The Newsreel
The organization quickly established other chapters in San Francisco, Boston, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and Puerto Rico, and soon claimed "150 full time activists in its 9 regional offices."
"[1] Their film's production logo was a flashing graphic of The Newsreel moving in and out violently in cadence with the staccato sounds of a machine gun (see animated clip at right).
'"[2]: p.18 The films produced by Newsreel soon became regular viewing at leftwing political gatherings during the late 1960s and early 1970s; seen in "parks, church basements, on the walls of buildings, in union halls, even at Woodstock.
"[8]: p.2315 Several founding members of Newsreel have written that it was the October 21, 1967 antiwar march of 100,000 people on Washington, DC and the Pentagon that was the precipitating event leading to the formation of the organization.
On December 22, 1967, after several smaller initial meetings, the first Newsreel filmmaking collective was officially formed in New York City at the Film-Makers’ Cinematheque, soon to become the Anthology Film Archives.
This was described by photojournalist Jake Sherman as "[j]erky camera angles, violent quick transitions, and searing classical scores...meant to be interpreted as 'battle footage'".
[4]: p.55 Michael Renov, with the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, called their films "guerrilla footage" and a "refuge from the seamless, ideologically complicit products of the culture industry.
'"[3]: p.10 The early Newsreel members were also influenced by Octavio Genito and Fernando Solanas of Argentina who argued for the "decolonization of culture" and a "cinema of liberation" in films that were to use the "camera as rifles".
[3]: p.8 Leonard M. Henny, a Dutch filmmaker, teacher and writer stated that "Newsreel served as a model for groups in England, Holland, Sweden, and Germany".
An early article Newsreel submitted to the underground press explained, "If the films were not to be commodities they had to be distributed through non-theatrical channels where they could reach people in a community situation."
It shows the peaceful march that ended on the grounds of the Pentagon, as well as dramatic footage from "in the midst of the fixed bayonets and billy clubs as the military turned on the demonstrators".
According to the New York City underground newspaper RAT, "five hundred members of the audience arose and made their way to the University ROTC building [where they] proceeded to smash windows, tear up furniture and destroy machines until the office was a total wreck".
The film's original footage was seized by US Customs agents when the filmmakers, Fruchter, Kramer and Douglas, arrived at Kennedy International Airport on August 7, 1969.
While the film was being examined by Army intelligence agents, the filmmakers sued in the U.S. District court accusing the Government of trying to "harass and intimidate" them for exercising their First Amendment right of free speech.
They talk about the anti-Asian indoctrination they received in the military and several of them draw a parallel with their own experience with racism in the U.S. One veteran explains how he began to identify with "the enemy"—he realized "You're killing your own brothers."
The film ends like a "grenade" as a vet hurls his medals towards the Capitol yelling, "If we have to fight again, it will be to take these steps", followed immediately by Newsreel's flashing logo and the sound of a machine gun.
On the evening of August 28, with the police riot in full swing, television networks broadcast live as the besieged anti-war protesters began the chant, "The whole world is watching".
[35] Newsreel's seventeen minute film Chicago Convention Challenge was released later that same year using footage taken in the midst of demonstrations, meeting rooms, at rallies, and in the streets.
It showed draft resistance organizing in Boston, a GI coffeehouse in Fort Hood, Texas, the growth of alternative underground media, and some of the early days of Newsreel itself, including their takeover of New York City's Channel 13 (WNET - PBS).
It also shows scenes at rallies and demonstrations, and a reading of the Party's 10 Point Program by Bobby Seale, as well as footage of the results of the police attack on the Los Angeles Chapter's headquarters.
It contains footage of speeches by Panther members Kathleen Cleaver and Bobby Seale, as well as Newton's attorney Charles Garry, and student activist Bob Avakian speaking to the "white people" in the audience", and others.
It consisted of a prison interview with the then Chairman of the BPP who had been imprisoned on charges of conspiracy and inciting a riot in the wake of the protests and demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
It covers what was called "the nature of developing Fascism in the U.S." and records discussions on subjects like imperialism, capitalism, racism, workers, health, women, political prisoners, students and the military.
It focuses on Jane Giese, a working-class woman in Newark, NJ who is struggling "to take control of her own life after years of physical and mental abuse."
One worker describes how prior to his own experience with police brutality in the United States he would tell his children when seeing similar police-demonstrator clashes on TV that it was just "radical troublemakers out looking for publicity"—"Now", he says "I have changed my mind."
In the late 1960s the University of California, Berkeley began purchasing the land and destroying a neighborhood populated by hippies, poor people, and others from what was then called the "counter culture".
"[8]: p.2185 The committee was looking into Newsreel's relationship with SDS, its association "with many of the other militant groups operating in the country", and the trip of Fruchter, Douglas and Kramer to Vietnam during the filming of People's War.
[8]: p.2232 The Committee investigated and conducted surveillance on Newsreel, including going so far as to subpoena their Federal income tax return for the fiscal year March 1968 through February 1969 from the Internal Revenue Service.
"[8]: p.2309 Williams observed that a showing of Newsreel's Black Panther by SDS at Georgetown University "was deemed sufficiently important to be the subject of multiple subpoenaed testimonies before the Committee".
Newsreel's film footage was frequently taken in the midst of radical activity like the uprising at San Francisco State, the occupation of Columbia University, the police attacks during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and many more.
