On its face, “Sing Sing,” the new based-on-a-true-story film starring Colman Domingo, is about an unconventional theater program inside the notorious maximum security prison of the same name. But “Sing Sing” is about much more for Domingo, who plays the wrongly accused inmate John Whitfield (a.k.a. Divine G). 

“It’s really about showing the humanity of people,” he tells BET.com, “and what the human spirit can do.” 

Filmed at breakneck speed under 18 days in a decommissioned prison, the movie tells the story of its Rehabilitation Through the Arts program, in effect since 1996, and how its handful of participants––all of whom are real former participants who’ve since been released––use it to heal. Interestingly, “Sing Sing” doesn’t offer much insight or dwell on how most inmates landed in prison––a refreshing narrative choice that lets viewers focus more on who they are as people rather than whatever choices they might’ve made. As we see in the movie, the program gives the performers hope, purpose, and an outlet for expression in the most restrictive place imaginable––a way of channeling their creativity and personhood in a place that’s very intentional about making everyone behave the same, especially Black and brown people, who are overrepresented in the industrial prison system. 

“It shows how a person can find art and how it can save them, help them find tools that they didn't know that they needed to actually do a true rehabilitation,” Domingo says. 

“Sing Sing” heats up when, in the throes of a new production, a new inmate arrives––Clarence Maclin, who plays himself. Unlike the others who’ve participated in the program for years, Maclin, a.k.a. Divine Eye, is closed off emotionally, skeptical, and unwilling to open up emotionally––so much so that animosity brews between him and the more sensitive, serious actor Divine G. Yet as preparation for the production intensifies, we see Divine Eye learning how to open up and let his guard down. Divine, and Divine G. learned from Divine Eye to be more authentic about his own pain, frustrations, and hurts he’d been masking through acting. “There are  all these tropes that we suffer from under toxic masculinity,” he says, “and the thing that I know to be real are the friendships that I have with brothers that are actually tender and gentle and understanding. I think if we show more depictions of men helping each other, supporting each other, even being in conflict at times with each other, I think that changes people's perceptions in the world about us.”

Domingo shot the film on breaks between “The Color Purple” and “Rustin.” “I will say the whole thing was challenging to shoot,” he says. “I had to go to some more raw emotions, and places that are not as polished, because that was the nature of the film. I had a different expectation on my own work. I wanted to lend it my all because I felt like these stories matter so much.” 

Particularly at a time when there’s more dialogue around rehabilitation as opposed to merely locking people away, Domingo hopes people who’d criticize programs like these as a luxury incarcerated people shouldn't have will have a better understanding of the real impact arts can have. Better still, he hopes naysayers might soften their hearts, look at the bigger picture, and ask themselves bigger questions. “What kind of society do we want to live in?” he says. “Do we believe in punishment, or do we believe in doing the work of transforming society, communities and families?” 

“I think for us to see images of Black and brown men who are trying to get tools and to be better, and to see a program that is truly working–– that is the real work of rehabilitation. Being more humane.”

“Sing Sing” opens in New York and Los Angeles on July 12 and nationwide on Aug. 2, 2024.