Still Attica Remains (film still), Nick MacDonald, 1975.
Friday, September 17th at 8PM EDT #SidewalkCinema
Screening of Evidence of the Evidence (Alex Johnston, 2018) Still Attica Remains (Nick Macdonald, 1975) outside of Maysles Cinema as part of series, Abolition Now! 50 Years of the Attica Prison Uprising curated by Emily Apter co-presented with Third World Newsreel and in collaboration with Attica Is All of Us, Freedom Archives, and the Documentary Forum at CCNY.
There will be a post-screening Q&A with filmmaker Nick Macdonald.
EVIDENCE OF THE EVIDENCE
Alex Johnston, 2018, 20 min.
The 1971 Attica prison uprising is a signature moment of radical resistance for the American Civil Rights movement. The bloody retaking of the prison however, is an open wound. Utilizing rarely seen video recordings, Evidence of the Evidence explores this tortured history. It offers a visceral account of the events at Attica, and chronicles the mediation and narrativization of these events. In so doing, it reflects on the role that moving images play in the production of history and memory, its creation and its destruction.
STILL ATTICA REMAINS
Nick Macdonald, 1975, 15 min.
A film shot in New York City in one day, on September 13, 1975, the 4th anniversary of the massacre at Attica prison. The narration presents a case that the brutal assault was cold-blooded and senseless, causing an avoidable tragedy. Handheld footage of the city provides a backdrop as Macdonald recounts the events of the rebellion, focusing in particular on Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s refusal to negotiate and his role in escalating the conflict that resulted in 43 deaths. Both a screed against political power and a memorial to those who lost their lives, Still Attica Remains details some of the horrors of prison --- unfortunately relevant today as it was in 1975.
