Press kit

We were drawn to the Harmony Project because it offered a rare form of access — not just into a prison, but into a space of mutual effort and vulnerability within a male space, and in a wider view, a glimpse of support, creativity, and community inside a system defined by separation. For us, filmmaking is about creating space for voices often unheard, and this choir is an example: individuals coming together to make music and, in the process, transforming their environment profoundly. The song they sing, “Lean On Me” — fifty years after Bill Withers wrote it — captures the theme of the film: we all need somebody to lean on. And in leaning on each other, we make a stronger whole community.

Our goal was to present this story through the voices of those involved, without narration or lower thirds, which evoke a sense of hierarchical authority. Rather than focusing on individual crimes or sentences, Somebody To Lean On centers on what happens when people are invited to participate in something collective, creative, demanding, and centering their humanity.

The choir rehearsals are a place where differences that often define prison life — race, politics, religion, background — fall temporarily into the background. The Harmony Project’s sessions, which also involved sharing stories and digging into personal exploration in group discussions, require listening, patience, and trust, allowing the men of the choir, the guards, the wardens, and the Harmony Project volunteers from the outside to encounter one another outside of roles imposed on them by society or the culture within incarceration.

By not using voiceover or outside commentary, and by identifying people through the storytelling process, the film prioritizes their perspective and lived experience, allowing us to see what this program and all those involved show us is possible. It took years to be able to make this film, and we are honored to have gained the trust of the people in the film and of the prison system, and to have the chance to share this powerful story of hope.

Somebody To Lean On is about the power of the small but meaningful ways people connect, and how hope and art can build bridges beyond walls. This film is not an argument for a particular policy, but an observation of how dignity, accountability, and connection can take root even in the most restrictive environments — and how music can open a space for people to listen, to hear one another, and to be heard.

Gabrielle C. Burton & Ursula Burton