Heads up: new documentary about storming of the US Capitol

BBC 2 9pm, 20 October 2021

A new film by Dan Reed and Jamie Roberts details the tumultuous events of January 6th, when violence spilled down the Washington Mall and into the Houses of Congress. I have been fortunate to have visited Congress many times over the last 25 years, and to walk round the building, attend meetings, visit both the chambers in session, and to absorb the gravitas and grandeur it possesses - both as a physical building and an institution. So to watch the pictures from downtown Washington DC of rioting and mayhem, it was difficult to imagine that mob would end up actually storming the home of American democracy.

Of the film HBO says:

"Four Hours at the Capitol is an immersive chronicle of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, when thousands of American citizens from across the country gathered in Washington D.C. to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election, many with the intent of disrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s presidency.

And from a feature in the Guardian where the writer meets one of the filmmakers:

The escalation from mindless hooliganism to hand-to-hand combat, as people just doing their jobs begin to fear for their lives, is hard to watch – especially knowing the consequences will be fatal. Reed says one executive passed on the idea saying it felt too “ripped straight from the headlines”. Four Hours at the Capitol certainly makes the headlines feel chillingly real. “It sort of becomes an action movie at one point: you’re totally immersed,” says Reed. “It is horrific, it is shocking to witness to what point America is divided.”

Source: ‘If it were the UK, police would have opened fire’: the explosive film about Trump’s Capitol Hill rioters | Television | The Guardian