Wide Awake welcomes Guest Speakers
Trace, 18.01.2004 17:13
Helen Garvy and Robert Pardun
filmmakers and founding SDS members
Friday January 23rd 7:00 PM
Evo's Java House 376 E Main Street Ashland
THE DEMISE OF SDS
Students for a Democratic Society 1968-70
Helen Garvy producer/director
In 1968, SDS was the largest antiwar organization of the time, with over 100,000 members and 400 chapters across the country. Two years later SDS had splintered and ceased to exist as an organization. What happened? Why? How did it happen?
The Demise of SDS looks at the events of those critical years and explores the thoughts and feelings of a variety of SDS activists who were in the middle of it all. The video includes:
the effect of the continuing escalation of the war; attacks on the antiwar movement by the FBIs COINTELPRO program and local police; and the murders of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, and Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.
the increasing militancy and the escalation of rhetoric within the antiwar movement - & discussions on militancy and violence.
the growth of factionalism within SDS.
the formation of the Weatherman grouping within SDS and later their decision (with Weathermen then holding the leadership positions in SDS) to abandon SDS as a mass organization.
the 1970 townhouse explosion and its effect on the thinking and actions of a variety of SDS members, including those who became the Weather Underground.
Featuring: Jane Adams, Bill Ayers, Carolyn Craven, Carl Davidson, Bernardine Dohrn, Todd Gitlin, Juan Gonzalez, Tom Hayden, Mark Kleiman, Sue Eanet Klonsky, Steve Max, Carl Oglesby, Robert Pardun, Bob Ross, Vivian Leburg Rothstein, Mike Spiegel, Elizabeth Stanley, and Cathy Wilkerson. (For more information on people, see the Biographies section of the website.)
Helen Garvy (director/producer) was a founder of the Harvard SDS chapter, spent 1964-5 in the SDS national office as assistant national secretary, then worked in an SDS community organizing project in New Jersey and later taught in an alternative school in San Francisco. She has been making films for 20 years. She is also the author of Before You Shoot: A Guide to Low-Budget Film & Video Production.
Robert Pardun (one of the people interviewed in the film) was a founder of the University of Texas SDS chapter in 1964 and later a regional organizer. He spent 1967-8 in the SDS national office as internal education secretary. He is also the author of Prairie Radical: A Journey Through The Sixties.
Homepage:: http://www.sdsrebels.com/index.htm
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More Info 21.01.2004 - 23:17 JUST TO BE CLEAR..... THIS NOT THE SAME FILM WIDE AWAKE SHOWED IN OCTOBER. When THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND film was playing at The Varsity Theater, Wide Awake did 2 weekends to coincide with that film's opening in Ashland. Shown were: REBELS WITH A CAUSE and ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE. This weeks film is THE DEMISE OF THE SDS. More from the film makers website: While making the documentary film, REBELS WITH A CAUSE , Helen Garvy collected many hours of interviews with key activists from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Much of that interesting and important material simply would not fit into the film. The goal of the SDS Oral History Project is to find ways to make that material available to the public, especially academics, organizers, and activists - from both past and present struggles. THE DEMISE OF THE SDS presents the thinking of key participants at the local, regional, and national levels in the SDS on several topics. The stories are woven together to form a coherent whole, accompanied by graphics and photos from the period. Most is new material from the original interviews. Thank you. Trace> |