‘Sing Sing’ to Screen at the New York State Legislature with Formerly Incarcerated Actor Q&A

The critically acclaimed true story “Sing Sing” will now have a political presence, thanks to a special screening at the New York State Legislature.

IndieWire can announce that the Gotham Award-winning feature starring Colman Domingo will screen at the New York State Legislature at an event organized by assembly members Phara Souffrant Forrest, Emily Gallagher and Zohran Mamdani, State Senator Julia Salazar, non-profit Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), and studio A24. 

The event will take place Monday, January 13. After the screening, formerly incarcerated actors Clarence Maclin, Sean “Dino” Johnson, Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velasquez, and John “Divine G” Whitfield (whom Domingo portrays in the feature) will participate in a Q&A. Velasquez was recently exonerated after a wrongful murder conviction was overturned following his 24 years behind bars. 

Maclin won the Gotham Award for Outstanding Supporting Performance, with Domingo also winning for Outstanding Lead Performance.

“Sing Sing” is directed by Greg Kwedar, and centers on Sing Sing inmate Divine G (Domingo), who is imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. Divine G rediscovers his will to live by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men, including a wary newcomer (Maclin).

“Sing Sing” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and later won the Audience Award at SXSW. It opened in theaters in July 2024. The feature will be re-released in theaters nationwide starting January 17.

The New York State Legislature screening with Rehabilitation Through the Arts highlights the central message of the film about the potential of rehabilitation and artistic expression as tools for change inside the prison system. The lawmakers who organized the event are pushing for increase of the availability of programs such as Rehabilitation Through the Arts, as well as policies like Treatment Not Jail which would provide alternatives to incarceration.

The “Sing Sing” screening on January 13 is occurring one month after the brutal lynching of Robert Brooks by the staff at Marcy Correctional Facility. The event and panel, according to A24, is “an opportunity to highlight the sponsors’ commitment to reducing the number of people held in the New York prison system, ending staff violence against incarcerated individuals, and holding the system accountable for human rights violations against incarcerated people.”

“Sing Sing” isn’t the only Oscar frontrunner about incarceration to have a special screening: Smriti Mundhra’s MTV Documentary Films Oscars Shortlist contender “I Am Ready, Warden” will screen for free at more than 250 U.S. law schools from January 11 to January 18. The short film tells the story of John Henry Ramirez, a man convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Texas. The documentary captures Ramirez’s days on death row.