UA Screens Music Documentary Filmed in Louisiana Prisons

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.  — A screening of the documentary “Follow Me Down,” a feature-length film about music in prison, will be tonight at 7:30 in 216 Reese Phifer Hall on The University of Alabama campus.

A question-and-answer session will follow with the documentary’s creator, Dr. Ben Harbert, a Georgetown University ethnomusicologist. The event is free and open to the public.

Shot over the course of two years in three Louisiana prisons, “Follow Me Down” weaves together interviews and performances of extraordinary inmate musicians — some serving life sentences, some new commits and one soon to be released. These musicians rap in the fields while picking okra, soothe themselves with R&B in lockdown and create a cappella gospel harmonies.

Sponsors are UA’s New College, the telecommunications and film department, the Summersell Center for the Study of the South and the department of American studies.