Survivors, observers, and expert government officials recount the 1971 uprising at the Attica Correctional Facility. The violent five-day standoff between mostly Black and Latino inmates and law enforcement gripped America then, and highlights the urgent, ongoing need for reform 50 years later.... (Full plot summary below)
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Survivors, observers, and expert government officials recount the 1971 uprising at the Attica Correctional Facility. The violent five-day standoff between mostly Black and Latino inmates and law enforcement gripped America then, and highlights the urgent, ongoing need for reform 50 years later.
Leave your thoughts about Attica.
| Los Angeles TimesRoxana HadadiAttica is a jarring, engrossing, and enraging reminder of how those in power will lie, humiliate, kill and cover up to retain it, and the documentary is one of the year’s best. |
| TheWrapRonda Racha PenriceWhat unfolds is a bone-chilling account of what is widely regarded as the largest prison rebellion in U.S. history. |
| IndieWireRobert DanielsA harrowing piece of filmmaking, and a fitting, powerful remembrance of those who fought for their humanity. |
| RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonStanley Nelson’s documentary Attica is a harrowing, infuriating look at racism and the abuse of power by people who see others as inhuman. |
| The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayWhat’s been forgotten is that the prisoners’ dramatic seizure of Attica was intended to give them a platform for their legitimate grievances—to get the tax-paying citizens to understand what exactly their money was buying. If nothing else, Nelson’s Attica gives these men another opportunity to raise their voices. |
| The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerThe racial context is incisive; the retelling is tense, tight and chilling. These kinds of stories are emotionally wrenching to watch but can’t be told too often. |
| Screen DailyWendy IdeThe film is scrupulous about giving voices to men who, as prisoners, were denied them. If there is an overlap in some of the observations and insights that the former inmates bring to the film, they tend to be points which bear repeating. |
| The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThere is a fascination in hearing about the logistics of the riot and just how surreal events were for the prisoners. |
| The Film StageJared MobarakThe purpose of Nelson and Curry’s film is to therefore turn the focus of what happened back onto the real perpetrators rather than the victims who have been vilified as such instead. |
| Film ThreatAlan NgThe description of the actual re-claiming of the prison by the corrections officers and the national guard is told in horrifying detail, and the torture and punishment of the surviving prisoner are much worse. I dare you to watch it today and not get angry about the racial divide that existed in the 70s. |
