Riotsville, U.S.A.
DIRECTOR: Sierra Pettengill TUESDAY FILM SERIES | OCT. 4, 2022 | MASKS OPTIONAL
Welcome to RIOTSVILLE, U.S.A., a turning point in American history where the protest movements of the late 1960s came into conflict with increasingly militarized police departments.
Focusing on unearthed military training footage of Army-built model towns called "Riotsvilles," where military and police were trained to respond to civil disorder in the aftermath of the Kerner Commission created by President Lyndon B. Johnson, director Sierra Pettengill's kaleidoscopic all-archival documentary reconstructs the formation of a national consciousness obsessed with maintaining law and order by any means necessary. Drawing insight from a time similar to our own, RIOTSVILLE, U.S.A. pulls focus on American institutional control and offers a compelling case that if the history of race in America rhymes, it is by design.
This is a very good, urgent film.Tim Cogshell, FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
It's a documentary about futility, about people trying to understand the problem of unrest but unwilling to understand the problem.Amy Nicholson, FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
