At 15, he took a life. Three days later, his brother’s life was taken. A moving chronicle of forgiveness, family, and the transformative power of art, SONGS FROM THE HOLE (Netflix) weaves music and mixed-media storytelling into an innovative documentary visual album.

Through clear-eyed narration and lyrical journal entries, incarcerated musician James “JJ’88” Jacobs reveals his innermost struggles as a person who has both committed and experienced violent harm. While serving a double-life prison sentence, he searches for healing and peace as he comes of age in this documentary-musical odyssey composed behind bars.

In a unique creative process director Contessa Gayles (The Feminist on Cellblock Y, The Debutantes) collaborated with protagonist/writer JJ’88 and producer/music producer richie reseda to interweave the collective storytelling of the film’s non-fiction participants, with imagined memories, dreams and spiritual dialogues set to JJ’88’s original music. The result is a powerful mix of truth-telling and dreaming that reveal the potential for healing and liberation within us all.

About The Team

Contessa Gayles makes films for the culture. She is an award-winning film director, writer, DP, editor and an Emmy-nominated producer. She brings intimacy and artistry to stories of identity, community, coming-of-age, liberation and the radical imagination.

Contessa’s feature-length documentary visual album, Songs from the Hole, world premiered at SXSW 2024, where it won the Audience Award, Visions category. She premiered The Debutantes at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival in documentary competition. Her documentary short, Founder Girls, premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival and broadcast on BET.