The Alabama Solution: A Devastating Prison Exposé That Demands Action
Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman have created the most important documentary of Sundance 2025, and possibly the most infuriating. The Alabama Solution isn't just an exposé of America's deadliest prison system – it's a masterclass in how to weaponize contraband cell phones for justice, turning imprisoned men into their own documentarians of horror.
The film's power comes from its methodology. When Jarecki and Kaufman were shut out of Alabama prisons after asking too many questions, they didn't give up. Instead, they spent six years communicating with inmates through smuggled smartphones, accumulating footage that the state never wanted you to see: rats crawling through toilets, blood-stained walls, men overdosing in overcrowded cells, guards beating prisoners with a brutality that defies comprehension.
The heart of the film becomes the murder of Steven Davis, beaten to death by guards at Donaldson Prison. The image of his corpse – facial bones caved in, eye socket destroyed – is something you'll never unsee. But Jarecki and Kaufman don't just show us violence; they investigate it, turning their documentary into a murder mystery that exposes systematic cover-ups reaching the highest levels of state government.
What elevates this beyond typical prison documentary fare is how it humanizes its subjects without sanitizing them. Robert Earl Council and Melvin Ray, speaking from their cells at Easterling, become our guides through this nightmare. They're articulate, funny, angry, and desperately fighting for dignity in a system designed to strip it away. When they address the Sundance audience via contraband phone during the Q&A, you feel the urgency of their message.
HBO will release this later in 2025, and it needs to be seen by everyone. This isn't just about Alabama – it's about a national prison system built on slave labor and sustained by deliberate cruelty. The film ends without easy resolution because there isn't one, only the demand that we stop looking away. As Melvin Ray says, "This is happening in your name."