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Nothing at the Sundance Film Festival will be more shocking, more horrifying than "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." And it's a true story.
At age 16, Browder was arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack — a crime he denied committing. He spent three years in New York City's hellish Rikers Island jail, which has a average daily inmate population of 10,000.
The teenager was beaten, tortured, by other prisoners and by jailers. He spent 400 days in solitary confinement.
Browder was eventually released and no charges were ever filed against him. But the three years cost him his life — a broken young man, he attempted suicide several times while he was jailed. After he was released, he hanged himself.
"Everybody sees this and sympathizes," said Nicole Browder, Kalief's sister. "I live with this every day. It's like a hell, because our family still hasn't gotten any justice."
The tragedy shocked movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, who are executive producers of "The Kalief Browder Story."
"Harvey literally looked at me at one point and said, 'I had no idea. I had no idea how bad this is and how this is going on in mine and Jay's backyard,' " said David Glasser, COO and president of the Weinstein Company, and another executive producer. "And you know what? If there's anything that comes out of this, people are going to see it, and something needs to be done about it."
(Sundance will premiere the first two hours of the six-part docu-series on Wednesday; the series begins airing on Spike on March 1.)
"This is a national story," filmmaker Jenner Furst said. "I think what happened to Kalief Browder, what happened to his family, what happened to his sister, what happened to his mother — this is not just about New York City."
Furst wasn't exaggerating when he said this is a "harrowing tale" that "really grabs you by the heart and by the soul." And he expressed the hope that it prompts us "to take a deeper look at our criminal justice system and change it. And I think that's what it has the potential to do once people see it."
It's too late for Browder and his family.
"I still hurt. I live through this every day of my life," Nicole Browder said. "I go to bed thinking about my brother. I go to bed thinking about my mom. I go to bed with nightmares. I wake up with nightmares."
There's a heart-wrenching interview with Browder's mother, Venida, who conveys her pain and guilt that she was unable to raise the bail to get her son out of jail.
"We didn't have the money at the time. I had nothing to give my mom," Nicole Browder said through tears.
And, according to Nicole Browder, the incident hastened her mother's death; she died in October at age 63 after a heart attack.
"How do you think my mom felt when she went and found her son hanging?" Nicole Browder said. "The only thought she had in her head until the day my mom passed away was, 'His head was snapped back.' That's the last memory she had because she lived in hell. They ruined her son at Rikers.
"My brother's gone. And now my mom's gone."
The family is lending its support in the hopes of improving conditions at Rikers Island. After a year of trying, Furst was allowed into the jail to film, and, while there have been some improvements, "I have to say, I felt like I was still in a concentration camp, for lack of a better term."
The Browder family sees the documentary series as a way to battle the abuses at Rikers Island.
"This is not the only time that you guys are going to see this," Nicole Browder said. "I'm sure this is going to happen again, which we are trying to prevent."
That's also the aim of the producers.
"What Venida and this family has been through to keep Kalief's story alive has been something amazing and part of our journey, we feel," Glasser said. "This wasn't about how much money we can make on our bottom line. … This is about continuing something for this family, getting this story out there and working for social change."
Twitter: @ScottDPierce —
At Sundance
Sundance will screen the first two hours of "Time: The Kalief Browder Story" on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at 5:30 p.m. at The MARC in Park City; the series begins airing on Spike on March 1.