The Tribeca Festival, which announced its film slate earlier this week, including a new documentary about Hip-Hop legend Biz Markie, has revealed the lineup of world premieres of new and returning television.
Included in the lineup is Jay-Z's investigative documentary, Exposing Parchman. The film is focused on the efforts to reform the Mississippi correctional system, Parchman Prison, telling the stories of some of the inmates and their families. It shines a light on the work of a team of Roc Nation attorneys who pushed for prison reform, and features Roc Nation founder Jay-Z.
In January, attorneys hired by Jay-Z, Yo Gotti, and other entertainers have ended two lawsuits they filed on behalf of Mississippi inmates in 2020. The lawsuit pinpointed inhumane living conditions at Mississippi's oldest prison, the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, including broken toilets, moldy showers, rats, and roaches. One suit alleged that a lack of funding and inadequate staff over the years has caused “prisoners to endure abhorrent conditions, abuse and constant violence, inadequate health care and mental health care, and overuse of isolation." Additionally, the suit alleged, "The conditions of confinement at Parchman are so barbaric, the deprivation of health and mental healthcare so extreme, and the defects in security so severs, that the inmates confined at Parchman live a miserable and hopeless existence confronted daily by imminent risk of substantial harm in violation of their rights under the U.S. Constitution."
The lawsuits were dismissed on Jan. 13 after the inmates’ attorneys and the state Department of Corrections said improvements have been made during the past three years, including "installing air conditioning in most of the prison, renovating some bathrooms and updating the electrical, water and sewer systems."
As for the documentary screening, it will be followed by a conversation with the legal team, some of the film’s subjects and Roc Nation executives.