Sing Sing

Sing Sing | 2023 | 15 | Dir. Greg Kwedar | US | IMDb 7.6 | English | 107 mins

“We here to become human again, and enjoy the things that is not in our reality.”

It is arguably understandable to suppose at first glance that it would be easy to spot the differences between professional and non-professional actors in a cast that combines them, to question the likelihood of any one particular prison drama being notably different from most others, and therefore to wonder whether your Committee may have taken its collective eye off the ball with this one.

Hailed as one of the top ten films out in 2024 by the American Film Institute, nominated for three BAFTAs including Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, and for three Oscars including Best Actor, the critically-acclaimed Sing Sing is a film to dispel such misgivings if ever there was one.

Colman Domingo stars as the real-life John “Divine G” Whitfield, wrongfully incarcerated in New York’s notorious maximum security facility for a crime he did not commit.  Domingo is joined in the cast by a group of men, all former inmates, playing themselves and together telling the story of their participation in the institution’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts program during their imprisonment.

It does not all run smoothly, of course.  There is rivalry, doubt, mistrust and cynicism, not only from and amongst the participants but also the members of the parole board who themselves must be persuaded of the value and worth of the program and the question of whether it can or has achieved its rehabilitative aims.

Featuring a cameo appearance by the real Divine G interacting with Domingo as he portrays him, and concluding with genuine footage of RTA productions at Sing Sing in which the men appeared whilst serving their time there, this is a compelling and ultimately uplifting biographical drama, a triumph of hope over despair and a testament to the endurance of the human spirit.

·       Screen 5

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·       Welcome from our chair Paula Stott @ 7.30pm

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·       Unreserved seating

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