NEW YORK, Oct. 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In honor of International Wrongful Conviction Day, Lava Media CEO and Innocence Project Founding Board Member Jason Flom and Four Hundred founder Tony Abrams will co-host a private screening of Lovely Jackson at Republic Studios in NYC. This award-winning feature documentary tells the miraculous true-life story of Rickey Jackson, who at the time of his release and exoneration in 2014 was the longest wrongfully incarcerated person in U.S. history, having spent 39 years on death row and in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Following the screening, the evening will feature a live Q&A with Mr. Jackson, director Matt Waldeck, and Flom.
Lovely Jackson is a bold, first-hand account of what life in the U.S. legal system was like for a wrongfully incarcerated man. Directed by Waldeck, who has spent 8 years working closely with Mr. Jackson, the film pushes the boundaries of documentary form as Mr. Jackson returns to the very prison he entered as an innocent man in 1976. The film features improvised reenactments alongside professional actors and real-world figures from the conviction itself – including the witness whose false testimony put Mr. Jackson a mere 82 days away from death in Ohio’s electric chair.
An Academy Award-qualifying theatrical run for Lovely Jackson will begin in Los Angeles on October 4th to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Jackson’s exoneration. Open to the public and co-hosted by Waldeck’s Zodiac Features and the Los Angeles Innocence Project (LAIP), the opening night screening features a meet and greet with Jackson and Waldeck and a panel discussion with LAIP’s Director Paula Mitchell, LAIP Founder and Exoneree Andy Wilson, and exoneree Maurice Hastings. Waldeck has pledged that all net proceeds from Lovely Jackson’s Los Angeles theatrical run will benefit legal aid for the wrongfully convicted.
Lovely Jackson is a Zodiac Features production presented by H.E.L.P. (Hope, Educate, Love and Protect, an organization created to educate and assist children in rural African regions) in association with Zodiac Holdings, starring Rickey Jackson, Mario Beverly, and Devito Parker Jr. Producers include Jackson, Waldeck, Ben Hecht, Travis Killian, and Jillian Wolstein. Lava Media co-founders Jason Flom and Jeff Kempler are Executive Producers on the film.
Tickets can be purchased for the Los Angeles public screening of Lovely Jackson here.
Listen to Jason Flom’s interview with Jackson on Lava for Good’s Wrongful Conviction podcast here.
