Rock the Lockup: 2008 Prison Reform Film Festival

The big house is moving to the big screen. Rock The Lockup: 2008 Prison Reform Film Festival features flicks about life behind bars. The fest kicks off today with the story of its curator. Citizen Provocateur: Ray Hill’s Texas Prison Show chronicles the life of the former inmate. An advocate for both gay and prisoner rights, Hill’s The Prison Show on local radio station KPFT has been a forum for prisoner rights for almost 28 years. Through public call-ins aired during the show’s second half, listeners are able to communicate with their loved ones behind bars.

After that is Fighting the Odds: The Marilyn Gambrell Story, a based-on-a-real-events drama about the kids of the incarcerated and one woman’s quest to keep them out of the family business (i.e., crime). The three-day festival is rounded out with other titles, including The Exonerated (a Court TV Original Movie starring Danny Glover and Susan Sarandon), Gang Rejection, Writ Writer: One Man’s Journey for Justice and Prison Body — Freedom Soul: The Robert Coney Saga.

Citizen Provocateur screens at 5 p.m., and Fighting the Odds at 7:30 p.m. today. Rice University Media Center, 6100 Main. The festival runs through Sunday. For information and a complete schedule, visit www.theprisonshow.org. $6 to 9.
Fri., Aug. 15, 5 p.m., 2008