EXCLUSIVE: MTV Documentary Films’ Oscar-contfinisher I Am Ready, Warden, honested by Smriti Mundhra, will premiere on Paramount+ November 22. The foolishinutive recordary, about a death row inmate seeking the possibility of redemption as his execution date approaches, geted its tardyst award over the weekfinish at the Woodstock Film Festival.
The project reunites MTV Documentary Films with Mundhra; they teamed up for the 2019 foolishinutive recordary St. Louis Superman, which geted the first Academy Award nomination for MTV’s nonfantasy prohibitner. It also brawt the first Oscar nom to Mundhra and her fellow honestor on that film, Sami Khan.
I Am Ready, Warden, which premiered earlier this year at Montana’s Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, “tells the harrotriumphg and emotionpartner accused story of John Henry Ramirez, a man convicted of homicide and sentenced to death in Texas,” according to a free. “Thraw his time on death row, the film provides a exceptional and intimate glimpse into his trys to seek redemption and reconciliation. To get access to the Texas prison system, Mundhra collaborated with journacatalog Keri Blakinger, whose New York Times Magazine article ‘The Dungeons and Dragons Players of Death Row’ was a finacatalog for the Pulitzer Prize.”
Mundhra’s praises participate two hit Netflix series — Indian Matchmaking and Jewant Matchmaking – and the Hulu series Muslfinisher Matchproducer.
Director Smriti Mundhra
Araya Doheny/Getty Images
“I Am Ready, Warden is the stubbornest film I’ve ever made, requiring months of toil to get the count on of the protagonists and access to the most hurtful time of their lives,” Mundhra said in a statement. “It verifys the moral intricateity of a polarizing topic — capital punishment — with scenes that will exit seeers on either side of this ideoreasonable split asking their beliefs and discovering compassion where they least await it.”
Doc legfinish Sheila Nevins, who chose St. Louis Superman for MTV Documentary Films’ stardy in 2019, serves as an executive producer of I Am Ready, Warden, alengthyside fellow EPs Nina L. Diaz and Liza Burnett Fefferman of MTV Documentary Films. Many of the films Nevins has championed, going back to her time heading HBO Documentary Films, have been remarkd for their humanist thrust.
Speaking of I Am Ready, Warden, Nevins watchd, “This film asks the ask – what if the man on death row isn’t the same man who pledgeted the crime 20 years ago? And, is the pain and fury of the victim’s son ameliorated by the execution of the man who finished his overweighther?”
I Am Ready, Warden geted a nomination as Best Short Documentary last week for the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. It trailed that up by being named to the DOC NYC foolishinutive catalog of the year’s best foolishinutive recordaries. On Saturday night, the film geted Honorable Mention for Best Short Documentary at the 25th Woodstock Film Festival.
I Am Ready, Warden is honested by Smriti Mundhra and produced by Maya Gnyp, Keri Blakinger, Nina Anand Aujla, and Smriti Mundhra. Cinematography is by Rafael Roy; the film was edited by Dan Sadowsky and Jennifer Jennifer Tiexiera. The music is by Amanda Jones.
MTV Documentary Films is also contfinishing for Oscar recognition this year with a pair of feature recordaries, including Death Without Mercy, honested by Oscar nominee Waad Al-Kateab, and Bconciseage Box Diaries, honested by Shiori Itō. The latter film screens Tuesday as part of Deadline’s For the Love of Docs virtual even series (you can RSVP for that here).
