Songs From the Hole
At 15, he took a life. Three days later, his brother’s life was taken. A documentary visual album, Songs From the Hole follows James “JJ ’88” Jacobs through a musical opus of hip hop and soul, inspired by his innermost struggles as a person who has both committed and experienced violent harm, as he serves a double-life prison sentence. The film interweaves the collective storytelling of its nonfiction participants with imagined representations of memories, dreams and spiritual dialogues set to its protagonist/co-creator’s original music.
Thank you to our screening partner: Black Lives Matter Philly
Screenings
Directors Spotlight
Contessa Gayles
Director
Contessa Gayles is an award-winning film director, writer, DP, editor and an Emmy-nominated producer. She tells stories about community, coming-of-age, Black liberation and the radical imagination.
- Runtime
- 106 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Director
- Contessa Gayles
- Cast
- James “JJ’88” Jacobs, Victor Benjamin, William Jacobs Jr., Janine Jacobs, Reneasha Jacobs, Jacqueline Williams, Naaji Pruitt, Lauren “Indigo Mateo” Jacobs
- Cinematographer
- Michelle Kwong, Contessa Gayles
- Editor
- Contessa Gayles, Rafe Scobey-Thal, Princess A. Hairston
- Executive Producer
- Jenny Raskin, Lauren Haber, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Regina K. Scully, Meadow Fund, dream hampton
- Producer
- Contessa Gayles, richie reseda, David Felix Sutcliffe
- Screenwriter
- James “JJ’88” Jacobs, Contessa Gayles
- Animator
- Javier Francisco Pretelt, Wilma Miranda
- Co Producer
- James “JJ’88” Jacobs
- Music
- richie reseda, Tairiq Bright, Garfield Bright, James “JJ’88” Jacobs
- Premiere
- East Coast