In Prison My Whole Life (2007)

A look at the life of imprisoned political activist and former Black Panther member, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who's death sentence for killing a police officer was overturned in 2001 due to errors made during his original 1982 sentencing hearing.

Director:

Marc Evans

Writers:

Marc Evans, William Francome

Stars:

Mumia Abu-Jamal, Noam Chomsky, Mos Def

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Mumia Abu-Jamal	...	Himself
Noam Chomsky	...	Himself
Mos Def	...	Himself
Snoop Dogg	...	Himself
Steve Earle	...	Himself
William Francome	...	Himself
Boots Riley	...	Himself (as Raymond 'Boots' Riley)
Russell Simmons	...	Himself
Alice Walker	...	Herself
Howard Zinn	...	Himself

Storyline

A look at the life of imprisoned political activist and former Black Panther member, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who's death sentence for killing a police officer was overturned in 2001 due to errors made during his original 1982 sentencing hearing.

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Plot Keywords:

black panther | political activist | african american

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Official Sites:

MySpace Site Official Facebook

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 October 2008 (UK)

Also Known As:

Sti fylaki oli mou ti zoi

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fandango, Nana

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"What Up Man"
Performed by Snoop Dogg

User Reviews

Weary elephant, small room

It's interesting this is mostly a British-funded film (although it's hard to pin down nationality of anything as amorphous as movies, anymore). Some time ago, the Mumia case began to droop in the United States - unable to generate passion among even the most blinkered true Lefty believers. In 1981, Mumia was found sitting on a Philadelphia sidewalk, badly wounded by bullets from a policeman's gun, with his own fired gun beside him; a few feet away was the dead policeman, full of bullets from Mumia's said gun. That's pretty much the case. Since then, we've been told up is down, night is day, and Mumia is innocent.

This movie avoids like the plague those actual, damning details of the case, and launches into a long, blobby, tiresome recounting of racism in America. We get input from such notable historians as Snoop Dog. Europeans must go ga-ga over this stuff; on this side of the pond, we can recite it by rote. There's a limit to even the most well-mapped guilt trips - not that this is on that list, and it's a wonder movies like this get funded these days. It probably had an audience in the... 5s.