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The Sixties: from 1969 to 2009
Black Panther
San Francisco Newsreel, USA, 1969, 14 minutes
San Francisco State: On Strike
San Francisco Newsreel, USA, 1969, 20 minutes
Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968
Bestor Cram and Judy Richardson, USA, 2009, 57 minutes
Canadian Premiere
Curated by Cornelius Moore
This program offers perspectives on seminal events in sixties activism for racial justice, from back then to now.
The first two films, Black Panther and San Francisco State: On Strike, are archival works completed in 1969 by the legendary activist filmmaking group, Newsreel. There were no auteurs here, rather they were collectively made in solidarity with the organizations (the Black Panther Party) and struggles (the tumultuous student strike at San Francisco State) highlighted in the films. They are low budget, rough, yet energetic works representative of the turbulent times that produced them. They feature well known figures such as Panther leaders Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver. You can also catch a glimpse of a very young Danny Glover as a student activist at San Francisco State.
Forty years later, Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968 looks back at a little known series of incidents which led to the shooting deaths, by authorities, of three black students during a Civil Rights Movement rally at South Carolina State.
Presenting these three films together allows viewers to consider how different times produce different types of media, the role that the films play at the time of production in supporting activism, and how historical perspective can influence our views of the past.
Bestor Cram is a producer/director/cinematographer of social justice documentaries and he founded Northern Light Productions in 1982. Among his award-winning films are Unfinished Symphony: Democracy and Dissent and Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison.
Judy Richardson is a Senior Producer with Northern Light Productions producing works on African American History. She is a veteran producer of the landmark Academy Award-nominated 14 part series on the U.S. Civil Rights movement, Eyes on the Prize.
Curator's Biography
Cornelius Moore is the Co-Director of the 41 year-old San Francisco-based distributor and production company, California Newsreel. His work focuses on the acquisition, promotion, and programming of films on African American life and history as well as films from and about Africa.
Read the essay: The Sixties
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