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Nine
TYPE: Documentary Feature
GENRE: Documentary
STATUS: Post-Production
LOGLINE
Nine is a poetic verité film chronicling Gerald and his father figure Henry who forged a powerful relationship in the harshest of environments. Now, Gerald is on a mission to bring his 83-year-old “Pops” home from prison while there’s still time.
SYNOPSIS
Nine is a timeless story about finding hope in the harshest of environments. Despite meeting in a punitive system designed to break them, Gerald and Henry forged a beautiful, loving relationship. Illuminating how love can serve as an act of resistance, Nine is both a necessary portrait of Black life in the American Northwest and a poetic meditation on family, community, and masculinity.
In this contemplative, immersive documentary, we see two men’s parallel lives unfold, separated by generations and bound together by experience. Gerald was a loud, rebellious teenager when—soon after traveling across the country to find his birth mother—he was sent to prison for life. He was only 5’6” and 135 pounds.
And then Gerald met Henry, a middle aged man who quietly commanded respect. Henry wasn’t able to physically be there as his biological children grew up, so he turned his focus towards raising the young men around him. Gerald, who never knew his biological father, gravitated towards the older man, who everyone—even the guards—called Mr. Grisby. The two quickly became inseparable. That relationship, forged decades ago, serves as the narrative heartbeat of the film as Gerald races against the clock to free his 83-year-old “Pops” from prison.
With quiet attention to details, Nine feels like a cinematic poem. In moments small and large, the film builds a beautiful, lyrical world that explores the resilience and joy that can be found in our most cherished relationships.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
Nine is a confluence of a visual essay, mood piece, and activist film. It draws inspiration from eclectic sources including Shaunak Sen, Terrence Malick, and Laura Poitras. As a highly observational, verité film commenting on systems, Nine is indebted to the work of Frederick Wiseman. Yet the film ultimately draws more stylistic and thematic inspiration from the works of Barry Jenkins, focusing on quiet interpersonal relationships set against the backdrop of systemic forces.
Nine has a distinct, formalist visual style. The film embraces negative space and shadows, building rich skin tones, and revealing details within the darkness. Drawing inspiration from All That Breathes, the film sits patiently on long takes. The present is filmed anamorphic, with still wide shots emphasizing the enormity of the structures Gerald and Henry are up against and the designed isolation of the prison, court, and legislative buildings. During Gerald’s public addresses, the camera frames the back of his head, harkening back to iconic photos of the Civil Rights era and building on the lineage of films like Primary and Selma. We linger on frames, letting our participants block their own actions and even leave and re-enter the frame. We push in incrementally on these composed frames, drawing the viewer into the scene with Gerald, highlighting the emotional intensity of the moment. As Gerald fights for Henry’s release, he is often blocked within the frame, entrapped by larger systemic forces. We break out of these still wide shots when Gerald and Henry are together. There, close-ups draw attention to the emotional connection between Gerald and Henry—the heart of the story—and the weight of history on both men. When Henry is released, the camera is released from its constraints, flowing with the men as they explore the world outside.
Abstract visual memories interrupt the present, bringing us into Gerald’s internal world and exploring the claustrophobia and violence of institutional spaces. Smooth dolly shots glide slowly through the long tunnel underneath the prison like we are in a dream, mimicking the ephemeral tone of memory. Some moments feel like endless liminal spaces—others are enclosed with barely any room to breathe. Filmed in 4:3, these visual memories draw attention to the ways in which Gerald’s world was boxed in by systemic brutality and explore how trauma lives on in the body. As visual motifs, the images create a sense of mystery early on in the story, with their meaning slowly revealed over the course of the film.
The emphasis on stylistic execution is one of the things that sets Nine apart from other documentaries. The artistic language of the film, the nuance of the scene playing out, and the deliberate, slow pacing is reminiscent of a scripted indie narrative. With our detailed attention to cinematic style, Nine will demonstrate the artistic power of documentary, expanding the boundaries of the form.
KEY CREW
Jeremy Levine - Director/Producer
Jeremy S. Levine’s films explore the complexity of relationships between parents and their children—specifically the ways in which families fight for better futures against vast systemic forces. His films are extremely personal stories that explore macro issues of race and justice. An Emmy award-winning filmmaker and two-time Sundance Institute fellow, his work has screened at over one hundred film festivals around the world including the Berlinale, Tribeca, and Sundance, streamed on Netflix, Amazon, Sundance Now, Starz, and Hulu, broadcast nationally in nine countries, and received over 20 festival awards. His last feature documentary, For Ahkeem, is a love story set against the backdrop of the Ferguson uprising and the school-to-prison pipeline. For Ahkeem played as an official selection of over 60 film festivals where it won 10 awards, including 8 “Best Documentary Awards.” The film was named in Top 10 Lists by both Entertainment Weekly and People and was included on the “Unforgettables” List by the Cinema Eye Honors, a list that IndieWire wrote “helped to define documentary cinema in 2017.” Levine directed The Panola Project, a 2022 Sundance official selection. In 2006, Levine co-founded the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, a community of professional filmmakers dedicated to collaboration and mutual support.
Rachael DeCruz - Director/Producer
Rachael DeCruz’s work centers on how familial and community bonds fortify people to push back against racist systems. DeCruz’s first film, The Panola Project, was an official selection of over 35 festivals, including Sundance, Hot Docs, and the DOC NYC Shortlist. The short film illuminates how an often-overlooked rural Black community came together in creative ways to survive the pandemic. The film received 12 festival awards, including the Oscar-qualifying Best Documentary Short Award at the Florida Film Festival, and was released with The New Yorker, featured on MSNBC's The Last Word and Morning Joe and highlighted in over 50 publications. Following the film’s release, Dr. Fauci said Dorothy’s work served as a model for the country and Dorothy received a letter of thanks from Kamala Harris. DeCruz is the former Chief of Staff at Race Forward, the country’s largest multiracial racial justice nonprofit and was the Communications Chair of the Seattle King County NAACP for over five years. Nine is her directorial feature debut.
Rajal Pitroda - Producer
Rajal Pitroda is a producer of fiction and non-fiction films. She is a Women at Sundance Fellow, an Impact Partners Producers Fellow, a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow and a Firelight Media Impact Producing Fellow. Rajal most recently produced Down a Dark Stairwell, a feature documentary that premiered at the 2020 True/False Film Festival and was broadcast on Independent Lens. Her work has been supported by Women in Film, Black Public Media, Chicken and Egg Pictures, the Tribeca Film Institute, SFFILM and others. Prior to producing, Pitroda was the Founder of Cinevention, a media company where she designed and executed marketing and distribution strategies for feature films. Pitroda started her career in film working in international marketing for Bollywood movies based in Mumbai. She has a degree in Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from London Business School.
Gerald Hankerson - Co-Producer
Gerald Hankerson is the former President of the NAACP State Area Conference for Alaska, Oregon, and Washington and the Seattle King County NAACP. He is a community leader that is passionate about criminal justice reform, economic justice, and empowering youth. In 2009, after nearly 23 years in prison, Hankerson was granted clemency. He quickly gained local and national recognition for his ability to develop and assist in implementing social justice policies. Hankerson currently works for the Mayor of Seattle.
Nicolas Abaunza - Cinematographer
As a cinematographer, Abaunza’s passion for visual storytelling has driven him to constantly seek new ways to bring unique and evocative perspectives to his projects. He has a particular interest in using light and color to create mood and atmosphere, and is always experimenting with new techniques. In 2023, he won 10 cinematography awards for the short film Trail. In recent years, Abaunza has focused his efforts on creating documentary films that tackle important social issues and shed light on overlooked stories.
Fahd Ahmed - Editor
Fahd Ahmed is an editor and producer who grew up between Bradford and London. He is the founder and creative director of Studio Amorem, a studio based in East London. Ahmed was the producer on the leading multi-series Arab Ramadan show, Kannak Tarah. He has edited for the BBC and was a story editor on the PBS-funded 3-part docuseries, A Town Called Victoria. Ahmed was an editing fellow in the Gotham Edit Lab, Close-Up Initiative Edit Lab as well as the Sundance Story and Edit Lab. He recently completed his first feature doc – Q (Jude Chehab, 2023) – on which he served as both editor and co-producer. Q has been awarded the Albert Maysles Best New Documentary Director Award (Tribeca 2023) and the Grand Jury New International First Feature Award (Sheffield Docfest 2023).
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