K-Lunk / movies

Berkeley in the 60s

Movies May 20, 2024

I saw Berkeley in the Sixties in the Little Roxie. To quote their blurb:

This Academy Award-nominated documentary interweaves the memories of 15 former student leaders, who grapple with the meaning of their actions. Their recollections are interwoven with footage culled from thousands of historical clips and hundreds of interviews. Ronald Reagan, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mario Savio, Huey Newton, Allen Ginsburg, and the music of Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez and the Grateful Dead all bring that tumultuous decade back to life.

It’s obviously very relevant in the current moment, with college students across the nation engaging in protest of Isreal. The people in this film helped write the first draft of the playbook for on-campus civil disobedience.

The interviews are interesting; the historical clips are really great. The administrators and politicians look so helpless and silly on tape. The violence was out of control then; the septegenarian on my left muttered “Jesus” under her breath a half dozen times as students were dragged limply down stairs, beaten with billy clubs, and gassed by the national guard.

You can watch the whole thing on youtube.