Peter Gessner

Finally Got the News

Stewart Bird, Rene Lichtman

FINALLY GOT THE NEWS is a forceful, unique documentary that reveals the activities of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers inside and outside the auto factories of Detroit. Through interviews with the members of the movement, footage shot in the auto plants, and footage of leafleting and picketing actions, the film documents their efforts to build an independent black labor organization that, unlike the UAW, will respond to worker's problems, such as the assembly line speed-up and inadequate wages faced by both black and white workers in the industry. Beginning with a historical montage, from the early days of slavery through the subsequent growth and organization of the working class, FINALLY GOT THE NEWS focuses on the crucial role played by the black worker in the American economy. Also explored is the educational 'tracking' system for both white and black youth, the role of African American women in the labor force, and relations between white and black workers.

Time of the Locust

Peter Gessner

A film about the war in Vietnam, compiled from American news-film sources, Vietnamese cameramen and suppressed Japanese television footage. Music by Morton Feldman. Voices of Lyndon Johnson, General Khy, army field commanders are juxtaposed to the reality of the war.

Last Summer Won't Happen

Tom Hurwitz, Peter Gessner

Abbie Hoffman, Paul Krassner

A critical yet sympathetic examination of the anti-war movement in New York City, shot in 1968, one year after the Summer of Love. The film traces the development group of activists on the Lower East Side. We see their growth from isolated, alienated individuals to a politically empowered community. Filmed between the protests at the Pentagon and the demonstrations at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, it includes portraits of Abbie Hoffman, editor Paul Krassner, folksinger Phil Ochs and anarchist Tom "Osha" Neumann.

FALN

Robert Kramer, Peter Gessner

This 1965 documentary portrait of a civil war is today a remarkable time capsule of Venezuelan political and social history, and valuable background to the ongoing social conflicts in that country. FALN chronicles key events of the era, from the 1958 overthrow of dictator Perez Jimenez, and the flawed attempts at social reform by Romulo Betancourt's government, to the 1962 emergence of the national liberation movement- the FALN. The FALN engaged in rural and urban guerrilla struggle throughout the Sixties, but, failing to achieve its desired coup d'etat or to gain the support of the nation's poor, the organization had largely dissipated by the end of the decade. A compilation documentary incorporating both archival footage and original scenes shot by members of the revolutionary movement, FALN draws parallels with American foreign policy in other countries, particularly Vietnam.

Over-Under Sideways-Down

Steve Wax, Peter Gessner

Robert Viharo, Sharon Chatten

A dramatic feature from Cine Manifest, Over-Under, Sideways-Down explores the politics of everyday life in America. The film centers on a working-class couple, Roy and Jan Stennis (played by Robert Viharo and Sharon Goldman), who live, with their two children, in a cramped tract home. An assembly line worker in a steel plant, Roy entertains the escapist fantasy of moving from the local semi-pro baseball team for which he plays third base, to the big leagues. "It's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time," he figures. However, when Roy simultaneously loses his job (by being at the right place at the right time - coming to the defense of a black co-worker and thus being branded a trouble-maker) and his one chance to impress an interested baseball scout, his life begins to unravel. The strains on his marriage increase, intensified by Jan's decision to take a job, and Roy begins to isolate himself both from his family and his fellow workers.

For Life, Against the War

Betty Ferguson, Peggy Lawson

First shown on January 30, 1967, FOR LIFE AGAINST THE WAR was an open-call, collective statement from American independent filmmakers disparate in style and sensibility but united by their opposition to the Vietnam War. Part of the protest festival Week of the Angry Arts, the epic compilation film incorporated minute-long segments which were sent from many corners of the country, spliced together and projected. The original presentation of the works was more of an open forum with no curation or selection, and in 2000 Anthology Film Archives preserved a print featuring around 40 films from over 60 submissions.