Andrew Jarecki have never been more worried about sharing a new project on Sundance.
Veterand Document has debuted at the festival its Oscar-nominated “Catch Friedmans” (2003), “Just A Clown” (2004), “Catfish” (2010) and Emmy-winning series “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst” (2015), which he followed up with a popular sequel.
This week in Park City, Jarecki and his producer-friend-co-director Charlotte Kaufman had the premiere of HBO’s ”Alabama solution“A hard -striking exposure to the brutal Alabama State Prison System, a six -year investigation project that distributes video films taken on smooth phones from the prisoners themselves, as well as Interviews by the filmmakers. The film inspired a long, standing ovation at the library and filmActivist subjects, Melvin Ray and Robert Earl Council, sent a pre -recorded video and participated in a live question and answers from the phone.
This movie left my jaw open a few times. I was pushing for the shocking conditions at the Alabama prison: water sloshing on floors, scattered debris, the rats accompanying sole containment. The filmmakers themselves were devastated to the scary videos that the prisoners sent them through their mobile phones. They saw men’s faces based by prison guards, the bloody stripes left by men drawn after a stroke. They learned about murder.
“First, you have to wrap your head around that this is a reality that is happening in our country’s prisons,” Kaufman told Indiewire over Zoom. “Most people understand that US prisons are tough, but I don’t think people completely understand what level is cruelty, trauma, abuse, negligence. The first few years to make this movie were like getting a bucket of ice water dropped on us every day. “
Six years since 2019, Jarecki’s daughter read a book about Anthony Ray Hinton, who was wrongly sentenced in Alabama. Jarecki read articles about Montgomery and a memorial to people who had been victims of Lynch. “It was Presidents’ weekend, and we said,” We have to go to Montgomery, maybe we will learn something, “Jarecki said.” Pretty much by chance I met a man who was the first black prison chapel in the state of Alabama, and and we started talking. And because I have been interested in the legal system and made a bunch of films in and around it, I began to ask him about the prisons. He said, “Well why don’t you come in and voluntarily?” They let me in there? “And he said,” Yes, if you come and volunteer you can do it. ”
That is why Jarecki and Kaufman decided to check out the Alabama prisoners. They eventually got permission to film the opening scene, an outdoor picnic for the prisoners in Easterling Prison. “That’s when we started to be removed by these men,” Jarecki said. “And we discovered that things happened in prison that no one could see on the outside. So that was the first way in. “
When they got the first glimpse and whispers of what happened, the filmmakers felt “forced to keep watching and investigating,” Kaufman said. “The main answer to all this horror is a feeling of wanting to understand how it is possible that this happens. As much as there is grief and upset, feel compelled to keep watching and continue understanding. “
Another wrinkle: The two leaders of the activist movement in prisons, the Council and Ray, who launched the free Alabama movement and published on social media such as Facebook and Youtube, were in increasing danger. The film shows them here and then threw in the insulation idea. “We knew when we began to learn how dark things were in prison,” Jarecki said, “that people were regularly retarded. When we heard about these incredible leaders inside, Robert Earl Council and Melvin Ray, it was clear that they would be able to tell us things that we otherwise would not know and give us a perspective from the view of someone who is in the midst of the horrible system. They had worked for many years fearless to get the word out. But trying to get through the walls . ”
Anxiety for the potential reaction to the film caused the filmmakers to hold a tight lid on the film before showing it on Sundance. “It is driven by our deep concern for their security,” Kaufman said, “and wants to be intentional for how we release it to the world, so that their lawyers, their defense committee and they themselves can be prepared and that it is not in an unorganized manner . ”
After Sundance, the film will be made available at HBO later in the year, along with a likely Oscar qualification of theater edition.
The mission and practice of the imprisoned subjects that document their lives within the prison walls even preceded the film’s production. “When events happened around them as they felt were important to the world to see, they documented it,” Kaufman said. “But obviously disposable videos sometimes do not depict the whole truth about what is happening. They have shared with us, and then they gave us a lot of their time to have these in -depth conversations for six years. The fact that we could have these conversations that are not on the wall phone, which is monitored by the prison, but we could have them on this other means was extremely meaningful. ”
Often the prisoners stand in the window and hold their phones, so their faces are lit. They bought the phones from the prison guards. Without WiFi, they nabbed cellular service signals in the sky and calculated ways to charge the phones. “There would be conversations about,“ Oh, you are backlit. “” When is the next time we will be able to talk? “, Said Kaufman.” How precious do you want to be with these things? Because the most important thing is the dialogue and the medium is the message. It is part of the point of this movie: should it: should Be so difficult to have honest conversations and document what is happening in our facilities? ”
It is not new to have mobile phones in prisons across the country. “Mobile phones have been present in Alabama’s prisons and in many prisons since 2013-14,” Kaufman said. “Not everyone uses the technology in such a courageous way and brilliant way, as the men who are in our film, but they are present.”
At the moment, neither Ray nor the advice is in sole enclosure. “The revenge against them has been quite varied over the years, and obviously for long periods,” Jarecki said. “Together, the two have spent 14 years in sole containment. Right now, from a relative point of view, they are stable. They are eager to see people react to the movie and watch people pick up this material that has been secret for so long. So they are worried, and we are obviously about further retaliation of the administration. ”
Kaufman does not see the film everything about the evil of the prison system. “As much as this movie is about all the darkness and corruption and coverage,” she said. “It is also a portrait of human resilience. And they are still very resistant. “
The film introduces us to people that we would otherwise not have the chance to meet. And we can see their humanity. But we see that the Alabama prison system denies convicted criminals, regardless of race, which in any way does not deserve to be treated as human beings. “There is this binary quality in the idea of criminal justice,” Jarecki said. “There is a way of thinking that there are people who are criminals and people who are not criminals, and our job here is to just eradicate the bad ones and then lock them forever, because society will be safe without recognition of what crimes we prosecute . You may have a person who has stolen a billion dollars in taxes. Maybe that person will be pardoned. You have another person stolen $ 30 in baby formula. Maybe that person will be locked up for a long time. So the system is seemingly illogical. “
It is difficult to witness in the film how unmatched and determined Alabama prison and the state government have been to refuse to do something about what is happening. “In the first few days,” said Jarecki, “we thought,” certainly they will realize that when the Ministry of Justice writes results that say that horrible things happen, will the state answer it in some way, right? ‘We have talked to people in DOJ who have said:’ For the most part, when we address huge problems in a state prison system, constitutional violations, horrible conditions, the state is embarrassed and the state wants to do something about it. ‘Not so with Alabama. ”
Of all the terrible prison systems in America, Alabama is the worst. “It’s the deadliest prison system,” Jarecki said. “It includes the highest level of drug overdoses, murder, rape and suicide. But as you could see from the movie, similar things happen in many states, as these states do not allow anyone to see inside, so that journalists do not have access to these prisons. You say democracy dies in the dark. People die in darkness. We think of it as something that happens in something far outside the country or in the middle of the war. There is a good line from Melvin Ray: “How is it possible that a journalist can enter a war zone, but cannot go into a prison in the United States?”
While researchers have shown that mass destruction is rooted in racism and historical slavery, Kaufman said: “This is a system that hurts everyone. It is harmful to the guards, it is harmful to the imprisoned. The cruelty does not discriminate. The system is a disaster with equal opportunities. “
Next up: The film generates a battle campaign. “The film is the beginning of what we hope will be an impact both in Alabama and outside Alabama,” Jarecki said. “Charlotte and I both work a lot with it. It will be a way to live for next year. “
