This five-part docu-series goes inside the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), a unique Philippine jail where dancing is part of the inmates’ exercise and rehabilitation. CPDRC shot to worldwide fame when its 2007 performance of “Thriller” went viral, but ten years later it faces intense scrutiny when an ex-convict is hired to run it.
Michele Josue is an Emmy award-winning Filipinx filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Her critically acclaimed feature-film debut MATT SHEPARD IS A FRIEND OF MINE is the winner of 10 Best Documentary and Audience Choice Awards from festivals worldwide and boasts a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film won the 2016 Daytime Emmy Award for ""Outstanding Special Class Special.” Michele is the Executive Producer, Director, and Lead Editor of HAPPY JAIL, the award-winning Netflix Original documentary series about the Filipino jail that is home to the world-famous “Dancing Inmates.” Michele has traveled around the globe with MATT SHEPARD IS A FRIEND OF MINE as a guest speaker for various schools, universities, organizations and government agencies. Michele was selected for the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam’s World Documentary Exchange filmmaker program in 2013 and has received The Reel Affirmations’ Keith Clark & Barry Becker Filmmaker Award.
Michele is currently in production on new documentary feature entitled ""Nurse Unseen,"" which explores the little-known history and humanity of the unsung Filipino nurses risking their lives on the frontlines of a pandemic, thousands of miles from home. This personal documentary unearths the colonial ties between the Philippines and the United States that have led to Filipino-American nurses becoming the unsung backbone of the United States health industry.
