Newsreel

In April 1968, black and white students rebelled against the university administration, occupying five buildings, including the president's office in one of the first campus revolts of the Civil Rights/Vietnam War era. The revolt began as a protest against university expansion into neighboring communities and its role as a slum lord. After five days of student control, the administrators and trustees ordered the police to clear the buildings. What resulted was an unprecedented display of brutality and repression. Narrated by one of the student rebels, the detailed eyewitness account of this event galvanized other campus revolts around the country.

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. Newsreel's 19th, and one of their most widely distributed films, it was originally released as "Off the Pig," but has since seen release under the name Black Panther. This short film features drawings from activist artist Emory Douglas.

The Newsreel collective’s JANIE’S JANIE breaks with the group’s usual format for a more personal approach, following a woman’s journey to self-determination after years of mental and physical abuse; or, as Janie says, “First I was my father’s Janie, then I was my Charlie’s Janie, now I’m Janie’s Janie."

This documentary provides an in-depth examination of protest activities surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It documents draft resistance, the growth of G.I. coffee houses, the development of alternative media and the early days of Newsreel itself. It is particularly useful in its exploration of the problems the movement faced in using mainstream media to broadcast its message. It is also a document of the philosophies, tactics, and problems of the student movement in the crucial year of 1968. It is most useful when background information can also be provided.

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.

The San Francisco Haight community fights in the streets to defend their culture against brutal police oppression.

Newsreel's short film shows two days of demonstrations in Berkeley over the issue of "the streets belong to the people" and the decision of the City Council to close off Telegraph Avenue for the 4th of July, 1968. This film features scenes of members of the Young Socialist Alliance, including Peter Camejo, demonstrating their support for the French student movement of May 1968.

Filmed in Baltimore during the support demonstrations for the nine catholics who were on trial for napalming the 1-A Draft files in Catonsville, Maryland. The film examines some relationships between radical catholicism and the Movement.

A film about Herman Ferguson, a candidate for the U.S. Senate on the Freedom and Peace ticket in the 1968 election.

As leaders of the Movement met in the relative calm of a Chicago suburb in March to plan the strategy for the summer, the empty streets of the city are waiting, and ominous. An inside look at some of the planning that led to the 1968 Convention challenge.

Formed on the Lower East Side of New York to side step high prices, poor quality, and weight cheating of local supermarkets.

A visual presentation of some of the weapons that the police were using in uprisings around the country in the late 60s.

This film gives a general outline of the kinds of work being done in The Boston-Cambridge area by National Resist and the New England Resistance.

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.

In January 1968, 10,000 women led a peaceful march on Washington in protest against the Vietnam War. This film documents the march and raises questions about the forms of protest engaged by women and the role of women in the anti-war. Jeannette Rankin Brigade was the first Newsreel film proposed, shot and edited by women.

An extended interview with the four American sailors who deserted in protest against the war in Vietnam in 1967. Filmed in Japan, the interviews reveal much about how they reached their decision to desert.

This film is about the oppression of the Third World community in the Mission district of San Francisco, specifically seven Latino youths who were recruiting street kids into a college Brown Studies Program. Accused of killing a plainclothesman, they became victims of a press and police campaign to "clean-up" the Mission. Their defense became the foundation of a revolutionary community organization called Los Siete.

In October, 1967, 100,000 people marched on Washington to demand an end to the Vietnam War. Marvin Fishman and Masanori Oe with help from Jonathan Chernoble documented the event and later gave the film to the newly formed Newsreel. This film depicts the peaceful march that ended in the occupation of the Pentagon grounds. Cameras were there in the midst of the fixed bayonets and billy clubs as the military turned on the demonstrators in this historic mobilization.

"Here she comes…" At the 1968 Miss America pageant, demonstrators introduced a sheep as the appropriate winner. This entertaining short film shows how Women's Liberation activists used guerrilla theater to raise awareness of what Miss America really represents. The film was widely screened by the second wave women's movement and is a vivid document of the movement's activists in action.

Against the background of the escalation of the war in Vietnam, AMERICA documents the development of the anti-war movement on the home front. Conversations with Vietnam veterans, young teenagers, and African American militants contextualizes footage that graphically depicts the heightened incidents of mass protest and police repression.