Screening

About Newsreel: A Polyphonic History of 1968

Newsreel, a radical anonymous film collective founded in New York in 1967, was known as the “propaganda arm of the New Left.” Equally invested in production, distribution, and activism, the Newsreel collective documented some of the most pressing issues of their—and our—time, activating thousands towards basis for political education, debate, and organizing. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Matt Peterson and Giulia Gabrielli, filmmakers, scholars, and activists whose work around Newsreel serves to document, archive, and advance the collective’s practice. [98 min; documentary; English with open captions]

Films include:

Black Panther [1968; 15 min] | A compelling document of the Black Panther Party leadership in 1967. This film contains a prison interview with Minister of Defense Huey P. Newton as well as an interview with Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver, footage of the aftermath of the police assault against the Los Angeles Chapter headquarters, demonstrations to free Huey at Hutton Memorial Park and the Alameda County Court House, and a recitation of the party's Ten-Point Platform by co-founder Bobby Seale. One of Newsreel's most widely distributed films, it was originally released as "Off the Pig." This short film also features drawings from activist artist Emory Douglas.

Pig Power [1968; 6 min] | As students take to the streets in New York and Berkeley, the state violence that follows illustrates Chicago Mayor Daley's thesis that the police are there "to preserve disorder.”

Garbage [1968; 10 min] | During a prolonged garbage collector's strike in New York City, a group of youths from the Lower East Side of Manhattan decide to use the situation to make a political statement. They collect garbage from the streets of their community and deposit piles of it on the grounds of Lincoln Center, "The Establishment's" cultural showcase.

Janie's Janie [1971; 25 min] | Janie's Janie is an extraordinary document of the early 1970s women's movement. In this personal documentary, Jane Giese, a working-class woman in Newark, comes to realize that she has to take control of her own life after years of physical and mental abuse. As Janie says, "First I was my father's Janie, then I was my Charlie's Janie, now I'm Janie's Janie." The "personal" aspect of the film was unusual for early Newsreel, and its very existence resulted from gender issue struggles within the collective itself. It is a document of a time and its issues, and of the efforts of feminists to give creative visual form to their concerns. Using both interviews and verité material, it is one of the more complex Newsreel films.

Make-Out [1970; 5 min] | As a young couple make out in a car, we hear the woman's stream of consciousness thoughts. She worries about her reputation and whether he'll try to "go all the way." The film is a vibrant document of the early second-wave women's movement, and the concerns and thinking of young women at that time. This film is unique in the Newsreel collection as it was filmed with actors, with a voiceover script created from a women's group discussion.

Community Control [1969; 38 min] | This film documents one of the most important struggles for education in the sixties. In 1968, under intensive community pressure from Black and Latino communities, the State of New York chose three New York City school districts to become part of an experiment in community-run education. In Ocean Hill-Brownsville, the community board requested the reassignment of several teachers perceived as racists. The request brought the wrath of the United Federation of Teachers, city and state bureaucracies, and ultimately a citywide teacher's strike.

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