Earlier this year Jay-Z signed a two-year film and TV deal with the Weinstein Company, and one of the first projects he announced was a docu-series on Kalief Browder, “Time: The Kalief Browder Story.”
Browder was jailed on New York’s Rikers Island back in 2010, at the age of 16. He was in jail for three years without conviction after being accused of stealing a backpack.
According to Complex, the first two episodes will premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.
In a press conference in October Jay-Z talked about what drove him to want to tell this story. He said, “We’re the voice. We’re society. We affect change. We can change everything. … Our voices are stronger than ever. If everyone in this room is like, ‘I don’t agree with this happening to a 16-year-old,’ then it won’t happen again. It’s that simple.”
Browder’s story made headlines after he was profiled in the New Yorker in 2014. Unfortunately he committed suicide in 2015. His story brought light to the mistreatment that can go on within the prison system.
Video of him being abused by officers and inmates surfaced online. Those experiences caused him to develop a mental condition that caused him to attempt suicide many times.
Back in October, Venida Browder, the mother to Kalief Browder passed of an apparent broken heart.
The 2017 Sundance Film Festival takes place in Park City, Utah and runs from Jan. 19 to Jan. 29.
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