A&E is airing a documentary this Thursday that connects a 1970s prison, a group of inmate musicians, and an Oscar-winning film. Edge of Daybreak, airing at 11:04 PM ET, tells the remarkable story of a band formed inside a Virginia maximum-security prison and the music they created, which found a new life decades later.
In 1979, a group of inmates at the Powhatan Correctional Center recorded an album of original funk and soul music. The record, a testament to their creative spirit in the most restrictive of environments, faded into obscurity until it was rediscovered and sampled in the soundtrack for the 2016 film “Moonlight.”
The documentary explores the lives of the men who formed the band Edge of Daybreak and the social context of the prison system at the time. Through interviews, archival footage, and the original recordings, the film paints a vivid picture of a unique artistic collaboration born from difficult circumstances.
Edge of Daybreak gives a voice to a group of men whose creativity might have otherwise been lost to time, and it celebrates the unlikely journey of their music from a prison common room to the Academy Awards.
