{"id":28577,"date":"2025-01-30T19:21:18","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T00:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577"},"modified":"2025-01-30T19:22:01","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T00:22:01","slug":"sundance-film-festival-the-alabama-solution-is-a-vital-urgent-call-for-prison-reform-in-a-very-broken-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577","title":{"rendered":"Sundance Film Festival: \u2018The Alabama Solution\u2019 is a Vital, Urgent Call for Prison Reform in a Very Broken System"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conditions within prison facilities aren\u2019t known to be great, and they\u2019re not invitations that many in positions of power believe to be most deserving of resources. Some argue that criminal offenders need to be kept in line and shouldn\u2019t be treated with kindness, and therefore their needs should be at the bottom of any priority list. <\/span>The Alabama Solution<\/i><\/b>, through extensive interviews with incarcerated people in the state\u2019s prison system, unmasks just some of the most heinous offenses being committed and swept under the rug in the name of law and order, and how the conversation is illogically shifted to fighting more \u201cimportant\u201d issues, like how they\u2019re accessing cell phones to talk to people outside prisons in the first place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This film, from directors Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman, begins with a visit to one of Alabama\u2019s eleven state prisons on a day where a barbecue is happening, something that those the filmmakers speak to insist isn\u2019t anything like what they usually eat. It\u2019s much worse than that, however, as their video calls expose horrific abuses that are then covered up and explained away by public officials. When one incarcerated man ends up beaten and unrecognizable in the ICU, succumbing to his wounds by the time the cameras arrive to see him, his family is hopeless to learn anything aside from the party line that he attacked guards and was forcefully and fatally subdued. This type of thing happens often, according to those interviewed, and getting any semblance of justice is going to require making a lot of noise, still with little expectation of any real resolution.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s just the tip of the iceberg for this film, which includes so many honest and desperate conversations with people who want their faces to be seen even if they know that it may bring repercussions, since they want to share more than just their voices and have control over something in their lives. The footage that they share is gruesome and unfiltered, and it would be hard to deny its authenticity or admissibility even if it was determined that it was recorded illegally because of what it inarguably shows. There are people who have spent years in prison and have studied the law so that they can better advocate for themselves and for others, and know how to organize so that they can trigger a statewide strike that will bring much-needed attention to their cause.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

Unfortunately, this film\u2019s title refers to the party line from Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and others that an Alabama problem requires an Alabama solution. Rather than let the Department of Justice take over Alabama\u2019s prisons, her proposed fix for greatly overcrowded and understaffed facilities with horrific living conditions is a $900 million construction of three new mega-prisons, which a cursory line of questioning reveals won\u2019t actually address any of the issues, just offer expensive contracts to make the state seem like it\u2019s doing great things. Bureaucracy is bad enough, but this is a system that rewards those who abuse their authority, like the guard whose fatal beating of that man is far from his first offense or lawsuit, yet the state has settled everything for him and even paid for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hoping for change is a difficult thing given the grim reality of the situation on the ground and the tragic continued deaths of incarcerated people in Alabama since this film was finished. As the film points out and responses to the protests showed, this isn\u2019t just an Alabama problem but happening throughout the country. It\u2019s certainly not easy to shake many of the images this film shows or to forget the stories shared by the incarcerated individuals who work tirelessly to make things better even as they endure mistreatment and become targets because of their advocacy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Alabama Solution<\/i><\/b> is a vital, urgent, and disturbing look at a situation that is worse than terrible and demands immediate action. Coming from HBO Documentary films, it\u2019s affirming to know that it will soon have a wide audience which can bear witness to the horrors occurring within this supposedly great American nation. Audio clips of commentators expressing that those behind bars shouldn\u2019t be entitled to anything because they\u2019ve committed crimes further drive home the point that there should be a purpose to incarceration beyond simply locking people up that emphasizes rehabilitation and helping people to contribute positively to society, rather than cruelly drilling them into submission. This film needs to be seen by as many people as possible, and hopefully having that many eyes on it can begin to push those with the power to do better to get started on change.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grade: B+<\/b><\/p>\n

Check out more of Abe Friedtanzer\u2019s articles<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Alabama Solution <\/i><\/b>makes its world premiere in the <\/span>Premieres section<\/span><\/a> at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conditions within prison facilities aren\u2019t known to be great, and they\u2019re not invitations that many in positions of power believe to be most deserving of resources. Some argue that criminal offenders need to be kept in line and shouldn\u2019t be treated with kindness, and therefore their needs should be at the bottom of any priority…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":28578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20471,19],"tags":[21715,25895,18291,25896,643,25824,2235,25894],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSundance Film Festival: \u2018The Alabama Solution\u2019 is a Vital, Urgent Call for Prison Reform in a Very Broken System | Cinema Daily US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Alabama Solution, premiering at Sundance and coming soon from HBO Documentary Films, is a vital and urgent look at a very broken system.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sundance Film Festival: \u2018The Alabama Solution\u2019 is a Vital, Urgent Call for Prison Reform in a Very Broken System | Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Alabama Solution, premiering at Sundance and coming soon from HBO Documentary Films, is a vital and urgent look at a very broken system.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-31T00:21:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-31T00:22:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/The_Alabama_Solution-Still_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abe Friedtanzer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/movieswithabe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abe Friedtanzer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577\",\"name\":\"Sundance Film Festival: \u2018The Alabama Solution\u2019 is a Vital, Urgent Call for Prison Reform in a Very Broken System | Cinema Daily US\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/The_Alabama_Solution-Still_1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-31T00:21:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-31T00:22:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6d4d1be5055fa0a21c6be5ee2b54ae10\"},\"description\":\"The Alabama Solution, premiering at Sundance and coming soon from HBO Documentary Films, is a vital and urgent look at a very broken system.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/The_Alabama_Solution-Still_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/The_Alabama_Solution-Still_1.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1440,\"caption\":\"A still from The Alabama Solution by Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sundance Film Festival: \u2018The Alabama Solution\u2019 is a Vital, Urgent Call for Prison Reform in a Very Broken System\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/\",\"name\":\"Cinema Daily US\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6d4d1be5055fa0a21c6be5ee2b54ae10\",\"name\":\"Abe Friedtanzer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Abe-Friedtanzer-150x150.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Abe-Friedtanzer-150x150.png\",\"caption\":\"Abe Friedtanzer\"},\"description\":\"Abe Friedtanzer is a film and TV enthusiast who spent most of the past fifteen years in New York City. He has been the editor of MoviesWithAbe.com and TVwithAbe.com since 2007, and has been predicting the Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards since he was allowed to stay up late enough to watch them. He has attended numerous film festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, and SXSW, and is a contributing writer for The Film Experience, Awards Radar, and AwardsWatch.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/movieswithabe\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/movieswithabe\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=5\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sundance Film Festival: \u2018The Alabama Solution\u2019 is a Vital, Urgent Call for Prison Reform in a Very Broken System | Cinema Daily US","description":"The Alabama Solution, premiering at Sundance and coming soon from HBO Documentary Films, is a vital and urgent look at a very broken system.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sundance Film Festival: \u2018The Alabama Solution\u2019 is a Vital, Urgent Call for Prison Reform in a Very Broken System | Cinema Daily US","og_description":"The Alabama Solution, premiering at Sundance and coming soon from HBO Documentary Films, is a vital and urgent look at a very broken system.","og_url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577","og_site_name":"Cinema Daily US","article_published_time":"2025-01-31T00:21:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-31T00:22:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1440,"url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/The_Alabama_Solution-Still_1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Abe Friedtanzer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/movieswithabe","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Abe Friedtanzer","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577","name":"Sundance Film Festival: \u2018The Alabama Solution\u2019 is a Vital, Urgent Call for Prison Reform in a Very Broken System | Cinema Daily US","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/The_Alabama_Solution-Still_1.jpg","datePublished":"2025-01-31T00:21:18+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-31T00:22:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6d4d1be5055fa0a21c6be5ee2b54ae10"},"description":"The Alabama Solution, premiering at Sundance and coming soon from HBO Documentary Films, is a vital and urgent look at a very broken system.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/The_Alabama_Solution-Still_1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/The_Alabama_Solution-Still_1.jpg","width":2560,"height":1440,"caption":"A still from The Alabama Solution by Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=28577#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sundance Film Festival: \u2018The Alabama Solution\u2019 is a Vital, Urgent Call for Prison Reform in a Very Broken System"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/","name":"Cinema Daily US","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6d4d1be5055fa0a21c6be5ee2b54ae10","name":"Abe Friedtanzer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Abe-Friedtanzer-150x150.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Abe-Friedtanzer-150x150.png","caption":"Abe Friedtanzer"},"description":"Abe Friedtanzer is a film and TV enthusiast who spent most of the past fifteen years in New York City. He has been the editor of MoviesWithAbe.com and TVwithAbe.com since 2007, and has been predicting the Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards since he was allowed to stay up late enough to watch them. He has attended numerous film festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, and SXSW, and is a contributing writer for The Film Experience, Awards Radar, and AwardsWatch.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/movieswithabe\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/movieswithabe"],"url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=5"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}