[Imc-dc-video] Revolutionary Newsreel Retrospective

[Eddie Becker]

The DC-IMC will present selections from the Newsreel collection, with Paul McIssac.  Discussion will focus on the 60's - what worked, what didn't, and why and similarities to today.  But, we still need a place for the show, so if you know of a good movie space (seats 150) for Thursday Night Sept 27th let me know.  Thanks.  Eddie 

NEWSREEL a RETROSPECTIVE 

The l960's are remembered as the age of activism - a period of tumultuous
upheaval in our country. During those years a small band of filmmakers
created a body of independent work that helped define and explain the times.

They were not journalists in the conventional mechanistic sense - but
advocates and activists who used the medium of film to bring the voices and
the issues of their times to public attention. They saw film as a weapon to
put a the service of movements and struggles although many of their
productions were high quality and artistic.

They called themselves NEWSREEL

Working in decentralized film collectives in several cities, they produced
many, many films, mostly shot on l6 mm. Most were in black and white, as
gritty and realistic as the subjects they depicted. These were films of
civil rights and civil wrongs, of uprisings in communities and on campuses,
about the Vietnam War and the war at home against it. They are in some cases
angry films, as alienated from the forms of traditional newscasts as
anything that has been produced in our country. Some of the films were
produced in the spirit of similar work underway in Cuba and Vietnam. Some
were American originals - bringing the voices of change and change makers to
the social movements of the era. These films were revolutionary in spirit
and commitment.

These are films that deserve to be seen and learned from. They are part of a
dissenting tradition of American film-making. They are also a record of the
emotions that made the 60's what they were. Some were agitprop. Some
captured important moments of history. Most were populist in spirit - while
others were more intellectual but not in the sense of the "intellectual
property" everyone talks about today. These film makers did not seek
individual credit or promote themselves as Hollywood wanabees - although
some did end up making commercial films. They preferred anonymity and a
democratic approach to film making that may seem naive in world where
production is characterized by craft unions and a star system.  (Danny Schechter)


Paul McIsaac was a member of the original NEWSREEL group New York City. He
also appeared in ICE, DOC'S KINGDOM and ROUTE ONE : USA, films directed by
NEWSREEL founding member, Robert Kramer. Paul is a video and radio producer
and is currently the director of PLAYBACK THEATER (NYC).  

LIST OF NEWSREEL FILMS
 
Amerika
Army
Columbia Revolt
Community Control
El Caso Contra Lincoln Center
El Pueblo Se Levanta
Free Farm
Garbage
High School
High School Rising
Ice
Los Siete de la Raza
Make It Real
Make Out
Mayday (Black Panther)
McDonnel Douglas
Mighty Mouse and Little Eva
No Game
Off the Pig (Black Panther)
Only the Beginning 
Open for Children
BDRG: Boston Draft Resistance Group
Richmond Oil Strike
People's Park
Peoples' War
Pig Power
Por Primeria Vez (For the First Time)
R.O.T.C.
Seventy-Nine Springs of Ho Chi Minh
She's Beautiful When She's Angry
Strike City
Summer '68
The Case Against Lincoln Center
The Earth Belongs to the People
The Woman's Film
Troublemakers
Two Heroic Sisters of the Grassland
Up Against the Wall Miss America
Venceremos
Yippie
You Don't Have to Buy the War, Mrs.Smith
Young Puppeteers of South Vietnam
Young Lords

 



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