“Sing sing”, a feature film which follows the daily lives of inmates, broadcast in more than a thousand prisons

This is unprecedented, more than a million American prisoners were able to see this film whose story, inspired by real events, takes place in a prison center. Prisoners follow a theater rehabilitation program. A beautiful mise en abîme proposed by the A24 studio.

The movie Sing Sing will be released on January 29 in French cinemas. In the meantime, it was made accessible in the United States on January 17, to a million inmates and in almost all American states, it is simply unprecedented. “Sing Sing” is the name of a maximum security prison located north of New York. The story is inspired by real events that took place inside this prison. We follow the creation of a rehabilitation program through theater in which the prisoners participate. A beautiful mise-en-abyme proposed by the A24 studio, with this film broadcast in 500 cinemas and in 1,100 prisons across the country.

This idea is the result of a collaboration between A24 and the “Rehabilitation Through the Arts” program, the real NGO on which the film is based. And, with the help, for dissemination, of a third organization: Edovo. This is normally dedicated to the creation of educational programs on digital tablets which are available in more than a thousand prisons across the country. With this film, “we give these inmates an opportunity to see themselves in a story of resilience and transformation and to imagineassures the boss of Edovo, new possibilities for their own lives“.

It’s also a good publicity stunt for the film. A24 has carved out a good place for itself among the Hollywood juggernauts, notably thanks to viral marketing strategies, as for the film Everything Everywhere All at Oncewhich won seven Oscars in 2023. The hunt for awards is undoubtedly also the objective of this re-release of Sing Sing which only earned three million dollars at the box office in 2024. The film has since won a number of awards. The film’s lead actor, Colman Domingo, who plays a man wrongly imprisoned, is also considered one of the favorites for the Oscars.

That being said, this is not just a publicity stunt. Some of the actors in Sing Sing are former prisoners from the famous rehabilitation program. The feature film was also broadcast at the San Quentin festival, the first to be held in a prison environment. He was finally entitled to a preview at Sing Sing prison itself, with one caveat: the prison center which gave its name to the film is not part of the broadcast program launched on Friday.