SUBJECTS

Attica Prison, Prison riots -- New York (State) -- Attica, Prisoners -- Crimes against -- New York (State) -- Attica, Prisoners -- New York (State) -- Attica

Attica

Cinda Firestone
United States, 1974

BAMPFA Student Committee Pick

  • Introduction
    Michael Mark Cohen

    Michael Mark Cohen is associate teaching professor of American studies and African American studies at UC Berkeley.

Few social documentaries hit their mark with more harrowing and urgent impact. No matter how you feel about prison reform, Attica makes indifference impossible.

Stanley Eichelbaum, San Francisco Examiner

An essential counterpoint to the official and mass media accounts of the uprising and subsequent massacre in the state prison in Attica, New York, Attica combines footage of the events; interviews with prisoners, ex-convicts, journalists, and observers; and video from the 1972 public commission hearings—exposing the lies and obfuscation of those in power to elude responsibility for the crime. It also documents the improvised and effective self-organization of the prisoners, fighting together for humane treatment.

Kate MacKay
FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W/Color
  • 16mm
  • 80 mins
Source
  • Reserve Film and Video Collection of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
CINEFILES

CineFiles is an online database of BAMPFA's extensive collection of documentation covering world cinema, past and present.

View Attica documents  

Attica (program note), Los Angeles International Film Exposition, Carol Wikarska, 1975

Attica (review), Variety, Robert B. Frederick, 1974

New directors series: Attica (program note), San Francisco International Film Festival, 1974

Attica (review), Audience, Robert A. Wilson Jr., 1974

Attica (program note), Films by Women, Linda Greene, 1974

The Attica film (distributor materials), Newsreel

Attica (press kit), Attica Films, Inc.

Attica (distributor materials), Tricontinental Film Center (Berkeley)

Displaying 8 of 8 publicly available documents.


View all Attica documentation on CineFiles.

Preceded By

Teach Our Children

Christine Choy, Susan Robeson, United States, 1972

Choy and Robeson’s agit-prop response to the uprising at Attica combines footage they shot on-site with newsreel footage and animation to draw parallels between the plight of the prisoners and international independence struggles.

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 16mm
  • 35 mins
source
  • BAMPFA
permission
  • Third World Newsreel
Additional Info
  • Preserved by BAMPFA, Pamela Jean Smith, and Cinemalab.