The Business
Filmmaker Rudy Valdez on his intimate family documentary, 'The Sentence'
In 2008, ‘The Sentence’ director Rudy Valdez was working low-level production jobs when, out of the blue, his sister received a lengthy mandatory prison sentence on charges related to years-old drug crimes committed by her ex-boyfriend.
Rudy Valdez saw his family’s lives transformed overnight when his pregnant sister was arrested and slapped with a lengthy mandatory jail sentence on charges related to years-old drug crimes committed by her deceased ex-boyfriend. Valdez decided to pick up a camera and begin documenting the lives of his three young nieces, so that his sister would have a record of her daughters growing up. As he began to film more members of his family, he realized his home movies had evolved into something more serious. Almost ten years later, his documentary ‘The Sentence’ won a big award at Sundance and will premiere on HBO.