Event

Protest Films of the 60s

Wednesday, June 24 at 7:30pm
Presented by Film Historian JACK STEVENSON

$9 Members / $12 Public
Active Membership Will Be Checked

In May of 1969 40 years ago Peoples Park in Berkeley erupted into deadly protest, bringing into focus issues such as the concept of private property, civil disobedience and police brutality. Film Historian Jack Stevenson marks this anniversary by presenting the film Peoples Park and three other short films that reflect the spirit of protest and alienation that marked the decade many of these same issues still relevant today.

ASSEMBLY LINE (1961, 30 min., b/w)
This intimate and starkly photographed narrative tells the tale of a factory worker who throws himself into the neon glitz of Philadelphia, thinking cash will buy him excitement, companionship, and meaning. He finds he can spend his money but it buys him nothing, and he connects with no one.

AMERICAS IN REAL TROUBLE (1968, 15 min., color)
This free-wheeling reportage captures all the contrasts of patriotic Vietnam-era parades as they move through Chicagos poverty-ridden ghetto. The soundtrack is music heard over the radio at that moment in time, mostly hillbilly songs that celebrate God and Country. The result is an unmediated snapshot of the moment.

PEOPLES PARK (1969, 25 min., b/w, San Francisco Newsreel)
This fiercely partisan version of the Peoples Park story captures not only the street battles between the people of Berkeley defending a park they had created and the police acting on behalf of the property owners but also a radical style of filmmaking that sought to shed light on aspects of the story ignored by the major media.

LOVE IT / LEAVE IT (1970, 15 min., color)
This second film by Tom Palazzolo fluidly weaves sound and image together to create an hallucinatory montage of urban America at the height of anti-war demonstrations. It is equal parts totalitarian nightmare and candy-coated consumer fun fair.