ABOUT THE OCTAGON FILM

In September 1973, Gerald Penny arrived at Amherst College full of promise, as one of a small number of Black students admitted to one of America's most prestigious institutions in the wake of the MLK assassination. Eight days later, he was dead, his body found in the college pool. The official ruling was accidental drowning, but questions linger to this day. Among them, this film’s central questions:

1. As elite institutions like Amherst College scrambled to diversify, were they truly prepared to protect and nurture the Black students they recruited?

2. Can any place like Amherst College achieve diversity and true inclusion?

3. What is the potential impact of the recent USSC decision – combined with the recent attacks on higher education by the federal government – on diversity and inclusion work?

Fifty years later, THE OCTAGON uses this tragic cold case as a portal into America's complex relationship with race, privilege, and power in higher education. The film weaves three interconnected narratives:

1. The investigation into Penny's death, including new interviews with surviving witnesses and family members and its emotional impact on the entire college community;

2. The 200-year history of Amherst College's complicated relationship with race – symbolized by its iconic building, The Octagon, originally built with profits from slavery and now the home of the Black Students Union, through to the volatile campus culture of the early 1970s, including documented attacks on Black students by white athletes, contextualizing the environment Gerald entered;

3. Alongside modern-day parallels like the response to the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the contemporary struggle over diversity in higher education, escalating through the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision to end race-conscious admissions and the federal government’s ongoing coercion tactics.

Through intimate personal testimony, archival materials, interviews with students, alumni, college faculty and staff, including current and past college presidents, and other experts, and observational footage of today's students wrestling with these legacies, THE OCTAGON examines how institutions built on exclusion grapple with inclusion.

The film features original footage of the 1974 dedication ceremony that transformed The Octagon—a building with direct ties to slavery and scientific racism—into a center of Black student life. A transformation wrought through stunning tributes in song, speeches, and poetry – including a poem written and dedicated to Gerald Penny by the trailblazing professor and legendary poet of the Black Arts Movement, Sonia Sanchez.

We follow current Amherst students as they organize protests, create new traditions, and attempt to reconcile their presence in spaces that weren't built for them. Their stories parallel and echo Gerald Penny's experience, revealing how much‚ and how little‚ has changed in fifty years.

The film builds to a powerful crescendo as the college community confronts its past and debates its future in the wake of the Supreme Court decision and government intimidation. Through it all, Gerald Penny's presence haunts the narrative, his tragic story serving as both a warning and a catalyst for change.