Beginning Wednesday, August 13, 2025
1h 37m TV-MA 2025
Netflix

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 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.

View trailer and more info for this award-winning film.

JJ’88’s debut 13-track EP will also be available on all music streaming platforms on Aug. 13. The music was originally written and recorded by JJ’88, with producer richie reseda, in prison.