Images of pummeled Capitol Police officers and America’s leaders fleeing down Congressional hallways filled the screen of the Bright Family Screening Room this past Monday. Dozens of Emerson students gathered for the viewing of a documentary about the events of Jan. 6, 2021, followed by a question-and-answer session with the directors, two-time Emmy award-winning documentarist brothers Jules and Gédéon Naudet. 

Sourced from archival videos and photographs, along with narrated stories from politicians, the film, titled “January 6th”, tells the story of the police officers and journalists who witnessed the Capitol Attack firsthand. The film was released in 2022 but was brought to Emerson now with hopes from the brothers to “unify in a time of division” and share the film’s message,” Jules said. When asked about the significance of showing it this day, Jules said it was a complicated film when it first came out, and now it is only more so. He said he hopes it will be a reminder that moments of difficulty will always, eventually, pass. 

“I hope to be able to disagree in a nicer way, and hopefully enough time has passed, and they’ll say, ‘how horrible this happened, and these human beings went through that,’” Jules said. 

On Jan. 6th, 2021, hundreds of rioters attacked and broke into the U.S. Capitol building, as the state representatives and senators voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. The insurrection was fueled by the “Stop the Steal” movement, perpetuated by President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the election to Former President Joe Biden. The refusal advanced conspiracy theories that voter fraud had “stolen” the win from Trump, which sparked the riot. 

Throughout the two-and-a-half-hour runtime of the Naudets’ documentary, interview subjects described the surging noise the rioters made by shattering windows, breaking down doors, and chanting. Meanwhile, images flashed of hundreds of rioters dressed in Trump and MAGA apparel attacking police officers and hunting down representatives. One congresswoman, Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA), claimed to have thought she was experiencing a heart attack in an interview conducted by the filmmakers.

With emotional retellings featuring uniformed officers breaking down in tears, the Naudets explored the events of that fateful day, which resulted in the deaths of multiple rioters and officers, spawned a congressional investigation, and culminated in thousands being criminally charged—though all participants received either pardons or commutations by President Trump upon his re-election.

Prominent political leader Nancy Pelosi could be seen shaking uncontrollably in another segment of the film as she recounted her experience. In the question and answer session after the screening, the directors compared the personal confessions they captured to a therapy session.

“I think here, they were no longer politicians, they were no longer police officers,” Jules told the crowd. “They were just human beings going through something horrible, not knowing if at the end of the day, they would make it home to their loved ones.”

There were multiple moments throughout the film that echoed the brothers’ attempts to take the attention away from the politics of the day and instead focus on the human experiences. When captioning the titles of the multiple House Representatives narrating, no specific clarification about their political party appeared on the screen. Rather, they appeared as a group undivided, something the directors said was done to represent America’s government and laws, fighting collectively for the democracy of the United States through moments of turmoil.

“We wanted to show that different perspective,” Jules said. “Instead of saying, it’s Democrats, it’s Republicans, it was really about this human frailty and this human resilience and that strength that is in all of us in these terrible moments.” 

Jules addressed a question regarding the ability to stay apolitical without interviewing the rioters from this day in their documentary. Instead of interviewing the rioters, the Naudet brothers were the first to gain the full consent to interview the Capitol police officers who were attacked that day. Some retold the events with tears in their eyes while footage captured by cell phones on the day played.

“Of course, unconsciously or consciously, we have some bias. But we’re trying to follow it by concentrating on what the people who were interviewed were telling us and going from theirs through that narrative,” Jules said. 

Jules told the Beacon that he grew up in a home where politics were often debated and argued, but never held over someone. He said that was the spirit he tried to bring to the film.

“Forget that these people are politicians or journalists or police officers,” Jules said. “See that story, a story of human beings.”

Jules said this helped him avoid making another political film about the event, which he said he hoped would allow it to resonate across political aisles. He said he felt it was more important to document history rather than perpetuate politics.

“Instead of doing your project as a political film, make it a human story,” Jules said. “Because then the moment your project starts being watched, you’re not giving the opportunity for half of the audience or whatever the percentage to switch it off.”

Some attendees said they felt deeply affected by the emotional moments of the film. 

Maris Carrasco, a freshman media arts production major, thanked the brothers for making the film. They said that they both acknowledged the importance of being informed of these events, and also felt that “it was a hard watch.”

Two international students, who declined to give their names out of safety concerns, said they left the screening feeling uneasy and discomforted about the country they were studying abroad in while pursuing a degree in film at Emerson.

The brothers will continue their tour to multiple other Boston universities over the next few days, sharing their message of unification and humanity.   

“When the worst happens, the best of human beings is always there, and for us, this film is about that,” Jules said.