Attica

Documentaries, like any form of journalism, can not be completely objective. But of any one of the forms of journalism, documentaries have the toughest challenge; for wherever the documentarian points his camera a subjective choice is being made. In fact, every one of the elements of filmmaking used express a subjective viewpoint no matter how devoted the intent to objectivity is.

Attica is one of the better journalistically sound docs I've seen in the last ten years. It's about the 1971 uprising at the Attica Prison in New York State that shined a spotlight on the brutal conditions inmates endured, but ultimately resulted in a massacre.

The recollections from former inmates, government officials, family members of guards, and journalists do most of the groundwork here. But, there's a massive amount of arrival footage including horrific images of the aftermath that leave indelible conclusions about what happened.

In the end, what happened is that there's a lot of blame to go around for what went wrong.

And, without directly commenting on it, documentarian Stanley Nelson Jr.'s film also points out that 50 years later much work at improving race relations needs to be done.

"Attica" (2021 release; 117 min.) is a new documentary about the Attica prison riot. As the movie opens, it is "9-9-71, Thursday, Day 1", as we hear a number of former Attica prisoners who were there bear witness to it all. "70% of the prisoner population were black and brown; all-white guards... what could go wrong?", someone asks sarcastically. Along the way, we are given an overview of the way things were at Attica (overpopulation; poor living conditions; lack of available health care; systematic abuse from the guards, and so on). "We wanted to be treated like humans, not like dogs." At this point we are 10 min into the film.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from Emmy-winning and veteran documentarian Stanley Nelson ("Freedom Riders"). The documentary opens with talking heads, as there wasn't archive footage of the situation until local (and later national) TV stations started covering the events. When watching a documentary like this, there are 2 separate aspects: the underlying events giving rise to the documentary, and whether the documentary itself is any good. As to the underlying event, let's be clear: this is unbridled white power abuse (and worse), pure and simple. If you object to the term "white power", well it's actually uttered by a New York state trooper at the Attica scene, right then and there, with a smirk on his face and without any awareness that, you know, this may not be the best thing to say out loud. But no, he doesn't care one bit. One might expect such scenes to come from the South African apartheid regime, but this really happened right here in the US, a mere 50 years ago. As to the documentary itself: the initial 90 min cannot prepare you for what you will see in the last 30 min of the film. Nelson and his team have painstakingly gone through the archive TV and film footage, and it is a veritable treasure trove on one of the most sickening events in the modern history of this country.

"Attica" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 9-9-21, exactly 50 years after the Attica prison riot started, to immediate critical acclaim. The documentary recently premiered on Showtime, and is now available on SHO On Demand (where I saw it), Amazon Instant Video and other streaming platforms. If you need a reminder as to how unbridled white power has functioned in US history, you can do a lot worse than seeing this documentary, Of course, don't take my word for it and hence I urge you to seek out this film, and draw your own conclusion.

I highly recommend this documentary although it is extremely distressing. The actual film clips and interviews with a range of those affected are exceptionally compelling. It seems that many "law and order" types might see this as "just desserts" for the persons incarcerated there (if you can't do the time, don't do the crime??!!). Extrajudicial killing during a disordered and politicized "law enforcement" response is anything but lawful and is an atrocity. The lack of accountability for the conditions that gave rise to the rebellion and for the murderous actions let loose by the authorities responsible is a stain on our country and its aspiration of "justice for all."

This is a tough, but necessary, watch. Even though the horrific display of state sanctioned violence and killing towards Black inmates at Attica prison in NY happened 50 years ago, it unfortunately feels contemporary. The scary thing is that not much has changed regarding police brutality, prison conditions, or racism over the past 50 years. The footage included is remarkable. You'd be hard pressed to find this kind of all access media regarding a similar event in 2021. As I said, this is necessary viewing for anyone interested in racial and social justice and abolition. Remarkably well done documentary.

There are extensive interviews with all sides here, except for politicans like Rockefeller and Nixon. The ones complaining about "one sided" or "bias" are simply either lying or have faulty memories. There's extensive interviews with guards and especially the families of guards and administration. The warden also, he shows up in the film every few minutes.

And what were they insisting on? "Let's give equal weight to abuse and racism." Give equal weight to little medical care, denying right to practice religion, even petty abuse like one roll of toilet paper a month. Give equal weight to the fact that all guard deaths were by friendly fire by incompetently planned attacks.

Some of it is remarkable, white prisoners admitting they got favored treatment. This is the most insightful of the Attica documentaries or films based on the hostage crisis.