I sat down to interview Taika Waititi to discuss a new film he EPs, a film that won Best Documentary at Tribeca, Jail Time Records.
We also interviewed the renowned British musician Rita Ora, who also EPs, as well as the doc’s audacious directors, producers, composers, and cinematographers, Steve Happi and Dione Roach.
Here’s the synopsis:
New Bell is one of the most overcrowded prisons in Africa, built for a capacity of 800 incarcerated individuals but now houses nearly 6,000 men. Inside the overpopulated prison is “Jail Time Records,” a music studio that serves as a creative hub as well as a therapeutic outlet for the men.
There’s a sweetness to it, burrowed in the sweltering danger of the pent-up fury of thousands of men stuck behind bars. There are many films where art is used as a method of mental salvation from prison, recently A24’s Sing Sing. However, this doc strips away the edifices and shows us the scars of the real.
Waititi was struck by the film’s poignancy and extreme creativity with limited resources. Ora was moved by the innovation in the music.
And these directors got a crash course in kill-your-darlings-type editing that birthed Jail Time Records.
Here’s a clip:
At the Tribeca Film Festival, Jail Time Records also won the Albert Maysles Award for Best New Documentary Director and Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature.
