Attica (2021)

Nominated for Best Documentary Feature    Content warning:  graphic violence, police brutality, dead bodies, racial slurs

So two years after Summer of Soul, there was the Attica prison riot.  Attica was a maximum security prison in upstate New York and in 1971 for five days in September, the prisoners overthrew the guards and took control.  They had 31 hostages and requested an observation panel comprised of journalists, lawyers, and elected officials to witness negotiations between themselves and the prison commissioner.  Their demands were very simple:  they wanted to be treated like human beings, not animals.  They wanted better food, better conditions, and an end to the violence perpetrated upon them by the guards.  For a while, negotiations seemed to be going well.  Then a guard injured in the initial riot died and everything fell apart.  The police staged an armed recovery of the prison.  In the ensuing firefight against unarmed prisoners, 28 prisoners and 10 hostages were killed.  

The documentary uses actual footage from police surveillance and news reports as well as interviews with first-hand witnesses.  This was a race-motivated massacre and none of the guards were ever held accountable.  The state of New York shelled out $12 million to the families of the dead hostages and another $12 million to the surviving prisoners in 2000 and 2005 as a "please shut up about this" gesture.  

This is a very hard watch.  It is important to see because the more of these instances we drag into the light, the harder they are to run away from and bury.  It's produced by Showtime but it is streaming for free on Amazon Prime.  If you can, please try to watch it.