In the past several decades, whistleblowers have helped shape the nation\u2019s history, from Deep Throat exposing President Nixon\u2019s Watergate scandal to Edward Snowden\u2019s revelations about the NSA\u2019s surveillance. But long before the dawning of the digital age, one group of citizens risked everything when they uncovered illegal government spying programs.<\/p>\n
The FBI, established in 1908, was for 60 years held unaccountable and untouchable until March 8, 1971, when The Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI, as they called themselves, broke into a small FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, took every file, and shared them with the American public.<\/p>\n
After the break-in, the group sent the files to journalists at the Washington Post<\/i>, which published them and shed light on the FBI\u2019s widespread abuse of power. These actions exposed COINTELPRO, the FBI’s illegal surveillance program that involved the intimidation of law-abiding Americans, and helped lead to the country’s first congressional investigation of U.S. intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n
The activist-burglars then disappeared into anonymity for forty years. Until now. Never caught, these previously anonymous Americans \u2014 parents, teachers and citizens \u2014 publicly reveal themselves for the first time and share their story in the documentary 1971<\/i>. Using a mix of dramatic re-enactments and candid interviews with all involved, the film vividly brings to life one of the more important, yet relatively unexplored, chapters in modern American history.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A group of ordinary citizens broke into a small FBI office in Pennsylvania in 1971 and shared with the world their findings on COINTELPRO, the FBI’s illegal surveillance program. Now, they tell their story publicly for the first time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":8290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"topic":[1259,1257,1225],"class_list":["post-321","films","type-films","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topic-civil-liberties","topic-law-administration","topic-politics-and-government"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n