From New York, this is Democracy Now.

This movie afforded me the opportunity to go back to my more recent lineage, you know, a hundred years or so,

you know, and go back to, you know, the Mississippi, a state that I had never been to.

In this holiday special, we speak to celebrated Hollywood director Ryan Coogler about his blockbuster new film, Sinners, a horror film about two brothers

fighting an evil force in Jim Crow era 1930s, Mississippi. Then to the case of death

row prisoner, Keith Lamar. My name is Keith Lamar. I'm a poet, author, and musician. For the past 31 years, I've been in solitary confinement, buried under the never-ending agony of sensory deprivation. On January 13th, 2007, the state of Ohio intends to kill me. I'm innocent. We'll speak to Keith Lamar,

on death row in Ohio, and air a new short film about him illustrated by Molly Crabapple.

All that and more coming up.

Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman.

We begin today's holiday special, looking at the new critically acclaimed blockbuster, Sinners,

written and directed by the celebrated filmmaker Ryan Coogler.

It's already become one of the highest

grossing horror films in history. Set in 1932 in the Mississippi Delta during Jim Crow,

the film has two stars, Smoke and Stack. They're both played by actor Michael B. Jordan,

identical twin brothers who've just returned to their hometown after years living in Chicago working for gangster Al Capone.

The twins purchase an old sawmill from a racist white landowner to start a juke joint for the

local black community when they're confronted by a

supernatural evil, also starring in sinners as Delroy Lindo, who plays Delta Slim, a down and dirty

piano player. Oh, and did I say it's a vampire flick? This is the film's trailer.

I'm in all over this world.

I've seen me and die.

...