Robert Archer Lynn Movies

Television director Neema Barnette directs the forceful drama Civil Brand, based on a story by Preston A. Whitmore II. Shot with a micro-budget of 500,000 dollars, the film stars confrontational rap and hip-hop artists Mos Def, MC Lyte, and Da Brat. The story concerns a women's prison that exploits its largely African-American inmate population as cheap labor to manufacture products for a corporation. Mostly incarcerated due to domestic violence situations, the inmates also face sexual abuse as the hands of the prison staff, headed by Captain Deese (Clifton Powell) and Warden Nelson (Reed McCants). Accused of murder, Frances Shepard (Lisa Rae) joins forces with inmates Little Momma (Lark Voorhies), Wet (Monica Calhoun), and Nikki Barnes (N'Bushe Wright), as well as law student Michael (Mos Def), in order to start an uprising. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

A notorious Hollywood bad boy (Golden Globe winner Julian McMahon) is captured by a mysterious Jailer (Elias Koteas) while scouting a decrepit, abandoned prison for an upcoming film in co-directors David Alford and Robert Archer Lynn's unforgiving thriller. Derek Playto is a volatile visionary whose controversial reputation has earned him more than his fair share of enemies in the entertainment industry. In preparation for his upcoming feature film -- a violent prison drama -- Playto sets out to find the perfect surroundings in which to tell his brutal tale. Upon discovering a dilapidated prison that was once a notorious house of pain, it appears that Playto has found just such a location. But Playto isn't alone in this crumbling penitentiary, and upon being captured by the Jailer, the director's only hope for escape is to answer a series of increasingly intimate questions concerning his art and his life. With every unanswered question, Playto moves one step closer to the electric chair, yet as every answer reveals a telling piece of the filmmaker's deplorable past, the prospect of death becomes more of a welcome release than an unjustified punishment. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide