Alabama state prisons are places of violence and impunity – not because of the conduct of inmates, but allegedly of guards. That’s the alarming picture that emerges from the Oscar-shortlisted documentary The Alabama Solution, directed by Emmy winner Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman.
The filmmakers build their documentary around cell phone videos secretly recorded by prisoners – footage that shows severe overcrowding, flooding of cell blocks, drugged addicted inmates, and alleged brutal attacks by those whose job should be to ensure the safety of people behind bars.
Jarecki and Kaufman join the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss what their investigation revealed about the death of one inmate in particular, and state prison conditions in general. They also explain the double meaning of the film’s title.
We’re also joined by the makers of two other Oscar-shortlisted documentary features: David Borenstein, director of Mr. Nobody Against Putin, and Richard Ladkani, director of Yanuni. Borenstein’s documentary introduces viewers to the remarkable Pavel “Pasha” Talankin (who co-directed the film), a beloved videographer and events coordinator at a grade school in the remote Russian town of Karabash. Putting himself in peril, Talankin defied a Kremlin propaganda plan disseminated after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that was designed to militarize children and dictate their worldview.
Ladkani’s film also centers on a remarkable individual – Juma Xipaia, a Brazilian Indigenous leader who has faced multiple assassination attempts just for trying to protect her territory in the Amazon rainforest from illegal gold miners and land grabbers. Juma also joins Doc Talk, explaining why as a teenager she already felt certain her life would be one of struggle. Ladkani tells us why he begins his film with Juma, in utter stillness, looking directly into camera, a penetrating stare that “looks straight through you into your soul.”
That’s on the new episode of Doc Talk hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley) and Matt Carey, Deadline’s senior documentary editor. The pod is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios.
Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.