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'Sing Sing', Based On Events In Hudson Valley, First Film Shown In Prisons, Theaters: Report

A movie based on a theater program at a maximum security prison in the Hudson Valley is making history by becoming the first film to be screened in prisons across the country, according to a report by The Hollywood Reporter. 

"Sing Sing," based on the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in the Northern Westchester village of Ossining, will again be released in theaters on Friday, Jan. 17. On this same day, it will also be shown inside correctional facilities in 46 states, including New York, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

This is made possible thanks to a collaboration between the film's distributor, A24, Rehabilitation Through the Arts, and a nonprofit called Edovo that makes curricula for inmates accessed through tablet computers, the outlet reported. 

The Hollywood Reporter also reported a quote from Edovo CEO Brian Hill explaining the decision: "With Sing Sing, we’re giving incarcerated individuals an opportunity to see themselves in a story of resilience and transformation, and to feel inspired to imagine new possibilities for their own lives." 

Click here to read the full report from The Hollywood Reporter. 

The film, originally released by A24 on Friday, July 12, 2024, follows an inmate named Divine G (played by Colman Domingo) who joins a theatre group with fellow prisoners after being imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he did not commit.  

Wikimedia Commons/Brett Weinstein (Nrbelex)

The movie was made to show the positive impact that the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program had. To do so, it goes as far as to enlist several real-life alumni of the program and former inmates as cast members. 

In addition to being based on events at Sing Sing, the movie also has another connection to New York: it was filmed at the decommissioned Downstate Correctional Facility in the Dutchess County town of Fishkill; the Hudson Sports Complex in the Orange County village of Warwick; and Beacon High School in Dutchess County. 

If you're interested in seeing it once it's re-released, you'll have to go to a theater; it was never digitally released or put on streaming platforms after its first release in Summer 2024, according to reports. 

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