they want to kill us. we are men. waking up america. somebody had to take a stand. joining me now the film makers behind attica stanley nelson and co-director and dear friend of mine in this show, tracy curry. thank you both for being here. the two things that struck me the most about this documentary were the first day of freedom after the hostages had been taken and these inmates were in the yard free and that exuberance you feel and the sense of raw vengeance but the police and the desire to kill and humiliate as many of those men as possible, to punish them no matter what the consequences were. that s what struck me the most. in this story, what struck you
back then or simply weren t alive, i wonder if they can appreciate how bad conditions must have been for hundreds of black and latino inmates to revolt knowing they d likely be punished, if not killed, for it. how bad was it at attica leading up to september of 1971? i was only a teenage activist then, 15 or 16 years old but i remember hearing about the uprising. yeah. one of the things that we detail in the film was how really terrible attica was. you know, the prisoners call it the last place. the the worst prison in new york state. you know, they they the prisoners were given one roll of toilet paper a month. you know, and that s just kind of symbolic of how terrible it was. but they also were subject to beatings and and and and and and torture. if they complained, they were punished. so, you know, they had real reasons why they rebelled and why they wanted to change the system. not only in attica but in prisons throughout the country.
what would police officer believe that new york city would. david berkowitz was a serial killer in late 1970s in new york city, he put the fear of god in the entire city for over a year. he killed 6 people, wounded 7 of them. i interviewed berkowitz when he was in prison for two years, he was at attica. we were just starting our project, we were interviews