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Parole Prep
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TYPE: Documentary Feature
GENRE: Documentary
STATUS: Pre-Production
LOGLINE
PAROLE PREP is an intimate look at the American parole system, exposing racial prejudices and inequities mirrored in the justice system and society at large.
SYNOPSIS
PAROLE PREP is an intimate look at the American parole system, exposing racial prejudices and inequities mirrored in the justice system and society. Interweaving stories of activists, incarcerated people, and academics investigating parole — it’s discovered parole further oppresses the under-privileged and marginalized citizens; condemning thousands to die behind bars.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
PAROLE PREP will humanize and empathize with people serving long or life sentences in prison. This is a group who is all too often left out of media portrayals of prison or reduced to caricature. The style and structure of the film will aim to give voice to these groups. The driving force in the film are the journeys of the people in prison, their families and the activists helping them seek their release. This story will be told in an intimate verite style that sees the parole system through their eyes. Cameras will be with them at private moments at home, in prison visitation rooms, and at public protests as they seek justice. This highly personal perspective of the justice system will be augmented with cinematic footage of prisons to illustrate the imposing and cruel environment that shapes their lives as well as archival footage to tell the historical backstory of the parole system. To capture the socially distanced reality our characters must navigate to apply for release during COVID-19, the film will use Zoom conversations, phone call recordings, and self-recording iphone footage to show how these characters struggle to navigate the byzantine parole process while isolated. Archival footage treated with immersive effects, will provide historical and social context. These elements will be interwoven to create a style that is deeply personal and epic in scope.
KEY CREW
Ricki Stern - Director/Executive Producer
Ricki Stern is an Emmy-nominated documentary film director, producer and writer. Her films have aired on Netflix, AMC, PBS, National Geographic, Showtime, History Channel, IFC, HBO and ESPN. Ricki is the executive producer and director of a new Netflix 6-part series called Surviving Death, exploring the potential for life after death (streaming Fall 2020). Ricki is the director and executive producer of the Emmy-nominated Joan Rivers A Piece Of Work, (Sundance Film Festival award winner 2010, IFC FILMS, Showtime). Ricki and her filmmaking partner Annie Sundberg are the directors and producers of the 5-part series AMC/Sundance’s Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park. She has co-directed and co-produced with her film partner Sundberg, Emmy-nominated REVERSING ROE (Telluride Int. FF, Netflix), MARATHON: The Patriots Day Bombing (HBO 2016 – winner Best Doc Woodstock FF), IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE (Showtime 2015, Tribeca FF, Winner Best Doc Nashville FF & Bentonville FF), KNUCKLEBALL! (Showtime 2012), BURMA SOLDIER (HBO 2011), and Emmy-nominated THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK (Sundance Film Festival, HBO 2007, Gotham Award nominee, Best Int. Film Brit Docs). Ricki co-directed and co-produced the Emmy-nominated THE TRIALS OF DARYL HUNT, (Sundance, HBO 2006, winner of over 30 film awards including Independent Spirit nominee) about a man who spent 20 years in prison for a brutal rape/murder he did not commit. Ricki and Annie, have been recognized with A Lifetime Achievement Award from Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, the Best Female Filmmakers Award-San Diego Film Festival, and The Best Female Filmmakers Award-St. Louis FF.
Jesse Sweet - Director/Executive Producer
Jesse Sweet (director) is a two-time Emmy-winning director and producer who is co-executive producer of SURVIVING DEATH, Netflix’s upcoming 6-part documentary series about the possibility of life after death, and he directed 2 documentaries of the upcoming 6-part Netflix series BUSINESS OF DRUGS, which explores global narco-trafficking through an economics lens. He recently directed and produced the independent feature documentary CITY OF JOEL (2019), a 4-year-in-the-works documentary about a small-town political battle in upstate New York between an ultra-orthodox Hasidic sect and their secular neighbors. Previous work includes directing two episodes of PARTS UNKNOWN WITH ANTHONY BOURDAIN (CNN 2018), an episode of ENHANCED (ESPN 2017) executive produced/written by Alex Gibney, which premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival and examines how science is changing the world of sports, an installment of the capital punishment investigative series DEATH ROW STORIES (CNN 2016) which is narrated by Susan Sarandon and executive produced by Robert Redford, three episodes of the climate change series YEARS OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (Showtime, 2014), which won the Emmy for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary Series. He directed THIS EMOTIONAL LIFE (PBS 2010), a NOVA special that followed people struggling with emotional problems — from a dissolving marriage to orphans coping with attachment disorders and uses neuroscience to better understand their struggles, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s FINDING YOUR ROOTS (2011) and AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES (PBS 2008.)
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