Film review
Oct. 28th, 2025 03:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fabrisseOn my list of Savannah Film Festival entries that I never want to see again -- in spite of their excellence -- is the documentary The Alabama Solution.
Two people went to an Alabama State Prison -- Easterly, I think -- to record a revival. An inmate stopped them and said, "you think we eat like this all the time? You've got to find a way to see inside." He pointed out that it was hot that day and asked them how hot they thought it was in a tin roofed building with two hundred prisoners. That one encounter led to a multi-year project that was absolutely devastating.
Two prisoners, Robert Earl Council and Melvin Ray, are our primary entry into the prison system. They talk about a project dating from the Civil Rights days called Hallifax (sic?) County which taught inmates law, beginning with the Constitution, and taught them to think for themselves in a more organized way. The filmmakers note that "contraband" these days is predominantly cell phones, and these illegal cell phones are the primary way the filmmakers are able to communicate with the prisoners.
And then word gets out that a prisoner has been beaten so badly that he was taken to the ICU at a university hospital. When the filmmakers arrive, they use a break in the curtain to try to see the inmate and realize he's already in a body bag. It gets more and more devastating.
One person reasonably high up in the Alabama Government -- I think an elected official -- said that the best way to guarantee the safety of the law abiding citizens of Alabama would be to "execute anyone who's sentenced."
Every single government photo has, at best, a token black person in it. Most don't even have that. Yet the prisoners are very clear that it's not just black and brown people suffering from this system, it's the poor white people, too.
I cannot recommend this highly enough. I spent a good part of the film in tears or wanting to walk out thanks to the blood and death that we're shown. But sometimes, all we can do is witness.
If you have HBO, it's part of their new movies for October. See it. You may need to take breaks from it, something I couldn't do in the theater without missing things, but it is a well made documentary with something to say.
The Guardian's review is here: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/12/documentary-the-alabama-solution
And I'll be trying to figure out what I can do to better the system in Georgia.
Two people went to an Alabama State Prison -- Easterly, I think -- to record a revival. An inmate stopped them and said, "you think we eat like this all the time? You've got to find a way to see inside." He pointed out that it was hot that day and asked them how hot they thought it was in a tin roofed building with two hundred prisoners. That one encounter led to a multi-year project that was absolutely devastating.
Two prisoners, Robert Earl Council and Melvin Ray, are our primary entry into the prison system. They talk about a project dating from the Civil Rights days called Hallifax (sic?) County which taught inmates law, beginning with the Constitution, and taught them to think for themselves in a more organized way. The filmmakers note that "contraband" these days is predominantly cell phones, and these illegal cell phones are the primary way the filmmakers are able to communicate with the prisoners.
And then word gets out that a prisoner has been beaten so badly that he was taken to the ICU at a university hospital. When the filmmakers arrive, they use a break in the curtain to try to see the inmate and realize he's already in a body bag. It gets more and more devastating.
One person reasonably high up in the Alabama Government -- I think an elected official -- said that the best way to guarantee the safety of the law abiding citizens of Alabama would be to "execute anyone who's sentenced."
Every single government photo has, at best, a token black person in it. Most don't even have that. Yet the prisoners are very clear that it's not just black and brown people suffering from this system, it's the poor white people, too.
I cannot recommend this highly enough. I spent a good part of the film in tears or wanting to walk out thanks to the blood and death that we're shown. But sometimes, all we can do is witness.
If you have HBO, it's part of their new movies for October. See it. You may need to take breaks from it, something I couldn't do in the theater without missing things, but it is a well made documentary with something to say.
The Guardian's review is here: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/12/documentary-the-alabama-solution
And I'll be trying to figure out what I can do to better the system in Georgia.
