'Time' Review
PG-13: Some strong language
Runtime: 1 Hr and 21 Minutes
Production Companies: Concordia Studio, The New York Times, Outer Piece, Hedgehog Films
Distributor: Amazon Studios
Director: Garrett Bradley
Cast: Sibil Fox Richardson, Robert G. Richardson
Release Date: October 16, 2020 (Prime Video)
Fox Rich is a fighter. The entrepreneur, abolitionist, and mother of six boys has spent the last two decades campaigning for the release of her husband, Rob G. Rich, who is serving a 60-year sentence for a robbery they both committed in the early ‘90s in a moment of desperation. Combining the video diaries Fox has recorded for Rob over the years with intimate glimpses of her present-day life, director Garrett Bradley paints a mesmerizing portrait of the resilience and radical love necessary to prevail over the endless separations of the country's prison-industrial complex.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to figure out how to review Garrett Bradley’s documentary Time, which I saw during the New York Film Festival. It was difficult to write about this film without crying because it’s that riveting and hits way too close to home.
Presented with black and white cinematography, the film chronicles the 20-year-long journey of Sibil “Fox Rich” Richardson, a Black Louisiana-based entrepreneur, abolitionist, wife, and mother who fights against the American criminal justice system to get her husband Rob Richardson released from prison. Back in the early ‘90s, Fox and Rob were dreamers who wanted to start their own clothing business together. They had little money and were barely able to provide for their growing family, so they committed a robbery out of desperation. Nobody died. Nobody got hurt. Yet, Robert was convicted and was sentenced to 60 years without probation or parole.
Time is brilliantly stitched together with footage of the past and present. The film opens with grainy home videos of Fox Rich raising her sons –– like most mothers do –– from the late ‘90s through the early ‘00s on her own. It’s such crisp and beautiful footage that makes you feel as if you’re stepping through a portal in time, placing you in the passenger’s seat through this painful, angering, and heartbreaking experience. I love how the film goes back and forth in time (no pun intended) with home videos of the boys as they grow to become smart, successful Black men who are trying to get into the field to change the criminal justice system.
Bradley’s Time shows how the criminal justice system is designed to set Black men up for failure, but also how it affects their families. Rich has no choice but to fight — motivated by love for her husband — against the system that is designed to destroy Black homes. Watching this woman accomplish so much while raising six boys, making her own money in America, and becoming a strong figure just to get the love of her life out of prison is so inspiring because I know Rich isn’t the only woman that’s done this. So many Black people have been taken by the criminal justice system at a young age without being given a second chance at freedom.
Personally, Rich’s story doesn’t stray too far from my own family. One of my aunts has a husband who has been incarcerated for a long time. I’ve grown up witnessing that unstoppable drive from her end, watching her fight for her husband’s freedom and seeing her resilience firsthand. Time reminded me so much of my aunt’s journey and it felt both heartbreaking and comforting to see that she is far from alone. Rich’s story is a prime example of an urgent issue that needs to be discussed and, most importantly, changed. Louisiana needs to change. The entire American criminal justice system needs to change because Black souls only get one chance in the eyes of the law. It fucking hurts. It’s unforgiving and it needs to change now more than ever.
The intimate moments of pain and struggle through Bradley’s lens make you feel the weight of time itself. While it’s riveting to see Fox be the change in her own narrative and not be the victim, you still feel her anger and frustration with each minute of the film’s runtime. It’s a short movie that chronicles the long, painful journey of a family trying to reunite as a whole again. Time made me weep tears of sadness and joy — sometimes simultaneously. This is an incredible documentary that needs to be seen ASAP.
