There’s something about seeing the pain in the eyes of 13-year-old Autumn Shank, who grew up since the age of 4 without her mother, that makes any sensible person ask: “What are we doing?”
Autumn and her sisters, Ava and Annalis, are the central focus of “The Sentence,” an intensely intimate and heart-wrenching documentary that tells the story about their mother, Cindy Shank, who was slapped with a 15-year minimum sentence for a first-time, non-violent drug offense.
The sobbing audiences chose the film as the best American-made documentary at the Sundance Film Festival and it was picked up by HBO and will air later this year.