2024 Critics Choice Awards Documentary Nominee – Best Short Documentary; 2024 Cinema Eye Awards Nominee – Best Short Documentary; 2024 Austin Film Festival – Best Documentary Short, Audience Award and Jury Prize; 2024 DOC NYC Short List
Convicted of a vicious murder when he was a teen youth spinning out of control. Years later caught by Texas law enforcement and subsequently sentenced to death after law enforcement caught up with him, John Henry Ramirez – the light at the end of the tunnel bearing down on him – reaches out to his victim’s son, Aaron Castro, while he, Ramirez, is also preparing his final goodbye to his family. {Ramirez was executed in Texas in 2022.}
Directed by Smriti Mundhra whose riveting masterpiece resonates like a cinematic allegory of the human condition. Stirring anecdotes and vignettes as well as features of cinema vérité, ethnography, investigative and in-depth journalism, all forming a cinematic gestalt in Mundhra’s pursuit of truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I AM READY WARDEN can make many in the audience feel as if they are being swept up into an existential moment 37-minutes-and-a-few-seconds- long that could resonate for a lifetime.
John Henry Ramirez Deathbed Post Mortem Eulogy. All right, let’s see. Y’all can still hear me right? Y’all can still hear me? All right. If y’all are seeing this, then obviously the State of Texas has murdered me. I’m sorry that y’all had to go through that.
I just want to say thank you for being there for me all these years. Thank you for everything. It’s been rough, but it’s been good having y’all with me, all y’all that stuck with me.
And once again, I’m sorry you had to go through this, but my pain is over. My suffering is over. All of y’all that know me, I know I made the most changes I could. I bettered myself as much as I could, and hopefully that’s enough.
Director Smriti Mundhra’s film is to Be made available for free at more than 250+ U.S. law schools. To gain access to the Texas prison system, Mundhra collaborated with journalist Keri Blakinger, whose New York Times Magazine article, “The Dungeons and Dragons Players Of Death Row” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The film is produced by Maya Gnyp, Keri Blakinger, Nina Anand Aujla, Smriti Mundhra and executive producers are Sheila Nevins, Nina L. Diaz, Liza Burnett Fefferman.
Mundhra is a DGA-winning, Academy Award-nominated and three-time Emmy-nominated filmmaker. She recently created and directed Netflix’s THE ROMANTICS, a four-part documentary series about the history of Bollywood, featuring interviews and footage from 35 of its biggest stars. Additionally, her 2019 documentary short ST. LOUIS SUPERMAN was nominated for an Oscar and tells the story of a battle rapper-turned-Congressman lobbying for gun rights. It was supported by Judd Apatow, Brad Pitt, and Mark Ruffalo and sold in a multi-studio bidding war to MTV Documentary Films.
Mundhra is also the creator, director, and EP of the Emmy-nominated Netflix show, INDIAN MATCHMAKING, now in its third season, as well as its spin-off JEWISH MATCHMAKING. Her debut feature documentary, A SUITABLE GIRL, premiered at Tribeca and won her the Best Debut Director prize.
In addition to her extensive non-scripted success, Smriti more recently directed two episodes of Season 3 of Mindy Kaling’s NEVER HAVE I EVER for Netflix/UTV and directed an episode of Amazon/Freevee’s THE PRADEEPS OF PITTSBURGH, EP’ed by Michael Showalter. Smriti is also adapting the best-selling novel BORN CONFUSED by Tanuja Desai Hidier for television for Wayfarer Studios and co-wrote and will executive produce an original comedy series for Netflix.
About MTV Documentary Films: In less than four years, MTV Documentary Films has worked with high-profile filmmakers on timely stories that have already garnered three Oscar®-nominations, seven Oscar shortlists, a Peabody® Award, two Emmy®-nominations and an Emmy win.
Publisher, Editor, Reviewer Gregg W. Morris