It’s Hollywood in the hoosegow!
The inaugural San Quentin Film Festival this fall will present movies inside the old California state prison and all the movies will be by or about convicts.
The Oct. 10 festival aims to “normalize the inclusion of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people in the entertainment industry,” organizers wrote on the festival’s event page.
Awards and prizes will be given in the categories of best short narrative film and best short documentary film, judged by a film industry jury. For those categories, only ex-convicts or current prisoners with a screen credit as a director, producer, writer or photography director will be eligible to submit entries.
Each film in these two categories must be under 10 minutes long, according to festival rules.
In addition, a third category, representing feature-length movies made about the prison system and life in prison by people who have never served time, will be judged by a jury of prisoners.
Only films that have not been released to the general public are eligible to be judged. Closed English captioning is also required for all entries.
Among the films being entered is “Sing Sing,” which stars Oscar nominee Colman Domingo and a cast of actors who were formerly in prison, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The movie centers on a group of prisoners at the eponymous New York prison putting on a theater production.
The co-director of the festival, Rahsaan Thomas, is a former San Quentin inmate and filmmaker who learned his new trade while behind bars.
“I learned to become a filmmaker while I was incarcerated, using donated equipment. My experience happened through opportunities that rarely come to incarcerated people. That’s why I’m committed to making this opportunity available to others,” Thomas told the newspaper.
Though the festival is in its inaugural year, the California prison is accustomed to the star treatment.
In 1969, singer-songwriter Johnny Cash recorded his second live album, “Johnny Cash at San Quentin,” inside the prison in front of an audience of inmates.