Attica (2021)

Prison is still a bad place in the 21st century, but in the 20th century it was even worse. This documentary, short listed for the Academy Awards, is a harrowing, infuriating look at racism and the abuse of power in a prison where the incarcerated were largely black and brown and the administration and the guards were 100% white. The prison itself is located in a rural white town in upstate New York, and as depicted here at least, the prisoners were seen as less than human, much like a master/slave relationship. The subject is the riot that began at Attica Correctional Facility on September 9, 1971. Over 30 prison staff members were taken hostage in the largest prison uprising in American history. Once they temporarily gained the upper hand, the prisoners at Attica—mostly Black and Latino but also White—tried to negotiate for better conditions. They brought in a slew of outside personalities including senators, lawyers, journalists, and even Russell Oswald, the NY Commissioner of Corrections, and survivors and offspring of those who did not survive are interviewed, interspersed with footage from the time. Instead of reaching a peaceful conclusion, however, the standoff ended five days later in a hail of bullets that took out hostages and inmates alike. There was a short lived attempt to cover up the fact that law enforcement shot at everyone and everything indiscriminantly, but the ugly truth came out.