Filmmaker Sierra Pettengill says the first time she watched the U.S. Army training films at the heart of her new documentary “Riotsville, U.S.A.,” the grainy images were as stunning as the meaning they carried.
“I had this real whiplash, which I also think made its way into the tone of the film,” Pettengill says of her first viewing of this little-before-seen footage from the late ’60s. “Between the absurdity and the ridiculousness and how stupid a lot of it looks — then you’re kind of instantly whiplashed to true chilling violence.
“That state of toggling between those two,” she says. “That was my first reaction.”
