Under the guidance of theater director Brent Buell, Divine G emerges as the star playwright and performer, highly respected for his emotional depth and acting talent.
Over the following weeks, the inmates engage in acting exercises led by Buell, designed to help them tap into their emotions.
The RTA group eventually performs a sample of the play for the prison's board of executives to gain approval for their production.
During a dress rehearsal, tensions rise as Divine G suffers a breakdown, having lost hope that the RTA program will make any difference in helping them.
In 2022, it was reported that Colman Domingo, Paul Raci, and Sean San José were cast and that they would act alongside former incarcerated actors, including Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin.
According to Maclin, the experience of acting in the film, along with his time in the prison and the transformative theater program, changed the course of his life.
"[16] In exchange for a percentage of equity, variating based on level of overall production involvement, all cast and crew agreed to be paid the same daily salary, thus ensuring a lower budget with increased profitability potential.
"[18] The three major filming locations were split between the decommissioned Downstate Correctional Facility and nearby Hudson Sports Complex, both of which doubled for different exteriors and interiors of the real Sing Sing prison, plus Beacon High School in Upstate New York, where the RTA theater productions were filmed.
"When we scouted the Downstate Correctional Facility, one of the things I found both impressive and oppressive, was the number of windows and the natural daylight coming through them", Scola recalled.
That element of tragedy – that you can see the world out there, but can't actually go and touch it, that the place was actually light and warm, and not bleakly lit with fluorescents – was really striking.
The taller nature of the 1.66:1 frame allowed us to create that kind of intimate portraiture, and we used the 25mm a great deal during production ...
The Ultra 16 lenses are small, simple and fast, typically T1.3, and give great optical performance on 16mm film.
[22] Adrian Quesada and Abraham Alexander wrote and performed the song "Like A Bird," which appears during the film's credits.
[23] Elaborating on the process of the biggest dramatic considerations he took while composing, Dessner explained: "The film itself has elements of documentary.
"[24] To promote the film, A24 offered free screenings hosted by Common, Stephanie Hsu, Liza Koshy, Natasha Lyonne, Bette Midler, the Brooklyn Nets and Gabrielle Union, in participating AMC Theatres from August 22 to 28.
[29] Edovo, a non-profit organization providing educational material to inmates, is set to begin streaming the film to participating prisons on January 17, in collaboration with A24 and RTA.
[2][3] In the United States, the film made $137,119 from four theaters (located in Los Angeles and New York) in its opening weekend (July 12–14), for a per-screen-average of $34,279.
"[38] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
"[43] Other filmmakers, including Tim Fehlbaum, William Goldenberg, Nicole Holofcener and Daniel Scheinert also praised the film.