Watch Harrowing Trailer for Jay Z-Produced ‘TIME: The Kalief Browder Story’
A new trailer for a docuseries about a Bronx teenager, Kalief Browder, who was jailed for three years and spent two of them in solitary confinement for allegedly stealing a backpack, shows the brutality and psychological trauma he suffered. Despite the false charge, Browder endured 31 hearings with no conviction before his release. He killed himself in 2015 after extreme difficulties adjusting to the outside world.
Time: The Kalief Browder Story, a six-part documentary that will air on Spike beginning March 1st at 10 p.m. EST, traces the teen’s story from his interrogation through his suicide, as well as how the situation impacted his family. It tells the story with first-person accounts, archival footage and actor re-creations of times in Browder’s life. The series will also feature interviews with politicians, social reformers and Browder’s friends and family. Jay Z produced the documentary alongside Harvey Weinstein.
“It’s inhumane,” Jay Z said at a press conference about the docuseries in October. “It’s difficult for me to find the words, it’s so inhumane.” He added that he wants people to view Time as a call to arms. “We’re the voice,” he said. “We’re society. We affect change. We can change everything. … Our voices are stronger than ever. If everyone in this room is like, ‘I don’t agree with this happening to a 16-year-old,’ then it won’t happen again. It’s that simple.”
The rapper also said that he didn’t want people to look at Browder’s story, and in particular America’s overcrowded prisons, as a wholly political issue. “It’s a human issue,” he said. “In order for us to move forward, this conversation needs to move forward.”