I don't like this new trend toward "journalistic" and "creative non-fiction" films, such postmod, post-Truth relaxing of the real is partly responsible for the accusations we lob at each other online all the time now -- "You're a conspiracy theorist" generally from the Left (we're all conspiracy theorists: Americans think everyone's out to purloin their exceptionalism), "That's Fake News," generally from the Right (and, sadly, a lot of it is these days), and all of us turning into Turd Blossoms intent on creating our own alternative realities. Hmph. (I even cringed when the Yippie Manifesto referred to "create our own reality," which gave me the icky feeling that Karl Rove had co-opted Abbie's street theatre. That's what the Right Wing does. Look at the Democratic Party.)
There are better film depictions of the era out there. For instance, Chicago10 is an upbeat combination of animation, news footage, and plot played out based almost exclusively on the trial transcripts that celebrates humanity and activism, and has aesthetic appeal, unlike the undelivered goods of a movie that proposes to be about "thought on trial." Chicago 10 is available free in its entirety on YouTube (until, of course, the producers of Chicago 7 have it taken down to reduce competition). There are excellent collected free resources available, Steal This Dream (mentioned above) and the great collection of trial transcripts put together at Famous Trials By Professor Douglas O. Linder. Watch the two films; you'll easily see which of them has a superior retelling of events and courtroom testimony.
A slightly abridged version of this article first appeared in Counterpunch on October 23, 2020.
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