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May 11, 2008
Once and Future Radicals: Richard Aoki
I've recently watched a couple of documentaries about radical movements in the 1960s and 70s: Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst, The Weather Underground and a narrative film about the Naxalite movement in West Bengal called Calcutta My Love.
Both of the first two films were fascinating but left me feeling irritated at the ludicrousness of it all - especially at the white privilege that protected many of these so-called revolutionaries, whereas members of the Black Panther Party faced a decidedly different fate. Calcutta My Love, which played at the San Francisco International Film Festival, was a tad over-dramatic but it also captured a radical movement that was waylaid by student revolutionaries who couldn't quite get their shit together. Then, this weekend I watched Alfonso Cuaron's brilliant Children of Men again, which features a radical group called The Fishes - and who are mostly the bad guys in the film, but maybe also the good guys.
Anyway, one of the things that I found most fascinating in both the Patty Hearst documentary and The Weather Underground was how - some 30 years later - the activists had either totally renounced (Patty Hearst) what they did or really questioned their methods. I believe this legacy of failed movements is really important when we wonder why the anti-war movement is led by mothers like Cindy Sheehan and veterans returning from Iraq instead of a new version of the Students for a Democratic Society.
But there are still a few radicals around who did not renounce what they did and will talk your ear off about why they did it. I got the chance to meet and interview Black Panther Field Marshall Richard Aoki back in 2001 and it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. So, I highly recommend coming out on May 30th to Eastside Cultural Center in Oakland (2227 International Blvd at 23rd) at 7 p.m. for a free screening of rough cut of Richard Aoki -- a documentary by Ben Wang and Mike Cheng. Check out a preview:
Posted by neela at May 11, 2008 9:59 PM
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Thanks so much for sharing this. Can't wait to see the full film!
G-D forbid you watch something positive and patriotic...
i happen to find this quite positive.
i look forward to seeing this film!
buffoon: dissent is patriotic.
Neela, thanks for the plug! - Mike Cheng
Interesting post. The movie American Revolution 2 is really interesting- part of what it does is follow a white organization while they do their thing, but a poor/working class white org that had a lot in common with the panthers. Makes me think, is it white privilege those SDS-types had, or Whiteness & Class privilege?
good blog