Talkback
“Change” has been the operative word in more than one political campaign in 2008. What are some ways to try to bring about change in American society? Which do you think are most effective?
Do you think protesting is an effective means for change? Why or why not?
Did protesting have more of an impact on politics and society in the 1960s than it does today? Why or why not?
Share your responses and your reactions to CHICAGO 10.
Tell us what you think>>
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I believe this project took courage and a commitment by those who realize that the devolution of our democracy did not begin with the hijacking of the 2001-04 presidency but much earlier. I will be anlayzing this film and finding effective ways to educate my students about what is possible and challenging when a minority is determined to stand against the majority
I think in the 1960's, protests were slightly more effective, if only because they had more passion then. The people of todays society, especially the youth(the ones who receive the effects of the changes made), are too apathetic. Protesting could be a wonderful way to bring about change. It brings peoples attention to just how much we care about certain topics. This would then cause them to realize that what they're doing hurts people in more ways than one. We just need to get people fired up. They must get excited about something. There is a lot to get excited about/against out there in the world today, and we just need to find a way to bring it to the surface.
In regards to the film, I thought it was simply amazing. There were times when I was crying because I sympathized with these protestors. I too am a pacifist and I really wished that I could've been out there with them trying to spread peace around the world. This was one of the most amazing, moving films I have ever seen. I don't often hear about that part of the sixties/seventies and I really appreciated the light that was shone on the malicious way these protestors were treated. Thank you Independent Lens. I can't wait to see what you show next.
necesitamos mirarnos, mirar las caras de nuestros amigos y los soldados en Iraq ahora, pensar.. pensar mucho sobre que ha pasado en nuestro patria hermosa... s, eso es necesario para entender que est pasando con el gobierno. Chicago 10 muestra la importancia de eso, y por eso Chicago 10 debe ser mostrado a todos los jvenes para que no puedan olvidar.
Editors note (translation):
“ We need to look at ourselves, look at the faces of our friends and soldiers in Iraq now, think ... Think a lot about what has happened to our beautiful country ..., This is necessary to understand what is happening with the government. CHICAGO 10 shows the importance of this, and that is why CHICAGO 10 must be shown to the youth so they won’t forget.”
Thank you for the show on the Chicago 10. I was living at Chicago at the time while going to college, and was in the final demonstation there. However, while trying to get my own life together, slanted news coverage in Chicago, and the amount of time that elaspsed, it was hard to put it all in perspective. Your show did that for me, and I was proud to have been in some part involved with it. I would like my wife to see this, if it airs in Gainesvile again. She is currently out of town.
I saw this and I just wanted to say - thanks. Really great look at history - I did not live in that time period, but I was so moved watching this that I wished I had. What volatile times, my inner activist was so shaken by this and my need to get out in the world and make my mark has been so made the better. Thanks, and keep them coming.
I watched this with my 16 year old son. He's just starting to make sense of the existence of a political world outside himself. He was riveted by this film, and I was very glad. I told him it was all real, it all happened and he was stunned. He'd had no idea. At one point during a trial scene, he turned and said to me, "Wow, that Judge, this is just like The Crucible". He had just read it in English class, and at the time said that it was "kind of boring". The film helped him learn about a highly charged moment in history and to make a connection between literature and the real world. I felt tremendous gratitude to the filmakers and to my son's teachers in that moment.
The film made me ashamed of my own lack of action in such a noticeably self-serving society. It also made me feel better about myself. I am not the only person who thinks like I do and anyone who may think me odd for thinking like I do can continue to act like the puppet the system has always wanted them to play. Those who judge me should judge me in the way that their TV and newspaper has told them they should judge.
Sadly, many people in this world especially the youngish have no idea that the events of your film took place. We need more people, working in the media field, who would be willing to show them another glance at it. They secretly crave it, knowing, somewhere inside, that the events of the recent past are the only way to understand the events of the recent present.
This was a stunning film, and made me feel ashamed we have all not done more to resist the current way in iraq. Thank-you.
A wonderful and riveting documentary. Thank you!
Chicago ten was BEYOND FABULOUS the best thing I've seen anywhere for a very long time. Many thanks.
Just watched CHICAGO 10 and was moved by the similarities of 1968 Chicago to 2008 St Paul. I lived in Michigan in 1968 in a town with 50% of the population Afro American and my father working for the local major arms factory. My high school classmates drank beer and shot at blacks for fun. Are things better yet ?
The footage on Democracy Now! about St Paul's police and federal attacks on protesters was almost as chilling as 1968. Are we 'sheeple' ? A video about this is needed.We live not in a democracy but in a plutocracy. Thank you-keep up the good work.
A striking historical document but does the music score need to be so loud !?
As the last person to see and speak with Abbie Hoffman before his death, I wanted to thank you for Chicago 10 I am fully re charged and hope in some way to make a difference. I appreciate your work and someday hope to have something to offer you.
Thank you so much for airing Chicago 10 as your season opener this evening. I was blown away but this film and really appreciated seeing it on public television. Please keep showing this kind of film on Independent Lens and on PBS.
I bet all the aging hippies really loved this movie.
I guess they also really "dug" those VietCong flags that the "protesters" were carrying.
Thanks for the entertainment--I was rooting for the Chicago Police all the way.
Does protesting help? I went to a protest in 2003 in D.C. against the Iraq war. I haven't felt much comfort in the U.S. world police since. It worries me that I continue to hear dissent but see no action for it. It comes down to knowing how to spread ideas. Chicago 10 is a good way of doing that, but then after people have the information what do you do? -becky
First of all - ‘kudos’ to the producers - for this creative piece of work!!! I was ‘glued’ to my TV for this entire (VERY) interesting, educational, and entertaining program about this piece of U.S. history. I was surprised at how well the interesting animations communicated and enhanced details that real news footage doesn‘t - unless you’re a really on your toes to notice! The animations were really appropriate for this story because it had a cartoonish twist to it in retrospect - just as the creators presented it. As far as ‘I’m’ concerned - it should be playing in theaters! If this production becomes purchasable, I’m interested! - Very Sincerely, Gary in Seattle.
Chicago 10 is the best documentary I have ever seen of the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention protest. That I'm aware, it's also only the second movie of the Chicago 7+1 trial, which grew out of the U.S. government's attempt to justify the use of excessive force against convention protesters. Counterproductively for the government, the trial immortalized the eight defendants and their two lawyers for which this movie is named.
I've never seen most of this filmed protest footage. At last, there is enough original 1968 material organized in one movie, to visualize the Chicago physical situation experienced by perhaps 40,000 people on all sides. The documentary is presented by sequential intercutting of trial transcript and recreation video animations with 1968 actuality films, TV, radio, and audio recordings. Historians can now see what was happening almost sequentially in several large outdoor venues.
The 1970 Chicago Seven trial transcript helps organize the original 1968 protest footage. The shockingly bloody park and street confrontation scenes keep the trial's political philosophy arguments contextually relevant and interesting. A mixed classical and rock movie score is alien in a documentary, some of the classical pieces are strikingly inappropriate, and I recall much of the music as excessively loud. But so much of everything else worked that a defense of this overwhelming music as avant-garde art is an acceptable shrug to me.
The Chicago 10 production device of realistic human animation solves the problem of adding visual interest to audio-only original recordings, and blends well with full voice-over animation of the trial's transcript-only original record. 1968 was an era on the cusp of transition from black-and-white to color film. The jarring alternations between the two technologies are completely motivated by the unfolding street action, and are a possibly unique feature of this production, mimicked even by its own animations.
I recommend this Brett Morgen documentary for its innovatively blended presentation of two difficult-to-understand viewpoints of the same politically earthshaking event. I'll ask my library to purchase a copy of the DVD, but unfortunately it will not include the short piece which PBS's Independent Lens used to fill out the last 20 minutes of it's time slot for Chicago 10 on 2008-10-22.
The short piece was a 1970 British "World in Action / The Big news" report on the Chicago Seven trial. It proved to be critical to me for an explanation by Chicago Seven lawyer Leonard Weinglass of the devious 1968 Anti-Riot law under which the defendants were convicted and sentenced for a thought crime. It criminalized the crossing of state lines with the intent to threaten property or people, even if the threat was not carried out.
Though not seen in Chicago 10, professional media has made the 1968 protesters famous for mass chanting, "The whole world is watching". Now the future world can almost eyewitness these events, brilliantly expanded beyond merely professional moving images.
Sean
I guess it takes cartoons, these days, to grab and hold people's attention. It's hard to know just what to say while or after watching this, but I wish there had been fewer people joking about the possibilities of violence during those times. They misled so many. The events outside the Hilton, especially, shattered confidence in our youth, in the Dem Party and in the adherent, hopeful nature of our country for many, many years. Those events terrified many middle Americans and undecideds (remember the election in '68?) and broadcasting this, at this time, will do the same thing again. Foolish then and foolish now, in the truest senses of that word.
I don't at all appreciate the divisive nature of airing this film during this hopeful political season. You may recall that there's a war currently going on with lots of trauma and bloodshed.
This film examines none of the complicated reasons behind, and concurrent with, the police riot during the Chicago convention. We see lots of spoiled rich kids, old macho Mailer, the ever-sensationalizing Ginsberg and the loud mouthed Abbie Hoffman (whose humor was irresistible but who was correctly pegged, at the time, as irresponsible). It's kind of remarkable how much we've learned during and since that time, but this film reflects none of it.
My sister's roommate 'lost' her dearest friend at Kent State (lost? He was murdered). I had a dear acquaintance die as a result of those events. I've met others whose lives were disrupted and who scattered from their families. There are lots of us like that. It wasn't fun. The only parts of this film that ring true are the archival films of the peaceful (or naive) gathering and protest, the pushes by the cops, and then on the last day, the brutal beatings by the Chicago cops. Not all the cops were convinced the street beatings were justified, by the way - they were, after all, real cops, with real senses of their daily lives.
The very few film moments of Tom Hayden and Rennie Davis seem rational, and the feeble attempts of Dave Dellinger seem reflective of the ineffective nature of those times, but by far, this film itself seems ineffective and exploitative. We would all have been better served if the filmmaker had included more examination of the circumstances surrounding the entire fiasco. There are parallels with today - but scaring the crap out of the few late deciders isn't going to help with the crucial questions of the day, today. I guess in that way, it parallels those days - again: irresponsible. Glad the filmmaker had fun. We didn't.
This film is awesome. It is not even over yet, and I am just loving it. I really wish a showing would come to Portland, Oregon. Please bring it here.
This film deserves first place. Not only does it give a great historical account of protests of the '68 Democratic Convention, but it is very artistic and creative in the blending between video footage and animation. The blending of the different time periods ie, march planning and court trial, march and the court trial, is excellent. I can't wait until I can purchase a copy of this. Excellent job!!!
Brilliant! I was immediately drawn into the story and could not, dare not, turn away for fear of missing even one of the many revealing truths flowing out of that now so often useless tool, Television. The medium was certainly transcendent this evening. It was a true Aesthetic experience. Cheers!
My stomach is still in knots and the show, Chicago 10, ended over an hour ago. A most riveting show. I was 20 years old at the time of the convention, enrolled in a small college. I am ashamed that I did not take a more active role in the days' political activities. The assassinations, Kent State and all the other horrible events of the era have left scars. Watching this show reminded me how violent and perverse power can be. I believe the knots in my stomach are for many in this country that have not learned anything from these brave peaceful protestors.
In fact, these people, extreme, yes, are the same kind of people that made America from ideals over 200 years ago. No longer do we honor independent thinkers. But, as this show proves, the independent thinkers still exist. There still is hope.
Just caught the PBS/Independent Lens: 'Chicago 10' documentary. It may be the best ever behind the scene portrayal of the '68 Democratic Party convention protest and the federal court trial that followed.
Film director Brett Morgan made an American masterpiece, on the same level as the highly acclaimed 'Eyes on the Prize'.
Tom Hayden is a proud son of Detroit who is the iconic individual that authored the 1962 Port Huron Statement and created the New Left movement. Thanks Tom! The United States needs more participants in democracy of your spirit and will.
I'm pretty sure that was an Eminem track used during the powerful protest march scene. Great ingenuity in the film soundtrack!
"By all necessary means' it's an absolute must see!
Over forty years since Chicago '68 and the parallels are spooky. An unpopular war entered into with dubious motives in "support" of democracy. And now with the cross border raids into Pakistan we have Cambodia/Laos deja vu.
While flipping through the channels to escape the days news after already listening to several hours of it, the animation caught my attention. After watching just a minute of it I was hooked and could not turn the channel. While I had heard about the marches in the past I never took the time to learn more. The risks that individuals took back then to show their freedom of speech is simply amazing and inspiring.
By the end of the program and reflecting back on the past 8 years all I could think of is haw far we have fallen :(
The protests of today don't have the passion of the late 60's. Today's society is still about what can I do for "me". I don't think it's that the younger generation lacks passion it's just that we are constantly bombarded with images of death and dying, poverty and, ridiculus excess and wealth. Why aspire to the greater good of society and of basic human rights when professional athletes, musicians, actors/actresses, etc. make more money than any one person needs to live on. We constantly see them on our t.v's showing off what they have made and what they spend it on. Our young generation watches mindless drivel like "The Hills" for crying out loud and admire these morons!
We need to teach about basic human rights that are being denied in our own country and around the world. Love has been replaced with "He who has the most toys wins". What a sad state of affairs.
I think we are about due for another revolution. We need to let our so-called leaders know that they are supposed to work for us, for our greater good. We still have race issues, poverty, lack of funding for schools and one of the worst healthcare systems. We are supposed to be a "civilized" society, yet look at how many people die each year form not having basic healthcare. It is time for a change.
This is one of the best, avant-garde, experimental films I have ever seen. I never knew this riot even happened. I felt connected to the radicals, to their extreme views, even though I do not agree with all of their tactics. This is a highly complex situation that needed the complex interplay of animation and documentary footage in order to illustrate the historical significance. I also appreciated the British news segment, which was quite detailed and comprehensive. It reminded me of the kind of news I want to see today. Thank you Independent Lens for being gutsy enough to produce this film. Excellent, perfect 10!
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