Virtually Free, Shine Global’s latest documentary produced by Susan MacLaury and Alexandra Blaney and Directed by André Robert Lee, has been shortlisted for the IDA Documentary Awards in the Shorts category. The IDA Documentary Awards is “the world’s most prestigious event dedicated to the documentary genre, celebrating the best nonfiction films and programs of the year. It seeks to represent excellence in the documentary field from around the world, by emerging and established documentarians.” Up to ten nominees in each of the feature and short documentary categories will be selected from the shortlist and will be announced on November 24th.
Virtually Free is a documentary about unlikely allies in Richmond, VA who partner to transform the juvenile justice system and stop mass incarceration. In the film, we meet Sid, Tae, and AR, three teens currently being held in a Richmond, VA detention center who are offered the chance to become activists speaking truth to power. Participating in a local arts organizations’ program, Performing Statistics, they are taught by different artists to deliver their powerful, authentic messages to the public, law enforcement, and government officials using their art, including a virtual reality jail cell they’ve helped create.