Desc: Death Row: Directed by Diane Christian, Bruce Jackson. With Thelette Brandon, Wilbur F. Collins, Mark D. Fields, Moses Garcia. About daily life on Death Row in Texas. When the film was made in April 1979, 114 men were housed in the special death cells of Ellis prison's rows J-21 and J-23. The men spend their time waiting for the State to kill them or fighting as hard as they can to prevent that death from happening. Their hardest job is staying sane.