Brad Rhines<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>October 17, 2014<\/time><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

Cast the First Stone<\/em> shows a side of Angola prison that most people never see\u2014the good side. The film focuses on inmates in the prison\u2019s Drama Club who, along with female inmates from the nearby Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, are preparing to stage a production of The Life of Christ<\/em>. Like the play they\u2019re producing, the story of Cast the First Stone<\/em> is one of forgiveness and redemption as these men and women find salvation in one of the country\u2019s most notorious prisons.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Angola\u2019s reputation has started to turn from one of America\u2019s worst prisons to a shining example of rehabilitation. Much of the credit goes to Burl Cain, the warden at Angola since 1995. Cain is a divisive figure, praised for his efforts to reform the culture of violence at Angola, and denounced for his harsh treatment of those inmates who don\u2019t toe the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe uses a huge carrot, and he uses a huge stick,\u201d says David B. Deniger, executive producer of Cast the First Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This film focuses mainly on the carrot.<\/p>\n

Cast the First Stone<\/em> isn\u2019t so much about the inmate\u2019s production of Life of Christ<\/em> as it is about the men and women who are involved in it. The production is helmed by Gary Tyler, an inmate at Angola since 1974, serving life without parole for second-degree murder. Jesus is played by Bobby Wallace, serving 66 years for armed robbery. Levelle Tolliver, who plays Judas, is another lifer. So is Sandra Starr, convicted of killing an abusive boyfriend, who plays Mary Magdalene. Justin Singleton, a young man just nine years into his life sentence, plays the Disciple Peter, who famously denied Christ three time before affirming his love for him.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTo actually be something that portrays change is awesome,\u201d says Singleton on screen. Later, he tells another inmate, \u201cYou don\u2019t know who I used to be. If you did, you\u2019d never put your hands on me. But I\u2019m not who used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a tale of redemption, Cast the First Stone<\/em> is incredibly powerful. The inmates featured in the film are the ones that have found hope in a hopeless place, and they are a testament to Warden Cain\u2019s belief in rehabilitation through the moral teachings of religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Drama Club is one of the carrots that the warden\u2019s philosophy generates,\u201d says Deniger. \u201cThe warden doesn\u2019t care why you\u2019re there. He doesn\u2019t care what you did. None of that matters. All that matters is how you conduct your life once you\u2019re there, and for those who exhibit a long term–I\u2019m talking 10 or 15 years–of doing what they\u2019re supposed to do, they can become \u2018trustee\u2019 status. Basically, in that status you pretty much have free reign anywhere on the prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the trustees remain under constant supervision, they have ample opportunities to participate in activities that get them out of their cells. In fact, for a prison documentary, the film shows very little interaction with guards or with other inmates outside of the Drama Club. Prisoners are rarely seen behind bars and only occasionally in cuffs. Instead, many scenes are filmed on the bucolic campus of Angola, beside a lake or in a wide-open recreation area, as the inmates rehearse their parts and chat openly about the parallels of sin and salvation in their own lives.<\/p>\n

Deniger says that when the film was being edited, there was a conscious decision to avoid too many \u201cprison-y scenes.\u201d For him, those scenes distract for the film\u2019s message of redemption, a message that he says is \u201cclearly demonstrated in characters that just happen to be inmates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t show Camp J,\u201d says Deniger. \u201cCamp J at Angola prison, everybody\u2019s in shackles because they have exhibited behaviors at the prison. If you continue to be a predator, if you continue to break the rules, then it\u2019s not very good. I mean, it\u2019s prison. It\u2019s hardcore prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Granted, not every prison documentary needs to tackle difficult issues of social justice or advocate for reform, but those issues are conspicuously absent from Cast the First Stone<\/em>. Deniger says that those kinds of issues \u201cjust weren\u2019t germane to the story,\u201d but it\u2019s also telling that Deniger and the film\u2019s crew came to Angola at the invitation of Catherine Fontenot, the Assistant Warden of Programming at Angola. There\u2019s no doubt that the film is a moving story about extraordinary people, but it\u2019s also a film that avoids the hard questions. Still, Deniger believes Cast the First Stone<\/em> might be a starting point for people interested in the hard questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the film helps people dig a little deeper into Angola, they\u2019ll discover a lot of very, very interesting things. They\u2019ll discover the sentencing laws in Louisiana are amazingly harsh. They\u2019ll discover that the parole and the opportunities are almost non-existent. And what that has actually produced is this counter-intuitive thing. You\u2019ve got a Gary Tyler who has been there for 40 years. Whether he\u2019s innocent of his crime or not, that was 40 years ago. He has matured into a very spiritual man. So my hope is that people will continue to ask the question, which the film kind of raises, why are these people still in jail?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to over glorify the prison itself, because it\u2019s a horrible place,\u201d says Deniger. \u201cNobody wants to be there. But I think our film does a good job of showing a little deeper, in a more layered way, what the potential is, and what is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cast the First Stone screens M<\/em>onday, October 20, 2014, 8:15 p.m. at the Contemporary Arts Center and\u00a0<\/em>Tuesday, October 21, 2014, 3:30 p.m. at the Prytania Theatre.\u00a0<\/em>For more info and tickets, visit the\u00a0festival website<\/a>, the\u00a0<\/em>Cast the First Stone <\/a>website<\/a>, or the <\/em>Cast the First Stone <\/a>Facebook page<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Brad Rhines<\/strong>\u00a0writes in New Orleans.\u00a0Follow him on Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"