A Brother Fights for His Sister's Release from Prison in Emotional Trailer for 'The Sentence'

First-time filmmaker Rudy Valdez gets extremely personal in his debut documentary,The Sentence.

The harrowing film tells the story of his sister Cindy Shank, a mother of three who received a 15-year mandatory sentence for conspiracy charges related to her deceased ex-boyfriend’s crimes — and PEOPLE has the exclusive trailer.

“So basically I lived in the home,” Shank can be heard saying in the preview. “I didn’t buy these drugs. I didn’t sell these drugs. Any crimes that he committed while we lived together, I was charged with.”

“I want to try and tell your story, to try and make something good out of all this,” her brother Valdez says later in the trailer to his sister. “Thank you, brother,” she responds.

HBO

“The more I think about them, the more those memories are slipping away,” Shank says of her children in the trailer.

As teased in the preview,The Sentencepartly takes place during the last months of the Obama administration’s clemency initiative, as the family starts to fight for Shank’s release.

The Sentencepremieres Oct. 15 on HBO.

source: people.com