Actor and director David Arquette hopes to raise awareness about the U.S. criminal justice system in his latest documentary, “Survivors Guide to Prison.”
“We have more prisons than we do colleges and universities. It’s just completely backwards,” he told Cheddar. “It’s a plea system: 98 percent of the cases are settled in a plea, so we don’t really have a court system, and that’s what we’re trying to address.”
The star-studded production is narrated by the likes of Danny Trejo, Donald Glover, Jesse Williams, and Susan Sarandon. It tells the story of Bruce Lisker and Reggie Cole, two men wrongly convicted of murders, and offers advice on how to navigate -- and survive -- the current prison system.
Arquette told Cheddar that the documentary is more than a film and that it’s has sparked activism amongst the cast.
“[Director] Matthew Cooke doesn’t think of it as a movie, he thinks of it as a movement,” he said. “So we’re getting behind groups like “Cut50, that’s Van Jones’ company, and we’re working with them on the ‘Dignity Campaign,’ and that’s to get women in prison some basic human rights.”
“Survivors Guide to Prison” premieres in theaters and on-demand on February 23.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/david-arquette-on-prison-documentary-that-has-hopes-will-become-a-movement).
French President Emmanuel Macron hailed Birkin as a “complete artist,” noting that her soft voice went hand-in-hand with her “ardent” activism. Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak called Birkin “the most French British person" and “the emblem for a whole epoch who never went out of fashion."
Members of the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists union officially went on strike Friday after negotiations broke down with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Cheddar News explains.
