SONGS FROM THE HOLE Documentary

Screening to be followed by a conversation with director and producer Contessa Gayles, subject, writer and producer JJ’88, producer and music producer richie reseda moderated by filmmaker D’Lo Louis.

Documentary filmmaker and Emmy®-nominated producer Contessa Gayles (THE FEMINIST ON CELLBLOCK Y) peers inside the creative mind and emotional world of James “JJ‘88” Jacobs, a man who has been incarcerated since he was 15 years old. Twenty years after taking a life and subsequently losing his brother to gang violence, Jacobs collaborates with Gayles from behind the bars of California State Prison to record his deeply personal, original music. They bring to life the songs and music video concepts that Jacobs wrote while in “the hole,” a 6×6-foot solitary confinement cell, for nearly three months. With masterful editing that includes audio interviews with Jacobs recorded over prison phone calls and visual excerpts of his handwritten notes and lyrics, SONGS FROM THE HOLE is an innovative, singular blend of documentary and visual album that deservedly won the Visions Audience Award at SXSW earlier this year. –Julia Kipnis