Cinda Firestone, 1974, 80 min

Thursday, September 16th at 7:30PM EDT in-person 16mm screening of Attica (Cinda Firestone, 1974) at Maysles Cinema.

Social unrest in the United States hit a boiling point on September 9, 1971, when inmates at Attica State Prison—after months of protesting inhumane living conditions—revolted, seizing part of the prison and taking 35 hostages. The uprising resulted in the death of 43 people after troopers were called in to suppress the rioters. Three years later, Cinda Firestone released this monumental investigation of the rebellion and its aftermath, piecing together documentary footage of the occupation and ensuing assault with video from the McKay Commission hearings that criticized Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller’s handling of the incident and firsthand interviews with prisoners discharged after the event. 

Unavailable for 33 years, Attica still is a sobering and revealing look into the heart of American justice, weighing the costs of institutional dishonesty and abuses of power against the price some will pay to retain human dignity.

16mm print courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.  Preservation of this film was made possible by a grant from the Women’s Film Preservation Fund of New York Women in Film and Television.