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Event
MAYDAY 1971 RAW
Videofreex, one of the earliest video collectives, was formed in 1969, and produced over 1,500 tapes and edits in their decade of working together. As early adopters of video camera technology, the freex were constantly shooting footage; creating guerilla television for the counterculture as they made their way through the political turmoil of the late 60s and 70s.
Two of their founding members, David Cort and Perry Teasdale, met at Woodstock Music Festival, Sony Portapaks in hand. Joined by Mary Curtis Ratcliff, and working out of a Manhattan loft, they eventually grew to ten members, including Chuck Kennedy, Nancy Cain, Skip Blumberg, Davidson Gigliotti, Carol Vontobel, Bart Friedman and Ann Woodward.
In 1971, the collective moved to a shared house in Lanesville, NY, where they launched Lanesville TV, the worlds first pirate television station with an antenna given to them by Abbie Hoffman. Speaking back to the three TV networks of the time (CBS, NBC, & ABC), they produced documentary work with Fred Hampton, the Weathermen, Yoko Ono, the Hells Angels, and Shirley Clark, to name just a few.
On May Day 2018, Spectacle is proud to present MAYDAY 1971 RAW; a documentary using footage shot in 1971, directed and edited by Videofreex member Skip Blumberg in 2017; a utopian call to arms for the 21st century.
MAYDAY 1971 RAW
Dir. Skip Blumberg / Videofreex / Mayday Video, 1971 / 2017.
Amerika. 66 min.
English
TUESDAY, MAY 1ST - 7:30 PM
FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE
(This event is $10)
The more of those kids, people who have never been arrested, that you bring in that jail What they been taught, they know better now. So Momma, Daddy, nobody can tell em. They found it out for themselves.
On May 1st, 1971, 35,000 protesters occupied West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. for a massive series of direct actions against the war in Vietnam. They blocked traffic intersections and the entrances to several federal buildings. Their message: If the government wont stop the war, well stop the government.
Mayday Video, a collective comprising the Videofreex and other independent video pioneers, was formed to document these protests from the inside. Conceived of as the countercultures own press coverage, Mayday Video captured the event with a verité approach made possible by the relatively new technology of video cameras. MAYDAY 1971 RAW is compiled from Mayday Videos original footage and gives an experiential account of that tumultuous week of radical political action.
By May 7th, over 12,000 protesters were arrested, crowding D.C. central lockup. In one of the films most striking sequences, the D.C. Metropolitan Police become so overwhelmed that they lock one arrested Mayday Video member in a holding cell with their video camera, allowing them to record from inside the jail. Watching today, one cannot help but think of the repressive police tactics and mass arrests in Washington D.C. during the 2017 presidential inauguration.
MAYDAY 1971 RAW uses minimal editorializing or exposition, giving contemporary audiences just enough context. Interspersed with footage of the protests are on-the-fly interviews that give a vivid sense of the political climate with a wide breadth of voices - from organizers of the protests like Rennie David of the Chicago 8 to rabid anti-communists to working-class residents of D.C. who feel ambivalence about the protesters tactics even while supporting their message.
Covering not only the anti-war movement, but also feminism, black power, and the emergent LGBTQ movment, MAYDAY 1971 RAW is a partisan time-capsule that speaks not only to the past, but also urgently to our present.
Special thanks to Skip Blumberg, Videofreex, and Mayday Video.
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LocationSPECTACLE THEATER (View)
124 South 3rd Street
Brooklyn, NY 11249
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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