Angola prison portrays humanity of prisoners, downplays inhumanity of the
prison system

   The Farm: Angola
   Gabriel Films Directed by Jonathan Stack and Liz Garbus 
   
   Review by WMass RAIL
   
   Springfield College, Sept 24. 1998
   RAIL attended a showing of The Farm: Angola to distribute literature
   and to build support for our campaign against control units in
   Massachusetts. We hoped that a film about a maximum security prison
   would inspire people to work with us on this campaign.
   
   Angola is the largest prison in Amerika, covering 18,000 acres. Of its
   5,000 prisoners, 77% are Black. Most of the prisoners are sentenced to
   "natural life" or extremely long sentences, leading to the warden's
   estimate that 85% of the current population will die behind the walls
   of Angola. Angola was transformed from an old-style slave plantation
   into a modern day slave plantation (prison) after the Civil War. The
   old plantation was also called Angola, after the place of origin of so
   many of the slaves who worked there.
   
   The film, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Sundance Film
   Festival, effectively talks about the effects of a life sentences on
   prisoners and really brings out the humanity of the prisoners. For
   example, the film tries to portray the loneliness created. The average
   prisoner at Angola never receives a visit from the outside after the
   first 3 years of incarceration. But it fails to talk about the
   systemic brutality of prison, nor does it address beyond mentioning
   the history of Angola as being one of Amerika's most violent prisons.
   What makes Angola so notorious is the brutality of armed guards, not
   the fact that the prison is so large. This effort to focus so much on
   the specifics of Angola and six prisoners who are profiled downplays
   Angola's role in the whole Amerikan injustice system. The film
   certainly prepares RAIL to talk about the reality of prisons in a
   public forum, but it is not an effective stand-alone presentation. And
   it is without RAIL intervention that hundreds of thousands of people
   had the opportunity to see the film recently on A&E cable TV.
   
   RAIL doesn't know anything about the politics of the filmmakers, and
   we can imagine they had to cut a deal with the prison administration
   to get such access to the prison. This is the only explanation as to
   why the administration is treated in such a gentle fashion. RAIL much
   prefers the approach taken by the makers of The Last Graduation about
   the end of Pell grants for prisoners. Instead of just following
   prisoners and educators, The Last Graduation broadens the issue. First
   the rise of higher education as a response to the Attica prison
   rebellion is covered. Then the video explores the bogus arguments from
   politicians to abolish prisoner education. The kid gloves used in The
   Farm make the film much less effective.
   
   Prison labor
   Angola uses 1,800 non-prisoner workers to run the prison. Two hundred
   families of employees live on the grounds of the prison. Early in the
   video, we see one guard boast of the great job security working in a
   prison brings. This reactionary statement is quite accurate, as
   prisons are one of Amerika's leading growth industries.
   
   Unlike the armed pigs on horseback, the real work on the Angola
   plantation is done by the prisoners. Most prisoners work in the fields
   for 4 cents an hour. The best jobs in the prison pay only 20 cents an
   hour.
   
   Prison profiles offer chance to relate to the incarcerated
   The film interviews six prisoners for their stories. One prisoner is a
   trustee, one on death row, one an old man dying from cancer, and
   another an old man turned religious leader.
   
   One of the most effective things about the film is showing the
   arresting mug shots of the prisoners interviewed. These photos are
   from 1972, or 1959. The prisoner incarcerated in 1959 was 24 at the
   time. The prisoner on death row reports that since age 12 he has spent
   all but four years in prison. Due to the Amerikan injustice system,
   prison is all some residents of North Amerika will ever know.
   
   The most amazing part of the film to RAIL is the segment on one
   prisoner's parole hearing. A Black man was sentenced 20 years ago for
   the rapes of two teenagers. When the "victim" was interviewed by
   police, she was asked "Would you be able to identify the assailant?"
   No, she said, because "All niggers look alike." But she was able to
   identify one person in the line-up -- the one in handcuffs. The
   photograph of the lineup shown in the film verifies this fact.
   
   At the parole hearing the prisoner presented new evidence, suppressed
   from the defense at the time of trial, that the medical report after
   the rapes reported that the teenagers were virgins. Therefore, not
   only was this Black man framed, but the rapes didn't even happen.
   
   There is more. At his parole hearing, the "victim" is told that the
   parole board is very sympathetic to her, and one parole board member
   identifies himself as the president of a "victims rights"
   organization. Two board members are old white men, and one is an old
   Black man. The "victim" is still a racist, saying that she fears all
   Blacks, and while she doesn't fear the Black pig on the parole board,
   she wouldn't be alone with him either.
   
   All on camera, the parole board decides to deny the application before
   the prisoner even enters, and when he leaves, they forget about the
   camera and make their bias even clearer.
   
   The warden of Angola claims his job is to spread hope that prisoners
   will "win the lottery" and be allowed to leave the prison. As the film
   ends, updates are given on each prisoner. No pardons are given, and
   appeal hearings are denied. This applies to even the elderly religious
   prisoner, who has a pardon recommendation on the governor's desk.
   
   After the main film, a short ABC News clip was shown about the annual
   rodeo at Angola. Again lacking in political focus, it at least showed
   how poorly prisoners are treated. Prisoners, many untrained, ride
   bulls and horses for prize money to the delight of outside spectators.
   Even ABC News, which was more concerned with issues such as "safety to
   the public" or the wisdom of offering "fun" to prisoners, had to
   report that the rodeo is likened to the barbarity of the Roman
   gladiator games and the throwing of Christians to the lions for sport.
   RAIL would like to get a copy of this video to show to people,
   especially the portion in which prisoners try to remove a poker chip
   from between the horns of a rampaging bull to the delight of the
   audience.
   
   Encouraging activism
   After the film and video, a short discussion was held in which the
   presenter argued for the audience to become active for social change
   and to speak to the various groups that had tables in the back room of
   the room. Neither the film nor the discussion addressed the fact that
   prisons do not stop crime. This is unfortunate, as the detailed
   information about the individual prisoner's cases makes it clear that
   no societal purpose is served in locking up someone forever for
   mistakes supposed deeds decades ago.
   
   The presenter argued that people should start from the perspective of
   a quotation attributed to Nazi Holocaust victim Pastor Martin
   Niemoller: "First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out --
   because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communists and I did
   not speak out -- because I was not a communist. Then they came for the
   trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade
   unionist. Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak
   out for me."
   
   The Niemoller quotation makes an attempt to get privileged people to
   act in their own self-interest to aid others. While the oppressed
   should certainly work together against common enemies, it would be
   naive to pretend that large groups of people do not benefit from
   Nazism or the prison system.
   
   RAIL puts so much work into the prison issue because the prisons and
   police are key weapons in Amerika's imperialist war against its
   internal Black, Latino and Indigenous colonies. This perspective
   offers an explanation as to why the incarceration rate for Blacks is
   eight-times that of whites.
   
   A significant part of the audience consisted of Springfield College
   students there not out of voluntary desire to learn about prisons, but
   for extra course credit. Most students left after the The Farm, not
   staying for the rodeo video or the discussion. Those who left were
   completely uninterested in signing a petition against Massachusetts
   control units.
   
   While RAIL was impressed with the portrayal of injustice in the film,
   we thought the necessary indictment of the whole Amerikan injustice
   system was far too subtle. This was too subtle to reach these
   students, and the lives of the Blacks incarcerated in Angola so
   foreign, that the video just didn't affect them.
   
   RAIL will likely show this film in the future, adding it to our
   arsenal of documentaries about prison. We will be sure to emphasize
   the weaknesses of this film in our introductory remarks as well as the
   discussion in order to present a more revolutionary view of the
   Amerikkkan Lockdown.
   
   Note: The Last Graduation is available from Zahm Productions, 101 West
   79 Street 4C, New York NY 10024 Tele/Fax 212-595-5002.
   bzahm@interport.net .Institution price: $199 (call for individual,
   grass-roots and activist discount). RAIL does not know the
   availability of The Farm: Angola.