A new documentary about the 2021 attack on Congress is is being produced for release on Prime Video (trailer below). “The Sixth” recounts the experiences of six people who were at the Capitol that day. Based on the trailer, it seems to focus on two or three police officers, a couple Congressional staff members, and possibly a Congressman. It does not seem to involve anyone from the mob.
This documentary is being released in the context of a GOP attempting to fool inattentive voters by denying the violence that occurred on January 6th, while simultaneously telling Trump’s core supporters that the violence was justified. This is not the first documentary about the Jan 6 attacks — there is a whole slew from both legitimate journalists and far-right propagandists, including:
- American Insurrection (Frontline PBS, 2021). This mainly focuses on the evolution of the far-right during the Trump administration, with the attack on Congress at the end. PBS has produced a slew of documentaries around this subject — 10 documentaries are listed here.
- Four Hours at the Capitol (HBO, 2021). HBO also produced “This Place Rules” (2022).
- 187 Minutes: The January 6 Insurrection (Vice, 2023). This focuses on what Trump was doing from when he urged the crowd to go to the Capitol to when he encouraged them to go home.
- For those monitoring the conspiracy theory crowd. Epoch times has one too, that they are promoting on Facebook. (released 2022 — link to IMDB because I won’t link to Epoch), and there’s also one on the YouTube channel called “Discerning History” that seems to be framing the attack as somehow staged or intentionally amplified by authorities (based on the introductory comments).
The timing of ‘The Sixth’ will likely be helpful to the Biden campaign, but I don’t think it should be viewed as campaign propaganda of the types that Republicans have been regularly producing since 2010 (if I remember correctly, this started with “Hillary: The Movie” by the “Citizens United” propaganda group). This documentary is about an important historical event, provides a new spin on the events of the day, and seems to be in the typical style of its directors, Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine. The movie is being produced by Change Content, which was founded by the film’s directors,:
The Fines joined forces in 2003. When their first film together earned an Oscar nomination and forever changed the lives of the subjects in their film, a beautiful equation proved true - - a story told with dignity and beauty is an incredible catalyst for change. Each one of their films has followed that path, and now they want to scale that ripple effect. Launched in 2021, Change Content brings together a new community of changemakers - - those craving stories to make change, and creative talents who crave to make a difference. (source)
It is being distributed by A24, which gained some attention due to their recent involvement with the “Civil War” movie.
Finally, if you really want to delve into this stuff, DocumentaryTube has a list of videos from broadcast TV companies about Jan 6. This does include a Fox news episode from Tucker Carlson in which he questions Ray Epps, clearly in the hope that he’ll uncover some conspiracy. If you want to study this stuff, noticed Carlson’s rhetorical slight-of-hand to to fool his audience into thinking that words and actions are the same thing (comparing Epps with the Proud Boys).