“America is as psychotic as it is powerful and violence is the only goddamn thing that will command your attention.”
Punishment Park (Peter Watkins, 1971)
Dec
13
US National Guard Birthday
A European camera crew follows a diverse group of American minor dissidents – pacifists, feminists, communists – who are given the choice to spend decades in federal prison, or three days in Bear Mountain Punishment Park, chased by National Guardsmen and law enforcement officers. If they manage to capture the American flag, they're free to go.
– Defendant Lee Robert Brown
While the washed-out 16mm footage and references to #Nixon may tell you otherwise, Punishment Park remains a gut-punching portrait of a timeless America.