| Herman's House | |
| Director: | Angad Singh Bhalla |
| Producer: | Ed Barreveld Loring McAlpin Lisa Valencia-Svensson |
| Starring: | Jackie Sumell Herman Wallace |
| Music: | Ken Myhr |
| Cinematography: | Iris Ng |
| Editing: | Ricardo Acosta |
| Studio: | Storyline Entertainment |
| Distributor: | First Run Features |
| Runtime: | 80 minutes |
| Country: | Canada United Kingdom United States |
| Language: | English |
Herman's House is a documentary film, directed by Angad Singh Bhalla and released in 2012.[1] An American, British and Canadian coproduction, the film profiles Herman Wallace, a member of the Angola Three who had been in prison for over 40 years after his shorter prison term for bank robbery was extended with a disputed conviction for a murder he did not commit, and Jackie Sumell, a conceptual artist who has launched a project of building the dream house Wallace wishes he could live in if he is ever released from prison.[2]
Wallace is never shown in the film, and instead is heard only in recorded telephone conversations with Sumell.[3]
The film premiered at the 2012 True/False Film Festival,[4] and had its Canadian premiere at the 2012 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.[2]
It was broadcast in July 2013 as an episode of the PBS documentary series POV.[5]
Bhalla was the winner of the Magnus Isacsson Award at the 2012 Montreal International Documentary Festival.[6]
The film was a Donald Brittain Award nominee for best social or political documentary at the 2nd Canadian Screen Awards in 2014.[7] Ricardo Acosta was nominated for Best Editing in a Documentary Program or Series, and Ken Myhr received a nomination for Best Music for a Non-Fiction Program or Series.
The film won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Arts and Culture Programming at the 2014 News and Documentary Emmy Awards.[8]
Following Wallace's death of cancer in late 2013, Bhalla and digital media producer Ted Biggs created the interactive documentary project The Deeper They Bury Me: A Call from Herman Wallace, which was based around Wallace's time in solitary confinement, for the National Film Board of Canada.[9]