00:00It's a very conscious thing for me to show, to support, to amplify tenderness,
00:08especially when it comes to the way we view black and brown men,
00:11because the world is set up in a different way believing that we're not tender.
00:15To sleep.
00:20To sleep.
00:23Perchance to dream high.
00:26There's the rub.
00:27Hi, I'm Coleman Domingo.
00:29And I'm Greg Cuidar, the director of Sing Sing.
00:31And this is Notes on a Scene.
00:33It sure is.
00:34The program at the center of this movie is Rehabilitation Through the Arts,
00:37a program in New York that has been putting on theater productions,
00:41started at Sing Sing in 1996, and they've been putting on theater
00:44productions inside these maximum security facilities.
00:47This scene, what did you call the scene?
00:49Taking the stage.
00:50Taking the stage.
00:51And this is when Clarence Divine-Eye Macklin, playing a version of himself,
00:55is actually taking the stage and going through a rehearsal.
00:58And he's learning sort of like how to do it,
01:00and being coached by Brent Buell, played by Paul Racey.
01:04And he's having some troubles, you know, as a newbie actor, right?
01:08Okay, you want to take that again?
01:11Why, did I do something wrong?
01:12No, no, no, we're just working at it.
01:14But I'll tell you what, let's try something here.
01:17Paul here, as Brent Buell, is trying to encourage Divine-Eye to take the stage,
01:24like to really take ownership and stepping on.
01:26And he's saying something really meaningful,
01:29but I don't think he knows how to say the deeper thing that only Coleman can as Divine-G.
01:35And this is also a point in a movie that we've seen,
01:38we've probably seen this scene before in a lot of movies,
01:40where the teacher like encourages the student.
01:43Yeah, we don't want to suffer those tropes of like, you know, white savior.
01:46And that's not what's happening here.
01:47It's like he's just the person who comes on and helps ignite and encourage as well.
01:51I want to see you come on the stage with Hamlet's, you're in Hamlet's world,
01:55and you're bringing that all the way to your mark, and then you say you're lying.
01:57Let's try it.
01:58A big part of like how we decided to frame a lot of this movie
02:02is about the power of what happens when you draw close.
02:04When you bring the camera and actually look someone in the eyes
02:08and hear their stories and like the kind of many stories that a face can tell.
02:12And a lot of our movie lives in a lot of these close-ups.
02:19To be...
02:20Hold up, did you do it?
02:21Because we all fell asleep.
02:23Oh!
02:25I've known Clarence Devine-I-Macklin for eight years.
02:29He was one of the first people Clint and I met when we started to learn about the program.
02:33And he's one of those people you, you know, you feel almost before they walk in the room.
02:38He has this immense presence.
02:40And part of that is like charisma.
02:43And he also has a light, you know, that emanates from him.
02:46But he's also, he's a very deep human as well.
02:49He's very intelligent.
02:50He's constantly curious.
02:52Like, you know, he's out of his comfort zone in many ways doing his first film.
02:56But he was learning every single time and watching and figuring it out.
03:00And by the time he got here, his subtlety just shone so much
03:04to know that he didn't have to play to the balcony because he was used to the theater.
03:09So he was able to distill and learn all the relationships of camera.
03:14I think he's always had that as a performer.
03:16He's a sponge.
03:17I saw you walk out here like a man who's asking this audience for permission to be here.
03:21This is the theater rehearsal space.
03:24And I wish you could just see like above this.
03:26There are these vaulted sort of wood ceilings.
03:29And when you walk into this room, it takes your breath away.
03:32And contrasted with the actual prison environment that's surrounded by like miles of razor wire.
03:37This space here was safe.
03:40And it was a place that you could really express yourself.
03:42Who's this guy?
03:44That is James Biggie Williams.
03:46That's Mosey Eagle.
03:48Why don't you say who that is?
03:49This is my best friend, Sean San Jose, who's a phenomenal actor.
03:52We've known each other for 30 years.
03:54And I knew he needed to go on this journey with us.
03:56Who's this gorgeous, stunning gentleman?
04:00King.
04:01King Coleman.
04:02King Coleman Dominguez.
04:03He needs a bow tie as well.
04:06And who's that?
04:07This is Sean Dino Johnson.
04:08Gosh, that guy has so much heart.
04:10Take the stage and say, hey, it's time to start paying attention to me.
04:15You have to show.
04:16Brent.
04:16Yes, chief.
04:17Do you mind if I?
04:18Please.
04:19The process of doing this work is transformative on almost every level.
04:24And the proof is really in the pudding.
04:26Like in the recidivism rate of people going back to prison within five years of their release is over 60%.
04:32And graduates of this program, three here in front of us, less than 3% ever go back inside.
04:403% recidivism rate, which is astounding compared to the 60%.
04:46Mm-hmm.
04:46That's the norm.
04:49So this program is a program that works.
04:51The world expects brothers like you and I, all these brothers to walk in with our heads held down,
04:56you know, apologizing for being there.
04:58Nah, what you got to walk in is like a motherfucking king.
05:02Like you own all this shit.
05:04Everything is yours.
05:06In November of 2021, I was sitting with a notebook and finally had this clarity to center
05:11the story of putting on this play between a friendship between the real Divine G and Divine I.
05:15And this treatment just kind of fell out in about 10 minutes.
05:18And at the very end of it, I just wrote Colman Domingo as Divine G.
05:23What did you say?
05:24Am I working Zola?
05:25And you thought that and I'm talking to you.
05:26I own this fucking theater.
05:28This is my fucking theater.
05:29I own this bitch.
05:30I own all this shit.
05:32That's it.
05:32Yeah, yeah.
05:33Now give him some love, give him some love.
05:35All right, all right, that's it.
05:36All right, now what's your emotional state?
05:38What's underneath?
05:39My character had to meet Divine I's character where he lives,
05:45like he lives in this other very sort of raw place.
05:47And so I had to make it more accessible and make him understand,
05:50oh, this is still your experience.
05:52You can take what your life experience is and apply it to Shakespeare.
05:56At the center for me, I think that this film ultimately is about brotherhood
05:59because they're looking after each other in every single way
06:02and making sure that they're helping each other find access to
06:05whether it's their emotions, to feelings, to advocating for their own liberation.
06:10They're in this place doing the work.
06:12And because the system is not set up for that to happen,
06:16but they're taking ownership and really just like, you know,
06:19finding the light in their lives.
06:20So I thought, what a beautiful message.
06:22And I want to be a part of messages like that
06:23and these complex representations of black and brown men.
06:28Mad as a motherfucker.
06:29Okay, no, no, no, okay.
06:31Anger is the easiest thing to play.
06:33Am I right, Brett?
06:35Too easy.
06:36What's more complicated is to play hurt.
06:39I think this is a tool for life, actually, what's being said right here.
06:43The fact that you're saying anger is easy, but to play hurt is more complicated.
06:48Again, I think the thing that I learned and we all learned from
06:51even studying RTA and the purpose of how theater plays in this
06:56is you're giving people life tools as well.
06:58You're saying, oh, okay, wait, I'm not angry.
07:00Actually, I feel more complicated emotions than that.
07:03People who are learning this stuff in these theater games, rehearsals,
07:07it's very unconscious that they're actually applying this to their own lives
07:11and making them think differently about their own feelings.
07:14That's why I think a program like RTA is so important
07:16and how it works and how theater works, period.
07:19That helps you name the thing.
07:21All right, let's try that.
07:23You know, we also shot this movie,
07:25Beautifully Lens by Pat Skola on Super 16 film.
07:28There's a very conscious choice for that
07:30because this is a movie about all the richness that comes from the earth,
07:35from being grounded in the earth,
07:36and to shoot on an actual physical medium like film,
07:38I think really helped us sing.
07:41We shot our movie in two halves.
07:43The first half were in more formal incarcerated spaces,
07:48like the yard, the cell block.
07:50We were shooting in a decommissioned prison
07:52that closed a month before we went in there.
07:54We were only in there for 10 hours a day.
07:55It wasn't active anymore, but you still feel the oppression.
08:00The heat, the lack of ventilation, the ghosts in the walls,
08:03how it's just a constant maze,
08:05like to go down one stairwell to only go up another,
08:07and then you have no idea where you are.
08:09When we finally kind of left that in our rear view
08:12and came into the theater, we were just flying.
08:14Yeah.
08:15From the top.
08:15There you go, Brent.
08:20There's little moments like this to see one hand going out
08:23and seeing this big strapping man grab his hand as well,
08:28applauding what's happening with this brother,
08:30that, okay, good, he got the lesson.
08:34Those small moments and gestures of camaraderie,
08:36I think, are very important.
08:37Yeah, man, a big key word that you helped us find was tender.
08:42I mean, that's a simple gesture of that,
08:44but the fingerprints of that are all over this film.
08:48It's a very conscious thing for me to show,
08:52to support, to amplify tenderness,
08:56especially when it comes to the way we view black and brown men,
09:00because the world is set up in a different way,
09:02believing that we're not tender,
09:03to deconstruct and smash tropes of hypermasculinity
09:08and to show that, hey, these brothers,
09:10because it's what I witnessed.
09:11I have friends, we call each other,
09:12hey, beautiful king, how you doing?
09:14Because we need to hear that,
09:16because the world is telling us we're something else.
09:18So I think in a space like this,
09:21where these men have sought tenderness out with each other,
09:25because it is tender to do theater,
09:27to express yourself, to express your,
09:29to be vulnerable with each other,
09:31especially in a place that is set up to be dangerous, actually.
09:35Like the yard, but bigger.
09:40I'm divine, fucking not.
09:42Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:44I hope people recognize the human potential behind these walls.
09:49There's a line that Paul Racey says,
09:52who would have thought that the healing of the world
09:55will begin right here behind these walls of Sing Sing?
09:58It's one of the most potent lines to me,
10:01because it says a lot.
10:02It says that, could you even imagine
10:04that the healing we're doing here
10:06with all obstacles against us,
10:08this radical love that's happening for self,
10:12for healing, for rehabilitation is happening here.
10:15Just imagine what we take out into the world.
10:18If we can do it, the rest of the world surely can.
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