Last night at the Director’s Guild of America Theater in New York City, I got to see a sneak preview of Brett Morgen’s powerful new documentary, Chicago 10. Morgen, best known for his 2002 documentary on Robert Evans, The Kid Stays in the Picture, decided he wanted to make a more political film after the invasion of Afghanistan about 5 years ago. The events of today brought him back to the year he was born, 1968, and he decided to tell the tale of Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, David Dellinger and the other 4 men that were put on trial after they encouraged people to non-violently protest the war in Vietnam at the 1968 Democratic Convention.
When the Yippies (Hoffman, Rubin) and MOBE (Dellinger), both anti-war groups, came to Chicago during the convention, they were denied permits and their non-violent celebration of life came into direct contact with the Chicago Police, and as Walter Cronkite says in the movie - “The Democratic Convention is about to begin in a police state.”
In speaking about his motivation to make the movie, Morgen contended that he wanted to “ultimately making a film about 2004 and 2005″ and his goal was to use the events in 1968 to help shed light on where Americans are today and how young people use or don’t use their voices in protest. With this, he didn’t want to make a film that was a history lesson and he purposely left out a larger context for the time period, choosing to focus on the events surrounding the trial and demonstration.
“If you want to know the history read a book, if you want an experience, watch the movie.” said Morgen, when one audience member asked why he didn’t spend time in the film explaining what led up to 1968 and what was happening elsewhere.
The film is a perfectly blended mix of archival footage and animation and it was Morgen’s desire to make the film an experience that led him to use animation. There was no footage of the trial, but there were extensive court documents, so instead of interviewing folks today that were a part of the events 68, Morgen decided to use the court transcripts and animate the trial.
“I wanted to capture that experience, that energy” said Morgen. He went on to quote Jerry Rubin who said that “the trial was a cartoon show.”
Animating people and events would also allow Morgen to make the film seem more in the now, as he was interested in “taking things from the past and putting them in the present tense.” The crowd at last nights screening was full of young people looking to get involved, as the event was sponsored by both Generation Engage and Campus Progress, two organizations that work to get people excited about politics. It was also filled with some folks who had a connection to the events in 1968, together the two groups seemed inspired by Morgen’s film and during his discussion with Kevin Powell, one of the first cast members on MTV’s The Real World and current candidate for Congress in Brooklyn, young and old united in discussion about what we can do today to make a difference.
to learn more about Generation Engage and again to learn about Campus Progress. Chicago 10 opens in cities across the country on February 29th - check back here for a review of the film closer to it’s release date.
Also, watch below for a clip of Morgen talking about the importance of spreading the word from last night’s screening/discussion and below that is the trailer for Chicago 10, to get you excited and inspired!
