With July behind us, many are beginning to look toward festival season, especially as many big festivals like Toronto, Venice, and New York have announced some or all of their slates. It’s been a relatively thin film year so far in terms of above-the-line awards contenders with sustained buzz.
Dune: Part Two has been the only legitimate contender from the first half of 2024 likely to garner double-digit nominations. So, it makes sense that the fall festivals bring more anticipation, with every awards category seemingly wide open.
Let’s hop back in time to last year’s Toronto International Film Festival to examine a major contender set for wide release on August 2, the brilliant, emotional, and powerful film Sing Sing, particularly looking at the direction of Greg Kwedar.
Working primarily as a producer over the last few years, Sing Sing marks Kwedar’s second feature film behind the camera, his follow-up to 2016’s Transpecos. The film stars recent Best Actor Nominee Colman Domingo (Rustin), Best Supporting Actor Nominee Paul Raci (The Sound of Metal), and a host of formerly incarcerated men who participated in the real Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program at the Sing Sing facility in New York, playing versions of themselves. The film follows these men throughout the production of a new play they will put on for their fellow inmates later in the year.
It would be easy for a film like this to simply be a star vehicle to propel someone like Colman Domingo to another Oscar nomination and perhaps a win, but Sing Sing is so much more than an acting spotlight for Domingo. The film is shot on 35mm film with a 1.66:1 aspect ratio, and these deliberate choices help Kwedar and crew display the surprising beauty that lives within and around the Sing Sing prison as well as honing in on the isolation and claustrophobic nature of being incarcerated. Kwedar uses these tight shots of our actors to remind us of their plight and the hopeless feeling that can come from years behind bars. This bleak, realistic look at the life of these prisoners doesn’t take away from the incredible shots Kwedar gets of the exterior and surrounding areas, particularly the view of the river that can be seen from one of the courtyards. Even in a desolate place, there are spots where these men can have a peaceful moment looking out into beautiful pieces of nature.
Greg Kwedar’s subtle direction in Sing Sing is just another of the film’s strong points. His ability to allow each scene to breathe and let the actors take over is something truly special in this film. In someone else’s hands, they could have chosen to be more indulgent with filmmaking decisions. Kwedar’s deliberate restraint and trust in others bring life into the film in a way that is rare to experience.
Oftentimes, directors are praised for achievements on the screen, but something to highlight with Kwedar’s work on Sing Sing is very much behind the scenes. The film was made collaboratively, even more so than the average film. It takes a lot of people to make any picture come together, but Kwedar made some incredibly equitable changes to allow each cast member and crew to have a legitimate stake in the production. They each owned a bit of the film and thus could take more ownership over decisions being made. It’s not just a job but a partnership between people above and below the line. It took a lot more work to make the film this way, as Kwedar and the team had to acquire independent financing instead of taking this story directly to a studio from the outset.
While the on-screen product may be attributed to the acting talent more than anything behind the camera, make no mistake that Greg Kwedar’s impact on this film is likely unable to be calculated. His willingness to trust a new model of filmmaking and bring in so many unknown actors is revolutionary in the industry and should be recognized by voting bodies of all kinds. Hopefully, Sing Sing will continue to find an audience and resonate with people as it opens to wider audiences. Greg Kwedar is given his flowers for steering the ship that led to such an emotionally and visually effective film.
