Madeleine Sackler 

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In 2010, Madeleine Sackler met the members of the Belarus Free Theatre when they were working in upstate New York on a new play at a theater lab called the Orchard Project. She was struck by the intensity of the repression this theater troupe was facing, and was in awe of their perseverance to create art in the face of such violent censorship. This is Madeleine's third documentary, after THE LOTTERY and DUKE 91&92: BACK TO BACK. It won the 2016 Outstanding Arts and Cultural Programming News & Documentary Emmy Award. 

 

Her latest two upcoming films were again filmed under difficult circumstances. Madeleine chose to shoot both films inside a working maximum-security prison. O.G., starring Jeffrey Wright, is a feature drama about a man the verge of his release after serving 24 years in prison. IT’S A HARD TRUTH AIN'T IT is her fourth feature documentary, which she co-directed with thirteen men currently incarcerated at the same correctional facility. Both films have been acquired by HBO.