New Hampshire Film Festival 2008

'Osborne is either a nut or a visionary', remarks David Connelly, author of an upcoming biography on the life of Thomas Mott Osborne. 'TMO @ The Castle' covers the early naval prison years and the work of prison reformer Thomas Mott Osborne of Auburn, New York. Osborne reflects the progressive thinking of the time regarding prison reform by introducing his system, the 'Mutual Welfare League', to Auburn, Sing Sing and now the Portsmouth naval military prison (100 years old this year) which is located on a bluff in the Piscataqua River. He was an industrialist, a School Board member, mayor of Auburn, and a prison warden. Controversy and scandal was ever present during his prison years, including those spent at the Portsmouth Naval Prison.David Connelly's interview forms the narrative of the film with his insights into the life of a man who is not only the former warden of Auburn and Sing Sing state prisons in New York but also the only civilian commander of the Portsmouth Naval Prison. Osborne is also a man who comes from great family wealth, is a major success in business but also has a family history of women's rights reform. In additon, there is rarely seen footage of a 1926 (sound film) where Osborne speaks about his viewpoints on reform and footage not seen in over 80 years of a movie Thomas Mott Osborne personally supervised where Portsmouth Naval prisoners were used as extras.From the producer of The Castle.