By Dave RileySBS ran Chicago 10 as part of its animation series on Tuesday, 13th January at 10:00PM.
Did you catch it?
I did and it's an extraordinary documentary.
The protests at the 1968 Democrat Convention was a watershed moment in the Vietnam anti war movement. It was the zenith of Students for Democratic Society politics and the sharp edge of student radicalism.
Chicago 10 is an amazing montage of animated sequences and documentary footage which grabs the political substance of that period and the logistics of protest politics in a way I've never seen before. Why you do get to watch the antics of the accused in court and the thoroughly dismissive way their case was heard, the motor of the documentary is the day by day rendering of the protests themselves.
The way it handles its massive archive of documentary material ensures that Chicago 10 captures the dynamic and passion of so many of the protests that were to follow with the the one at WTO gathering in Sydney last year being the latest example.
Make sure you watch this movie because it buoys up a sense of continuity in what we do politically , maybe without the same degree of anger, urgency and impatience as was the case in '1968 -- but with the same substance and perspective.
Packaged with the archival footage is a revolutionary fusion of animation for the court scenes and some sub plots. The story of the convention protests is in part delivered like a graphic novel which could stand on its own merits.
A great reflection on 1968 as a yeart of revolt in a brilliint and vedry creative docuemntary package.
