When directors Andrew Jarecki and Charolette Kaufman set out to document Easterling Correctional Facility's volunteer-run barbecue and at a macro level investigate the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), they weren’t expecting the shoot to expose one of the most inhumane prisons in the U.S.
On camera, things looks above board, but off-camera, inmates described “horrific beatings, unreported stabbings, unimaginable violence swept under the rug” according to The Guardian.
Prison officials paused Jerecki and Kaufman from filming, citing safety concerns. What they were really concerned about was the inmates’ transparency. That moment became the catalyst for The Alabama Solution, a documentary the directors spent six hard years making; it earned a Best Documentary Oscar nomination this year.
Despite restricted access, the filmmakers received covert footage shot on contraband cell phones from prisoners seeking to expose their conditions. That material, The Guardian reports, included “rat-infested cells, piles of human waste, rotting food and blood-streaked floors; routine officer beatings and men carried out in body bags.”
Renée Bacher
Three incarcerated activists who appear in the film— Robert Earl Council, Melvin Ray and Raoul Poole — have reportedly been placed in solitary confinement at Kilby correctional facility and are being housed separately. The retaliation against these men have been ongoing but they continued to participate in the documentary to get the message out.
Watch the 2-hour HBO documentary here or catch a theatrical screening at the Laemmle Monica in LA. For a deeper dive into Jarecki and Kaufman's investigation tap into the film's website.