, who is betrayed by a friend who cons Zahar out of Zahar’s recording studio.
It just so happens that Sing Sing’s RTA director Brent Buell (played by Paul Raci), an outside worker who does not live at the prison, has written an original play called “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code.” It’s a convoluted story about an Egyptian prince trying to find a mummy. The story has time traveling and the cast members portraying a mix of historical figures and characters created just for the play. The Shakespearean character Hamlet is one of the lead roles in “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code.” Most of “Sing Sing” is about the production of “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code,” starring Sing Sing’s RTA members. The real Buell has a cameo role in “Sing Sing.”
“Sing Sing” features several people, but only three Sing Sing residents get the majority of the screen time and backstories explaining who they are. Divine G; his thoughtful cellmate Miguel “Mike Mike” Gascon (played by Sean San José); and a fairly new (and initially very hostile) Sing Sing resident named Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin. In real life, Maclin is formerly incarcerated non-professional actor who is portraying a version of himself in “Sing Sing.” Real-life RTA graduates who depict versions of themselves in the movie include David “Dap” Giraudy, Patrick “Preme” Griffin, Mosi Eagle, James “Big E” Williams, Sean “Dino” Johnson, Cornell “Nate” Alston and Camillo “Carmine” LoVacco.
Brent is the acting teacher and director for “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code,” but Divine G is more of a mentor who can speak in terms that his fellow RTA members can better understand. This difference in leadership styles can be seen in a skillfully acted scene where Brent tries to give instructions to Divine Eye on how Brent wants a scene to be played, but he does it in intellectual ways using psychology and formal acting terms that Divine Eye doesn’t really understand. Divine G asks to step in, and he explains the instructions in street vernacular, which clicks better with Divine Eye.
Are there any women in this very male-dominated movie? Yes, but only briefly. On a panel that that will decide whether or not the RTA members can stage ths production of “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code” at Sing Sing, there are a few unnamed women, played by Joanna Chan
Cecily Lyn and real-life RTA founder Katherine Vockins. There’s one unidentified woman who works with Brent who is one of the cast members, but her story is never told in the movie. The only woman with a significant speaking role in “Sing Sing” is the unnamed clemency board member (played by Sharon Washington) who asks Divine G the most questions during his clemency hearing.
Although “Sing Sing” has fantastic performances, the movie unrealistically avoids many of the racial issues that would definitely be part of the conversations in these prisons. If you were to believe everything in “Sing Sing,” a prison like Sing Sing doesn’t have gangs based on racial identities and no one talks about race. It’s a very oversimplified and unrealistic erasure of how race plays a huge role in alliances and enemies that exist in prisons.
Another example of the movie’s glossy and somewhat tone-deaf depiction of race relations in prison: Brent (who is white) never has his race mentioned in the movie. “Sing Sing” is yet another prison movie that shows a white person who has a leadership position over a group of prison residents who are mostly not white. Brent doesn’t really act like a condescending “white savior,” but he does have to win over the trust of some of this mostly African American group of RTA members who don’t know Brent very well.
The racial identities of people in this group absolutely have an effect on the relationships and dynamics in this group, but the “Sing Sing” movie is too timid to actually say this out loud when it would definitely be said out loud in a real-life prison. Instead, the movie has the Sing Sing residents speak in vague terms, such as “The system doesn’t care about us.”
There’s only one instance where there’s an overt display of racial tension: In an early scene in the movie, Divine Eye is in a prison yard when accosts an unnamed younger white man (played by Johnny Simmons) who lives at Sing Sing. Divine Eye accuses the man of giving him crushed aspirin instead of the unnamed narcotics that Divine Eye bought from this man. Divine Eye gets rough with the man (who denies knowing that the powder wasn’t a narcotic) and demands that this man return the $500 that Divine Eye gave this man for the drug deal.
In real life, word would get out in the prison about this incident, and the white supremacist gangs in the prison would have something to say and do about it. This reality is based on many books, documentaries and interviews that real Sing Sing residents have given that reveal what life in Sing Sing (and other similar prisons) are really like for people who live there. Instead, Divine Eye (who is not affiliated with any prison gang who would give him “protection”) faces no consequences.
The man who was accosted by Divine Eye is not seen again until later in the movie when he’s sitting by himself in a cafeteria, and Divine Eye glances over at the man with a hard stare. It makes you wonder why this scene of Divine Eye getting rough with this man even exists. It’s also seems like the “Sing Sing” filmmakers deliberately chose to have Divine Eye’s opponent be a white man in the only scene where Divine Eye bullies a stranger in prison, but then “Sing Sing” refused include any of the realistic racial talk that happens in prisons. Divine Eye loses his temper at other people (such as some of the RTA members), but he knows them, unlike this stranger who happens to be white.
Likewise, in its intention to present these Sing Sing residents as actors, the movie goes out of its way to erase any violence that takes place in a tough prison such as Sing Sing. And this has to be one of the most unrealistically quietest and cleanest “bad reputation” prisons you’ll ever see in a movie. There’s a scene where the camera pans slowly away at closed prison cell doors in Sing Sing, and there is complete silence, while the cell doors look as pristine as dorms rooms at an elite university. You don’t ever have to have been in Sing Sing or any similar prison to know how ridiculously peaceful this prison is depicted in the movie.
The RTA play rehearsals depicted in the movie are a combination of acting lessons and therapy sessions. Brent and some of the other RTA men keep repeating “Trust the process” as their mantra. And it should come as no surprise that the RTA members learn to break down emotional barriers in order to become closer and more honest with each other. It’s very easy to predict which RTA character will go through the biggest transformation as a person.
“Sing Sing” takes some abrupt and unexpected turns in the story that are meant to be absolute tearjerking moments. There are some heart-wrenching monlogues that give deep insight into the personal pain and struggles of these RTA members who are haunted by their pasts and either fear or have lost hope for what their future holds. The movie is filled with sensitive and poignant portrayals of how humanity and compassion can survive in prison.
All of the cast members give realistic and admirable performances, even though the “Sing Sing” movie has a much glossier depiction of Sing Sing prison life than what exists in reality. Perhaps this watered-down version of Sing Sing prison (where no one talks about racism/race relations, and violence in this prison is portrayed as almost non-existent) is meant to show that the RTA program was a “safe haven” for these Sing Sing residents. But a “safe haven” doesn’t have to be a “bubble” where filmmakers are afraid to have uncomfortable but realistic depictions of many harsh realities of prison life.
A24 released “Sing Sing” in select U.S. cinemas, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on August 2, 2024.