Scritti Politti: Jesse Drew/Newsreel +Joshua Harper/Freak TV +

For our Maypole party, we’re sprouting radical cinema seeds planted by the heroic 16mm film collective Newsreel (50th anniversary!).

Jesse Drew himself rolls in from Davis to intro these essential pieces from the 60s/70s, when the collective became the de facto chronicler of the revolutionary moment. He’ll highlight clips from the 1969 "Amerika" (street battles in the heart of the beast), and "People’s War" (shot in Vietnam), plus "Off the Pig" (on Black Panthers), "SF State Strike", and Santiago Alvarez’ Cuban cornerstone "Now!" Carla Leshne shares an earlier history, that of the Workers’ Film and Photo League.

ALSO: Our East Bay brother Joshua Harper (Berkeley Comm. Media) details a video history of the democratic urge within the TV medium–pirates, activists, artists, and nudists taking over the airwaves, from the first 60s experiments to the current cutting-edge of online transmission, including Portapacks, Public Access, Paper Tiger, micro-broadcasting, Youtube and the false promises of internet television.

Come early for anti-Trump jams, and free bread, and red roses.