'The Sixth' shows what some don't want to see

WASHINGTON — As photographer Mel D. Cole settles into a chair to share his memories of the mob attack on the Capitol, he looks at the camera and says, “Are you ready?”

“And that’s what we’re asking all audiences. Are you ready? Because you should be. To be an educated citizenry, you need to understand we literally almost had democracy tumble. … It was very close,” said Andrea Nix Fine in a recent interview.

She directed the new documentary “The Sixth” alongside her husband, and they acknowledge it was hard going. “It wasn’t easy with this film, because people didn’t want to talk. People wanted to move on quickly; people had exhaustion,” Sean Fine said.

Sifting through footage from Jan. 6, 2021, they saw blood smeared on the Capitol steps and police hit with flagpoles, batons and orange streams of bear spray. Voices in the crowd yelled, “You better run, cops,” and “You’re going to die tonight.”

Those scenes may feel familiar by now, but “The Sixth” recaptures the fear and urgency of the day with the help of six eyewitnesses, including Cole, a congressional staffer, a member of Congress and police officers.

“If we forget and we don’t acknowledge how painful that was, how difficult that day was … we can’t move on,” Sean Fine said.

This interview has been condensed and edited. To hear more, listen to Episode 323 of the "Political Theater" podcast.

Q: How did you decide to make a film about Jan. 6?

ANF: We actually had a crew filming down at the Capitol that day because we were already making with A24 a film about the peaceful transition of presidential power, ironically enough.

We lost touch with our cinematographer, Caz Rubacky, for almost two hours. I think the crew got separated, and then he wasn’t responding to any phone calls. We were terrified.

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