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