Filmmaker Rudy Valdez on his intimate family documentary, 'The Sentence'

Rudy Valdez saw his family’s lives transformed overnight when his pregnant sister was arrested and slapped with a lengthy mandatory jail sentence on charges related to years-old drug crimes committed by her deceased ex-boyfriend. Valdez decided to pick up a camera and begin documenting the lives of his three young nieces, so that his sister would have a record of her daughters growing up. As he began to film more members of his family, he realized his home movies had evolved into something more serious. Almost ten years later, his documentary ‘The Sentence’ won a big award at Sundance and will premiere on HBO.