Dallas Screenwriter Clint Bentley's Emotional Journey to Sing Sing

In his new movie Sing Sing, screenwriter Clint Bentley recreates the story of a group of prisoners seeking redemption and rehabilitation through the arts: The prisoners of the namesake Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York put on their own production of Breakin' the Mummy's Code and find purpose through the love of theater.

Having grown up on a cattle ranch in Florida, Bentley often found solace in film.

“We only had like three channels on TV,” he says, “and my mom was a big movie lover, and so we just constantly had a stream of VHS tapes from Movie Gallery [video store] that we would rent, and I just watched whatever she was watching, in addition to the kids' movies that I watched.”

Bentley, who has lived in Dallas for the past nine years, first tried his hand at filmmaking while studying at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. Much of his student work came in the form of documentaries, but he felt inspired to take on other forms of storytelling while visiting Texas.

“I just remember the first time I filmed some windmills in West Texas at sunset and put music to it as part of a montage in a short documentary,” Bentley says. “There was just some feeling that came from it that couldn't be explained any other way. And I was like, ‘I want to do more of this. I want to get more of that out there.’”

It was around the time Bentley moved to Dallas that he began working on Sing Sing. He was inspired to tell the story after the film’s director, Greg Kwedar, came across an Esquire article about Sing Sing and its Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program. Many of the subjects of the 2005 article — including Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin, Jon-Adrian "JJ" Velazquez and David "Dap" Giraudy — play themselves in the movie. It also stars Oscar nominee Colman Domingo, known for star-making turns in Euphoria and last year's The Color Purple.

“There was just something about this group of people trying to find a better path for their lives, and doing it in a way that was so unexpected — and oftentimes, kind of silly — through this play in particular that just felt so real, and so particular, and so unique," Bentley says. "That was the initial thing that drew me in. But when Greg and I met the real Divine Eye and the real Divine G, John Whitfield [played by Domingo], and all these people, it was just really life-changing in a way that I think has sustained us over these eight years of making the film.”

Sing Sing went into wide release earlier this month, but it premiered almost a year ago, to much acclaim at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Earlier this year, the movie won the Audience Award for Festival Favorite at SXSW, the Impact Award at Miami Film Festival and the Golden Space Needle Award for Best Film at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Cinematographer Pat Scola’s shots on 16mm film gives the movie a grainy, early-to-mid-aughts feel.

Reliving the trauma of incarceration was no easy task, and Bentley and Kwedar made sure to recreate this story with tact, notably with a therapist available on set to the cast and crew. But throughout the journey, Bentley found that much of the cast was actually looking forward to recreating these scenes, and performing Breakin’ The Mummy’s Code once more.

“It was just such a cathartic experience for them,” says Bentley. “The men from RTA — a lot of them hadn't seen each other in a long time. They definitely hadn't all been together in a long time, so they were having a reunion. They were also reliving this very special moment in their lives, and it was really beautiful to see.”