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Herman's House

The injustice of solitary confinement and the transformative power of art are explored in Herman’s House, a documentary that follows the unlikely friendship between a New York artist and one of America’s most famous inmates as they collaborate on an acclaimed art project. In 1972, New Orleans native Herman Joshua Wallace was serving a 25-year sentence for bank robbery when he was accused of murdering an Angola Prison guard and thrown into solitary confinement. Then in 2001 Herman received a perspective-shifting letter from a Jackie Sumell, a young art student, who posed the provocative question: What kind of house does a man who has lived in a six-foot-by-nine-foot cell for over 30 years dream of? Thus began an inspired creative dialogue, unfolding over hundreds of letters and phone calls and yielding a multi-faceted collaborative project.