Riotsville, USA
Sierra Pettengill's Riotsville, U.S.A. is a surreal examination of the militarization of the United States police force as a response to the class and social consciousness gained by Black and other marginalized communities in the late 1960s. Riotsville, U.S.A. is solely composed of archival footage—clips come from the Riotsville tapes, the barely covered protests around the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, and talk show film from the progressive but short-lived evening talk show PBL. Threading it all together is powerful narration—written by critic Tobi Haslett and spoken by Charlene Modeste—which ruminates on the images onscreen.
by Jas Keimig