Newsreel and Post-New Left Radical Filmmaking

NEWSREEL AND POST-NEW LEFT RADICAL FILMMAKING. The first indication that a radical film revival might be imminent in the United States was Emile De Antonio’s Point of Order (1964), a documentary using collage techniques to depict the McCarthy-Army hearings. The film not only challenged the Right politically but did so in an innovative film style. Point of Order had no spoken narrative, forcing viewers to arrive at their judgments without any directorial coaching on how to interpret the images presented. Variations on this style, particularly the often awkward avoidance of an unseen narrator, would be characteristic of the radical cinema of the 1970s and 1980s. De Antonio, who was personally close to the abstract expressionist painters of the 1950s, would continue to put his political perspectives into controversial forms. His work includes Year of the Pig (1968), a minihistory of post–World War II revolution in Vietnam; Millhouse: A White Comedy (1971), a critique of Richard Nixon; Underground (1976), a clandestine interview with the Weatherpeople; and In the King of Prussia (1982), a narrative concerning the Catholic anti-war movement associated with the Berrigan brothers.

The new movement got off to an official start in December 1967 when a group of filmmakers met in New York to launch Newsreel. The new organization sought to record the major events of the time from the point of view of radical dissenters. Films were to be made quickly and put to immediate use by the movement the films also sought to document. Within a year or so of its inception Newsreel had made nearly twenty films of varying lengths and had arranged for films made in Cuba and Vietnam to be distributed under its own auspices or that of allied groups. A dozen Newsreel groups were set up outside of New York, the most important being located in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boston, Los Angeles, and Ann Arbor. While aware of their precursors, the Newsreel founders were inclined to anarchistic forms of organization and were generally unsympathetic to the Communist Party, which they judged to be too timid. Black Panther (1968) and Columbia Revolt (1968) were early Newsreel successes and provided something of a financial base for new projects.

A flickering Newsreel logo whose movements were synchronized to the sound of machine-gun fire began each film. Hand-held cameras, grainy film stock, and bold editing gave the films a battlefield urgency. Indicative of Newsreel’s total rejection of dominant culture was its ten-minute Garbage (1968). Made during a New York City garbage strike, the film shows radicals dumping their refuse in Lincoln Center, the cultural showcase of the “empire city.” Other films addressed every issue of the New Left in the same disrespectful but often jovial manner. The blend of aesthetic and political innovation embodied the defiant and experimental nature of the New Left. Newsreel also attempted fiction films but most were received unenthusiastically by activists and critics.

By the early 1970s Newsreel began to be caught up in the general crisis of the movement. An all-male and all-white leadership that had indulged in marathon decision-making sessions was now challenged by women and nonwhites. These forces demanded a greater voice in Newsreel councils and greater access to equipment. Concurrent with this dissatisfaction was the phenomenon of many Newsreel members drifting away to pursue independent career objectives. The formal Newsreel membership of some threescore evaporated so swiftly that a reorganization conference was held in 1973. The continuing membership was almost entirely of Latin, Asian, or African ancestry. Most were women and none had been Newsreel founders. The new direction being undertaken was codified by a name change to Third World Newsreel.

In addition to making its own films, Third World Newsreel distributed films made by other radicals, kept the Newsreel library in circulation, and imported foreign films. Titles such as The Steelmakers (1968) from North Korea and The Red Detachment of Women (1968) from Mao’s China as well as most of the original Newsreel films have been kept in constant distribution for more than fifteen years. Training sessions aimed at women, the disabled, the aged, and nonwhites were among many efforts to cinematically empower groups usually not associated with filmmaking. Closely allied with this effort were campaigns to create film audiences in nonwhite communities. This often led to the making of films in blunt and confrontational styles that did not always appeal to critics. The skills of the Third World Newsreel, however, were being constantly honed and were most obvious in Chris Choy and Renee Tajima’s Who Killed Vincent Chin? (1988). The film, which deals with race and class violence in Detroit, Michigan, got highly favorable commentary from the entire film community and was nominated for the 1988 Academy Award for best picture in the documentary category.

San Francisco Newsreel proved to be another survivor. Its first film, Black Panther, was Newsreel’s most widely screened film, but the collective soon moved to taking on economic and sexual issues as its major concern. Eventually the group changed its name to California Newsreel and under that name its best-known work is Controlling Interest: The World of Multinationals (1976). Like Third World Newsreel, it continued to distribute radical films made by others and after more than two decades of existence ended the 1980s as an extremely viable and well-respected production company.

The durability of California Newsreel and Third World Newsreel was typical of other filmmaking collectives, many with Newsreel veterans among their members, that sprang up after the demise of the original Newsreel. Concentrated in urban centers throughout the United States, the radical filmmakers took on gender, ethnic, radical, cultural, foreign policy, and sexual topics in what became a multiplicity of submovements, each of which was as prolific as the original Newsreel. The first post-Newsreel phase was marked by the emergence of a feminist film movement. This in turn was followed by movements that focused on Asian Americans, gay liberation, the environment, and Latin America. Characteristic of all the movements was the prominent role played by women. Whatever the specific topic at hand, women as producers, directors, exhibitors, and distributors took on the full range of creative responsibilities that had once been informally restricted to males. In many submovements such as films dealing with the role of the United States in Latin America, radical women dominated the field.

Among the various subgenres developed, one was of particular significance to the Left. This was the attempt to “recover” the history of American radicalism from mass-media distortions or silence. Such films include Union Maids (1976), With Babies and Banners (1978), The Wobblies (1979), Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists (1980), Seeing Red (1986), The Good Fight (1984), and A Crime to Fit the Punishment (1984). These feature-length documentaries were augmented by scores of shorter films about individual radicals, specific strikes, or regional organizations. The films tended to be generous in their assessment of the roles radicals had played in past struggles. Their purpose, which was largely realized, was to reestablish radical dissent as an honorable and worthwhile American tradition.

Closely related to the recovery films were films about organized labor and films about foreign affairs. The radicalism in the labor films tended to be implied rather than overt but was unmistakable. Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) focused on Appalachian coal miners, The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1980) on black and white women in the defense industries of World War II, Miles of Smiles (1982) on black Pullman car porters, and Northern Lights (1979) on the Non-Partisan League of North Dakota. The foreign-affairs films were unrelenting in their criticism of U.S. motives and allies but less specific in their evaluation of various reformist and revolutionary movements. The topic of Latin America was of such interest that entire film libraries came into existence around specific nations such as Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Deborah Shaffer’s Witness to War: An American Doctor in El Salvador (1985) won an Academy Award in the documentary category, and films such as El Norte (1985) and When the Mountains Tremble (1986) were able to gain significant public visibility.

Radicals remained dissatisfied that their films did not get the same distribution as Hollywood-made films but in comparison to the 1930s, they were far more successful in reaching a general audience and in having an impact on the wider film community. In spite of the fact that most radical films were documentaries and that documentaries traditionally do not do well in theatrical distribution, some radical documentaries got theatrical releases and a few, like Atomic Cafe (1982), did quite well. More common were screenings on public television, during conferences, in classrooms, and at festivals. Radical films received more than their share of prizes at various competitions at home and abroad, and they were increasingly among the Academy Award nominees and winners. At least one radical film came to be a given at the prestigious New York Film Festival and got national exposure through reviews in mainstream media, including the New York Times, Variety, and the Village Voice.

Concerns about form and other esthetic problems were as intense as political convictions. American filmmakers did not write extensively about their craft but they made frequent appearances at seminars and gave substantive interviews. Radicals were also extremely active in self-distribution, exhibition, and networking. As a result a liberal/radical sensibility became the norm throughout the independent film community and even extended to some degree into the avant-garde. A new tendency that began to emerge in the 1980s was the mixing of fiction and nonfiction in the same film, a format boldly probed in Far from Poland (1984), a film assessing the Solidarity movement in Poland.

Radical filmmakers were buttressed by a vigorous critical community. The two most impoortant periodicals were Cineaste (founded 1967) and Jump Cut (founded 1973). Cineaste was the self-declared champion of the new movement and by the end of the 1980s enjoyed a worldwide reputation for excellence and was among the highest-circulation film journals in the United States. The more theoretically inclined Jump Cut was more directed to filmmakers than film viewers and had a strong commitment to gay films and radical video. Both magazines provided extensive coverage of Third World cinema with an emphasis on Latin Amreica.

Cineaste and Jump Cut did not stand alone, and their contributors were not isolated from the larger critical community. An associate editor of Cineaste became the editor of American Film, the organ of the American Film Institute, and later was an editor of Premiere, a major commercial publication. Writers who published with Cineaste, Jump Cut, and a half-dozen smaller journals also published in Variety, Film Comment, and the New York Times. Film critics for the Guardian and In These Times had similar access. Film associations and film departments were frequently headed by radicals, and commercial and university presses regularly issued books by radical critics who were often on the cutting edge of film scholarship. Radicals were also extremely active in the editing and publishing of standard reference materials in the field.

The vision of an alternative filmmaking, film distribution, and film exhibition network that was part of the 1960s’ Newsreel perspective never fully came to pass, but a strong radical presence in those areas was established in the period from the time of Newsreel’s founding to the end of the 1980s. Individual films had moved from one distributor to another and filmmakers had moved into various production organizations, but almost all the radical films made since the 1960s were easily available in the 1980s. In addition to self-distributing collectives such as New Day and the Pacific Street Collective, radical films were available through firms like Cinema Guild, Icarus/First Run, and Kino. Exhibition spaces were still the weakest link. Most were connected to universities or specialty film houses but there were a handful of community groups such as Philadelphia’s Neighborhood Film Project. Organizations like Media Network, Women Make Movies, and Global Village provided a wide range of reference and technical services.

By the 1980s many of the movement’s filmmakers, critics, and publications had achieved national and even international reputations. Although the cassette revolution had brought new challenges in the educational market and funding had been squeezed during the Reagan era, the radicals had not only survived but had achieved a measure of influence and in some areas leadership in their professions.

Although the sense of being part of a movement had largely faded by the 1990s, individuals rooted in the New Left tradition retained their ideological perspectives even as more of them got increasing exposure in mainstream venues. On national public television Danny Schecter produced quality programs on South African issues and Marc Weiss was a main force in the P.O.V. series, which featured cutting-edge political documentaries. Chris Choy of Third World Newsreel received a 1989 Academy Award nomination for her Who Killed Vincent Chin? and in the mid-1990s took an important administrative position in the prestigious film school of New York University. Michael Moore scored a surprise box-office hit with Roger and Me (1989), a blistering assault on General Motors. Shortly thereafter he brought his brand of humor to an innovative personal-journalism format presented on various national television networks. Barbara Kopple explored the traumatic Local P-9 strike against Hormel in her independent project American Dream (1989) and then made a challenging study of Mike Tyson, the boxing champion convicted of rape, for network television. In 1996 she directed an episode of Law and Order, one of NBC’s leading series. Numerous other filmmakers, exhibitors, writers, and distributors showed similar staying power. Thus, the film movement launched in the 1960s ultimately proved to be one of the most resilient and enduring legacies of the New Left.

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