http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/2008/05/once-and-future-radicals-richa.html
May 11, 2008
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
http://asianweek.com/2001_04_27/feature_richardaoki.html
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: [See
URL for video]
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