CMT Blog: Archive

With the Nashville Film Festival in town, there are plenty of chances to put your Netflix queue on hold and see what's going on with modern film making. Yesterday (April 20), some colleagues and I were treated to a screening of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, a documentary that swirls around Cash's fabled live album, and found that the film looks at the event as more than just a musical mile marker. Filmed in 2008 and available along with last year's deluxe reissue of the album, it delves into Cash's experience with the project and also how it influenced prison reform and affected the lives of the prisoners themselves.

One of those prisoners was Glen Sherley, an inmate at Folsom and writer of "Greystone Chapel" who Cash would eventually help get released. Along with his story are enlightening interviews with prisoners and guards, but the photographs taken that day are the most interesting by far. The photographer at Folsom was allowed to shoot without restrictions, and his work is some of the most mesmerizing I've ever seen. The sullen faces of the band as they entered the maximum security facility, the restless prisoners who look like they haven't smiled in years and Cash shaking Sherley's hand from the stage tell the story better than words. Combine those pictures with the sounds of Cash's performance and an hour and-a-half is gone in no time. Although there is no video footage from the concert, there are still lots of little details coming to surface in this one, and I'd recommend it for any fan of music or history.