Time (2020 film)

The film follows Sibil Fox Richardson (also known as Fox Rich), an entrepreneur, self-described abolitionist, author, and mother of six, as she fights for the release of her husband, Rob, serving a 60-year prison sentence in the Louisiana State Penitentiary for his participation in an armed bank robbery. Rich served three and a half years for her role in the robbery while Rob was granted clemency by then-Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards in 2018 after he served 21 years in prison. The film combines original footage with home videos. ==Production==

Bradley met Rich in 2016 while working on her short film Alone, a New York Times Op-Doc. She intended to make a short documentary about Rich, but when shooting wrapped, Rich gave Bradley a bag of mini-DV tapes containing some 100 hours of home videos she had recorded over the previous 18 years. At that point, Bradley developed the short as a feature. Time was shot on a Sony FS7 camera in black and white. The score features original compositions by Jamieson Shaw and Edwin Montgomery, as well as music by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou that was recorded in the 1960s. The film was produced by Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn, and Bradley. Laurene Powell Jobs, Davis Guggenheim, Nicole Stott, Rahdi Taylor, and Kathleen Lingo are executive producers, Jonathan Silberberg and Shannon Dill are co-executive producers, and Dan Janvey is co-producer. ==Release==

Time had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020. In February 2020, Amazon Studios acquired its distribution rights. It also screened at the New York Film Festival on September 20, 2020. It was released theatrically on October 9, 2020, and on Amazon Prime Video on October 16, 2020. Home media In March 2021, it was announced that Time, One Night in Miami... and Sound of Metal would receive DVD and Blu-Ray release by the Criterion Collection. ==Reception==

Critical response On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Time holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critics consensus reads: "Time delivers a powerful broadside against the flaws of the American justice system – and chronicles one family's refusal to give up against all odds." At Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 91 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Peter Debruge of Variety wrote that the film "will almost certainly rewire how Americans think about the prison-industrial complex" as it "challenges the assumption that incarceration makes the world a safer place." Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "gripping," describing it as a "concise and impressionistic account of love and waiting, of the American justice system and the fight to keep a family whole." Ashley Clark of Filmmaker magazine wrote that the film's "graceful compositions, flowing sonic landscape and at times breathtaking interpolation of Fox Rich's home video archive footage cohere to form a singularly powerful experience." In June 2025, IndieWire ranked the film at number 8 on its list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far)." Accolades At the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Bradley won the Directing Award in the U.S. Documentary competition, becoming the first African-American woman to win in that category. At the 2020 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, the film won the Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award and the Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award. It won the James Blue Award at the 2020 Ashland Independent Film Festival. ==References==