The Alabama Solution

The Alabama Solution is a vital work of investigation and advocation. Concerned with the prison system in the United States, though centered on the Alabama Department of Corrections-and specifically, on a set of inmates in that system over a period of nearly seven years-the film may open some eyes. Directors Andrew Jarecki, who previously made The Jinx and Capturing the Friedmans, and Charlotte Kauffman, who worked as a producer on The Jinx, have crafted a unique and powerful insight and indictment of a troubling fact of life in the United States.

Focusing on three living inmates and the story of a murdered fourth, the film is told largely through a series of clandestine video calls on black market cell phones that prisoners easily smuggle into their lockups. How are they not caught, one might wonder. The film provides an answer, in that in the state of Alabama, the prison population is at 200% capacity with staffing at one-third what it should be for 100% capacity. That, however, is only the tip of a very large and brutal iceberg.

The film begins circa 2019, after the filmmakers are alerted to conditions in the prison, and introduced to Robert Earl Council, a convicted murderer who is a spokesperson for inmate rights, and others who are part of his nonviolent approach to civil disobedience within the prison. Council, who has been in prison for thirty years as of the release of the film, has been put in solitary confinement multiple times, often for years at a stretch. He takes this as a fact in his struggle for inmates to be treated with dignity.

Courtesy HBO

The film explores how the state of Alabama has given full support to the Department of Corrections, which sides with their staff in every instance. A staff that, given the evidence in the film, appears to be willing to commit and cover up a variety of criminal activities, including murder. The guards who commit these deeds go unpunished and are often richly rewarded, as are the prisoners who either remain silent or lie about what they have witnessed.

Just hearing the facts of these facets of the film does not do justice to the simple power and majesty of the work. While this film has a very specific advocation and investigative zeal, it also appears clear eyed, as do the inmates. These are men who have done wrong, but the question then becomes, how does that remove their rights to be treated with basic levels of safety and concern? What is seen in the film, which is not limited to the state of Alabama, should concern anyone with a conscience.

Courtesy HBO

There are moments here that are so candid that they will astonish, and others where the bald cruelty may overwhelm those not aware. The directors are bold in their ambition and cautious in their presentation of facts. Not out of fear but integrity. This is a work of thorough investigation that obviously became personal for the makers. It is hard, sometimes, to truly gauge the quality of a documentary. There are so many different approaches, that it becomes a matter of preferences and aesthetics as much as anything else. What one prefers will often be a matter of taste. Yet, you can tell, often, when you are being lied to or manipulated. Going into any documentary understanding what the point of view is and why, will help one come to terms with the work. This is a type of film where editing and photography work toward very different ends than in narrative works. It requires a commitment to research and, sometimes, patience from the viewer. It can express a point of view in ways narrative film cannot, and can agitate or apologize, in the classical sense, in ways they do not often try. This film is one of the best examples of documentary filmmaking in recent years.

GRADE B+

THE ALABAMA SOLUTION is now streaming on HBO MAX