May Moving Image features film series Legacy of '68
Fifty years after the tumultuous and transformative events of 1968, Moving Image at the Walker Art Center presents a provocative series of protest films—for those who were there, for those who never stopped fighting, and for those who are coming of age (or suddenly finding themselves) in a new groundswell of people engaging in direct action. The Legacy of ’68 series continues at the Walker with narrative features from 1968 in July and August. Presented in concert with the series Rumblings and Echoes: Remembering 1968 at Trylon Cinema in June.
Maydays (Grands soirs et petits matins)
Wednesday, May 2, 7pm
Walker Cinema, $5
“What’s important is that the action took place, at a time when everybody judged it to be unthinkable. If it took place, then it can happen again…”—Jean-Paul Sartre (1968)
Maydays is William Klein’s dramatic chronicle of demonstrations at the Sorbonne in May 1968. The extraordinary events seen there magnify the moment when students, militants, union activists, workers, housewives, store owners, immigrants, school-children, pensioners, repentant bosses, and angry young men and women of every type and political tendency spilled into the streets to raise their voices across Paris. Conveying a visceral feeling of the protests as they unfolded, Klein’s hand-held camera frames scenes of rising collective power and revolution throughout the month of May. 1978, France, HD cam, 98 minutes.
“They were in the process of upturning their government, and they almost succeeded.”
—William Klein
No Vietnamese Ever Called Me…
Wednesday, May 9, 7pm
Walker Cinema, $5
Positioned at the critical intersection of the civil rights and anti-war movements, this newly restored documentary amplifies African American responses to the Vietnam War. The film presents spontaneous street interviews conducted during the massive April 1967 march on the United Nations by the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War. The film’s title references an iconic protest sign from the historic event. Just one week after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s powerful “Beyond Vietnam” speech at Riverside Church, Harlem residents, marchers, and GIs address the disproportionate losses of men of color and the injustices perpetrated by the US overseas. Interwoven with the protest footage is a group discussion with three black veterans, recorded in May 1968, in which they describe their experiences of the war and the discrimination and racialized poverty to which they returned. The men ask pointed questions about institutionalized racism in the United States—questions that are still being asked today. Directed by Polish American labor organizer David Loeb Weiss. Contains strong language. 1968, DCP, 86 minutes.
The film will also screen at the Capri Theater on Thursday, May 3, at 7 pm, 2027 W Broadway Ave Minneapolis, MN 55411.
Both screenings will be introduced by John Wright, professor of African American & African Studies, University of Minnesota.
Preserved through a collaboration between Anthology Film Archives and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, supported by the Robert F. Smith Fund. Special thanks to Cinema Guild, John Binder, Walter Forsberg (NMAAHC), and Chris Hughes & Laura Major (Colorlab). A Cinema Guild release.
Co-presented by Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul at the Capri, Walker Art Center, and Minnesota Historical Society. The May 3 screening is a part of the Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul’s First Thursdays at the Capri series.
In The Intense Now
Friday, May 11, 7pm & Saturday, May 12, 2pm
Friday, May 18, 7pm & Saturday, May 19, 2pm
Walker Cinema, $10 ($8 Walker Members)
“The golden anniversary of 1968 is off to a provocative start with…In the Intense Now. The movie is at once melancholy, inspiring, and evocative.” —New York Review of Books online
“A haunting record of history made poetic. Reminiscent of the films of Chris Marker…an immersive and highly personal film. Hypnotic in its provocation.” —Variety
Brazilian documentarian João Moreira Salles’s most recent film captures the idealism and excitement of 1968, a time when everything felt possible. The cine-essay begins with amateur footage shot by the director’s mother on a trip to China during the Cultural Revolution. Then Salles collages together dramatic scenes of international uprising, including France’s student protests and general strikes in May, the March of the One Hundred Thousand in Rio de Janeiro in June, and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August that marked the end of the Prague Spring. Narrated in the first person, Salles’s voice adds personal rumination and analysis as he looks back to these fleeting moments of intensity, when people living in uncertain times believed in the possibility of changing the world. In Portuguese, French, and Czech with English subtitles. 2017, DCP, 127 minutes.
Black Panthers and The New-Ark
Wednesday, May 16, 7pm
Walker Cinema, $5
Amiri Baraka
The New-Ark (1968)
In 1968, poet, playwright, and activist Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones) and cinematographer James Hinton were commissioned by the Public Broadcasting Laboratory to document Black Power activism in Newark, New Jersey. Beginning as an ode to the city, the film highlights the critical organizing done shortly after a tumultuous period of protest, violence, and upheaval. The focus of this creative documentary is Spirit House, a center for radical black pedagogy, community re-building, and flourishing Black Arts, where people engaged with black education, public street theater, music, dance, and political consciousness–raising. Lost for years and recently rediscovered, The New-Ark was restored and preserved by the Harvard Film Archive. 1968, 16mm-to-digital, 60 minutes. Digitized by Anthology Film Archives from the collection of Harvard Film Archive.
Preceded by
Agnès Varda
Black Panthers (1968)
After relocating to California, French New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda traveled to Oakland to interview activists involved with the Black Panther Party and revolution. Skillfully interwoven with this footage is her observational recording of an Oakland demonstration against the imprisonment of activist and Black Panther Party cofounder Huey P. Newton. 1968, DCP, 28 minutes.
OTHER SCREENINGS IN MAY
Hidden Gems
Thursday, May 10, 7pm
Bentson Mediatheque, Free
Since its inception in 1973, the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection has become home to film prints from all over the world. This program highlights some of its hidden gems, including 16mm prints from pioneering artists of the 20th-century avant-garde.
More films in the Mediatheque
The Bentson Mediatheque is a free self-select cinema experience unique to the Walker. Choose from more than 300 titles from the Ruben/ Bentson Moving Image Collection or view one of the featured playlists accessible via touchscreen controls and projected on the big screen.
Featured May Playlist: Legacy of ’68
Investigation of a Flame, 1994, Lynne Sachs, 45 minutesInextinguishable Fire / Nicht Löschbares Feuer, Harun Farocki, 1969, 25 minutes
Mediatheque hours & admission
Tuesday–Sunday, noon till museum close. Always free.