The Sunny Side Up

PETER PRINGLE, and SUNNY JACOBS both served years in prison for crimes they did not commit. After being exonerated, what are the chances they both met and fell in love? This film explores how love can prevail, and hearts can keep beating when a soul is dragged through so much.

SYNOPSIS

SONIA ‘SUNNY’ JACOBS and PETER PRINGLE each served years on death row—Sunny 17 years in the United States and Peter 15 years in Ireland. This film documents their journey after release, and how they managed to find freedom and love in each other. A poetic tale of Peter’s and Sunny’s love intertwined with their fight for freedom, and new life of love and forgiveness. Both were exonerated after their convictions were overturned for murders that they did not commit.

Through a mixture of personal interviews with both Peter and Sunny we find that they met at an Amnesty International meeting and soon fell in love. But can love truly heal the wounds of the past?

Their wedding in late 2011 was according to them ‘the first of its kind’: the union of two exonerated death row inmates. This story serves as a powerful tool in reminding us of the true power of the human spirit to triumph over adversity, suffering and injustice. They now live in the beautiful Connemara region in the west of Ireland and travel worldwide telling their story and shining a light for peace, justice and healing.

Peter Kilmartin, Spicy Dog Media

SUNNY SIDE UP DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT:

“I have been for a long time intrigued by wrongful convictions, and gross miscarriages of justice, but most interested by how those exonerated survive after their release. Life after lock down is the basis for this film. How could life possibly spring back to normal after so much suffering?

Through this film the viewers will be taken on a journey through the lives of two extraordinary people. Finding themselves in awe of the fact that two souls have managed to find each other, after finding so much unnecessary pain in the past.”