Coming to PBS’s WORLD Channel as part of its American Justice series today, Monday, July 27: CRIMINAL INJUSTICE: DEATH & POLITICS AT ATTICA
David Marshall’s investigation into the notorious 1971 prison rebellion debuted at the American Historians Association conference in New Orleans in 2013. Since then it has been broadcast on PBS stations in upstate New York and won regional Emmy Awards.
I previously profiled the project when it was still in the works. The finished film brings together witnesses and the families of victims from the prison takeover which turned into a massacre in order to reveal a forty-year cover-up. Excellent archival footage and contemporary media coverage of the four-day encounter place the audience in the moment, while modern-day interviews offer a retrospective analysis which often challenges the official stance on what was too flippantly labeled a “riot,” but was instead more of an organized political protest that was turned violent by state police and then blamed on the inmates. Of particular interest is the consideration of the role then New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s political ambitions played into his handling of the uprising, as well as that of President Richard Nixon’s desire to be viewed as “tough on crime.” Despite the strength of the archival material, the conventional and heavy talking heads approach taken detracts from the historical immersion and lends a flatness to the proceedings, robbing the project of the greater cinematic impact it might have had, though it remains affecting as a whole.
what (not) to doc 