Fox and Rob Launch #TIMEIIWATCH Campaign for Justice

Five years ago, Sibil “Fox” and Robert “Rob” Richardson weren’t award-winning filmmakers or national campaign leaders. They were a devoted couple split apart by the prison industrial complex, after Rob was incarcerated in Angola Prison, Louisiana — one of the most notorious prisons in the country.

But there’s an underlying issue here, Fox and Rob point out. Under the 13th amendment, incarceration allows for modern-day slavery in this country. Louisiana, and the South in general, have the highest incarceration rates in the world. Moreover, over 75% of incarcerated persons in Angola are Black. This includes Ontario, the couple’s nephew and fall partner who is still serving in Angola. 

But not for long.

Instead of surrendering to the system, Fox took on the fight of her life to bring her husband home. That fight — and the love that fueled it — was captured in their 2020 Oscar-nominated documentary TIME.

Now, the story continues with TIME II: Unfinished Business. The couple isn’t just spotlighting the flaws of mass incarceration — they’re mobilizing a movement. This Juneteenth, they’re launching #TIMEIIWATCH, a nationwide campaign inviting over one million people to join a hybrid watch party and freedom pledge. Every viewer will receive a practical “formula for freedom” toolkit and help support the Amistad Research Center — America’s oldest Black archive.

Fox and Rob sat down with Dallas Weekly ahead of the film’s Juneteenth release to discuss legacy, justice, and the urgent mission behind TIME II. Register for the watch party here. 

The Story Behind The Sequel

Dallas Weekly: Thank you both again for joining me this afternoon! Let’s get into it. The first “TIME (2020)”, kind of really shook the world up. Here’s when you first started getting into the conversation about incarcerated people, and now we’ve got “TIME II: Unfinished Business.” How does this documentary specifically deepen the conversation or shift the conversation about Black families impacted by incarceration here in the South? 

Fox: Well, I would even probably say all over the world. And I can’t thank you enough for allowing us a moment to share what we’re so passionate about and how “TIME II: Unfinished Business” differs from “TIME (2020).” As beautiful as “TIME I” was, it did not go far enough for me. 

It was great to see [Rob] come home, but I just thought it was a disservice to the community that we serve for them not to understand how he had come home. How were we able to get freedom for our family when you’ve got 2.3 million families in America dealing with incarceration, trying to figure out a way out of this system?

It was of the utmost importance to me for them to know that. And then I was concerned about people knowing what we did with freedom when Rob got out. So how do you answer both of those questions? Then you say, “Well, I’ll make another one.” 

That’s how we got “TIME II: Unfinished Business.” We had unfinished business because our loved one was left behind. Our fall partner, my husband’s nephew. Most people know that it was me and Rob that have watched time involved in this situation, but they may not know that our nephew was also with us. How do we address that problem in the aftermath of him coming home? Rob references often what people call survivors remorse, survivors guilt. 

Rob: It’s just something that people probably identify with more. So people go to war, they return home, but they leave knowing that they left behind people that they believe that were equally as deserving to leave. And not only was my nephew deserving, but there were countless other men that I left behind.

With that being said, when I came home, Fox and I started an organization where we teach legal awareness as a best form of defense for people that are justice or system impacted. That work actually saved our lives. Because our lives have been spared, we strive, through this campaign, to give those tools, those best practices, to other people that are faced with similar circumstances.

Fox: So this movie, if we say, it’s not just a movie. “TIME II: Unfinished Business” is a movement where we are moving to galvanize a million people, kicking off on Juneteenth. A million people watching this film are receiving what we refer to as a formula for freedom. So when they register for this time to watch the Juneteenth campaign for freedom, not only do they get this [documentary], but they get this toolkit of items. The toolkit helps us work through participatory defense, which is the work that we do clemency, and even just a general understanding of how to navigate the criminal justice system when they register for the campaign.

Freedom Is A Family Matter

DW: That’s awesome, and I’m glad you guys talked about the campaign. And I want to get to your main motto of this. You both say, “To be free is to free others.” How does this mission evolve? Why Dallas? And how do we get others to kind of join in this movement, not just in Dallas, but all over the country?

Fox: Well, for one, Juneteenth began in Texas, and so I think that if Texas was the last point to reach for freedom, then we will exercise that freedom now through the liberation of others. 

When Rob walked out of the prison of Angola state in September, 2018, we understood that to be free is to free others. And so how do we begin? We begin to free others by sharing information, because when we know better, we do better.

Rob: Yeah, can you imagine [having a freedom toolkit] when there was a time with people like Harriet Tubman, a person that was known for liberating her own? Can you imagine if she was able to share her rescue mission and her secrets widely with people that would want to liberate other people?

At the time, she was not at liberty to be able to have those kinds of discussions, not publicly. So her railroad, her Underground Railroad, was just that. It was something that we’re allowed to share and spread as far and wide as possible, in the same way that we’re doing now with your readers. But we are.

We are sharing some best practices that we know to be true in terms of how it is that you navigate this system, in the event that you find yourself in it. When you consider the statistics that one in three black boys are going to experience the criminal justice system, then you ask yourself, what then does that look like? Well, our current POTUS, he is a person that’s held somewhere in the neighborhood of 34, 35- count felony.

At the same time, our outgoing POTUS [Joe Biden], also had a son who was faced with criminal matters, and was a felon with a firearm. But at the same time, we know that those are not necessarily the people who, traditionally, we’ve witnessed get entangled in this system. So incarceration is impacting so many American people. 

And I think that just as you have a first aid kit in your house, you should have a formula for freedom in your house. A glass that you can break just in case of emergency. And that is what we’re pushing right now: to have this packaging into the hands of as many people as possible, all the while entertaining you through one family’s journey. 

And “TIME II” is proving to be quite the success herself, having won Best Feature Documentary at the Essence Film Festival last year, this is really an amazing film. We’re striving to put forward something that we want to bless others. 

Forming A Plan For The Film

DW: Yeah, I’m, I’m glad you talked about the film and its many awards. And Fox, this film is your baby, right?

Fox: This is my baby, yeah. I went to Rob, and I was like, Look, I have got to tell this story. And, you know, I even spoke with our former team about continuing the story, because it was important to me. 

And everybody else had other projects, other things that they were working on. But it is incumbent upon us to make sure we tell our own stories. I can’t thank Rob enough for believing in me and believing that, believing in my vision to bring the sequel forward, and now here we are. We’re able to bring this directly to the people this Juneteenth, and put in their hands the formula that they need to free themselves and free their loved ones from prison.

Love Is A Liberation Strategy

DW: One of the main themes that is in “TIME I” and also in this documentary, is love and family. I want to talk about how that love has persisted in you, not only through the creative process of the film, but through your entire journey with this entire situation. How has family and/or community love shaped this entire process?

Rob: I think when you lead with love, you already have succeeded. Fox says it best when she says that love is the most divine chemical in the universe, and it dissolves everything that is not of itself. 

I, at the close of “TIME I”, say that I believe that if “love” were an acronym, it would be: Life’s Only Valid Expression. Age old, they said God is love, and love is God. So on the other hand, that means that they’re equal in power. So with that, we try to always make sure that we lead with love. In fact, our organization’s mission is “The changing of lives and laws through love.” We’ve found that if we lead with [love], we’ve succeeded already in whatever the endeavor is that we have in front of us.

DW: That’s truly beautiful. That’s something that if one doesn’t have a lot of incarcerated persons in their family, they can still relate to. To that point, for someone who is completely unfamiliar with the film and the story, what do you want them to get out of this?

Fox: Ah, well, probably I would ask them to go and watch “TIME I.” It is on Amazon Prime video. 

Rob: And register today for “TIME II.” 

Fox: Yes, register today at TIMEIImovie.com to be a part of this freedom campaign, because it actually takes you back through, it recaps the first film.

Even if you have not dealt with incarceration, the other themes of this film are family, love and commitment. It’s [about] our commitment to one another, our desire to keep our families together. The Black marriage rate is at 36% in America right now*. More than two thirds of African Americans have never made their way to the altar. 

When you consider those staggering statistics as it relates to the instability of the Black family and marriage in our country, this film is also about love. I think that we’re giving up on each other too easily. 

I’m hopeful that through our story, we will inspire other people to love harder, to love deeper. Because if it ain’t prison walls, or, as we say in our family, if it ain’t 297 years, it ain’t no problem at all.

Words From The Wise

DW: Yeah, marriage is definitely a big factor that is strained by having a loved one incarcerated. Shifting to another focus, Louisiana has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. I didn’t know this figure applied to the U.S. as a democratic country containing Louisiana. The state is actually ranked behind El Salvador in terms of incarceration around the world. That means a large percent of people walking around today have been locked up or know someone who is. 

I want to speak to a younger generation here. To our young Black men and women: How do we inspire our friends? How do we get the younger generation involved and keep them from being that one-in-14 that is incarcerated? 

Fox: Well I’d start by going to TIMEIImovie.com, register for this campaign, because as a part of this formula for freedom is a pledge to freedom, a pledge that gets us to understand that our freedom is sacred ground and desperate situations we are up against. What we cannot do is put our freedom at stake for any type of shenanigans that may take our liberty from us

Rob: I would venture to say that just grabbing from the old saying that says that when you don’t know your history, you’re doomed to repeat it. I think that we have been so far removed from slavery in terms of when, when the abolishment of it happened to the current day, that we’ve been at liberty for so long that we forgot that there is an exception.

There is a gateway back into slavery. That gateway is the exception that says that when you’ve been duly convicted of a crime, you can and will be sent back into slavery. 

So that being said, we’re also hoping that our story will serve as a way of bringing greater awareness to people. As long as slavery exists, we should be on the forefront talking about it as a reminder.

As a former slave, a person that has been enslaved, I do know what that what that actually means, and I do now know what it means for someone to have given everything so that I can be free. So I’m willing to give all of what I got, my experiences, my voice, my past, with hopes that other people will value freedom in such a way that they wouldn’t do anything to compromise it.

Dallas Weekly would like to thank Fox and Rob and their team for spending their time with us for this interview. To learn more about their story, visit https://www.foxandrob.com.

*According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2024, approximately 38% of Black men are married and approximately 33% of Black women are married.