Anti-War Film Fest: The War at Home

New College Anti-War Film Fest
Wed - Fri, Oct. 24-26, 1:30-3:30pm
New College Cultural Center
766 Valencia St., SF, Free!
In advance of the Anti-War March this Saturday,
Activism & Social Change will be showing the following films:

The Camden 28 (Wed) - In the early-morning hours of Sunday, August 22, 1971, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Attorney General John Mitchell announced that FBI agents had arrested 20 antiwar activists in and near a draft board office in Camden, New Jersey. Five days later, Mitchell made public the indictment of these individuals and included eight others who were linked to the break-in. The major charges against the group were conspiracy to remove and destroy files from the draft board, FBI office, and the Army Intelligence office; destruction of government property and interfering with the Selective Service system. If convicted, some of the indicted faced up to 47 years in federal prison. The men and women arrested that summer of ’71 in Camden called themselves “America’s conscience.” The government called them the Camden 28.

Catch 22 (Thurs) - Based on Joseph Heller's critically acclaimed, best-selling novel, CATCH-22 is Mike Nichols's provocative antiwar satire that tells the frenetic tale of a group of World War II fliers trapped in the insanity of the Mediterranean. The "catch-22" of the title deals with a military snafu that results when Yossarian (Alan Arkin), a bombardier in the war, attempts to get out of the military by feigning insanity. Yet the simple fact that he is able to acknowledge his own mortality automatically renders him sane. Frustrated into submission, the frazzled Yossarian must return to the frontlines to watch his friends and compatriots die off one by one.

The War at Home (Fri) - An acclaimed documentary, The War at Home reveals what happened in Madison, Wisconsin during most of the 1960s and the early '70s when students and the community began to protest the Vietnam War. The film chronicles the awakening and growth of the Vietnam protest movement in the United States, from a handful of politically active students, to the street confrontations at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, to the killings at Kent State. Through both newsreel and current footage, we follow participants from all sides - students, police, and political figures of the time - as they face each other in growing confrontation.