LATEST FILMS – NOW PLAYING ON HBO
O.G. (2019)
O.G. follows Louis (Jeffrey Wright), once the head of a prominent prison gang, in the final weeks of his 24-year sentence. His impending release is upended when he takes new arrival Beecher (Theothus Carter), who is being courted by gang leadership, under his wing. Coming to grips with the indelibility of his crime and the challenge of reentering society, Louis finds his freedom hanging in the balance as he struggles to save Beecher. Groundbreaking in being filmed at an actual prison, with many of the men incarcerated there cast in acting roles, O.G. takes an intimate and unflinching look at the journey of one man at the precipice of freedom.​
The film premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, where Wright won the award for Best Actor in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film. Theothus Carter and William Fichtner also star.
IT'S A HARD TRUTH AIN'T IT (2019)
Filmed at Indiana’s Pendleton Correctional Facility during the same production period as HBO film O.G., It’s a Hard Truth Ain’t It follows 13 incarcerated men as they study filmmaking as a vehicle to explore their memories and how they ended up with decades-long sentences. Several of those 13 men were also cast as first-time actors in O.G., and all of them directed It’s a Hard Truth Ain’t It alongside O.G. director Madeleine Sackler. Animated sequences by Yoni Goodman bring their stories to life.
The documentary premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival along with O.G. The co-directors are:
PREVIOUS WORKS
DANGEROUS ACTS STARRING THE UNSTABLE ELEMENTS OF BELARUS (2013)
Comprised of smuggled footage and uncensored interviews, DANGEROUS ACTS gives audiences a front row seat to a resistance movement as it unfolds both on the stage and in the streets. As the members of the Free Theater confront the choice of either repression at home or exile in the US and the UK, DANGEROUS ACTS reconfirms our belief that the power of art and hope can indeed change the world. DANGEROUS ACTS won the 2015 News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Arts and Cultural Programming.
DUKE 91 & 92: BACK TO BACK (2012)
Former Duke All-Americans Grant Hill and Christian Laettner are teaming up once again, this time with Turner Sports, to offer viewers an inside look at one of the most-storied college basketball programs in the history of the game. The documentary will revisit 1991 and 1992, when the Blue Devils became the first school to win back-to-back National Championships in nearly 20 years.
THE LOTTERY (2010)
Four children enter a high-stakes lottery. If they win, they can attend one of the best schools in New York. A look at the crisis in public education, THE LOTTERY makes the case than any child can succeed. THE LOTTERY is a 2010 documentary that uncovers the failures of the traditional public school system and reveals that hundreds of thousands of parents attempt to flee the system every year. THE LOTTERY is Madeleine Sackler's first film. It helped to spark a renewed debate on the future of public education and was short-listed for the 2011 Academy Awards.