REBELS WITH A CAUSE
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Helen Garvy
producer/director
ORAL
HISTORY PROJECT
While making the documentary film, REBELS WITH A CAUSE , Helen Garvy collected many hours of interviews with key activists from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Much of that interesting and important material simply would not fit into the film. The goal of the SDS Oral History Project is to find ways to make that material available to the public, especially academics, organizers, and activists - from both past and present struggles.
Three videos present the thinking of key participants at the local, regional, and national level in SDS on several topics in more detail. The stories are woven together to form a coherent whole, accompanied by graphics and photos from the period. While the oral history project includes sections of interviews that are already in REBELS, most is new material from the original interviews.
(see below for prices and ordering information):
FREEDOM
IS CONTAGIOUS
Views of the Women’s Movement (1965-9) (40 minutes)
Helen Garvy — producer/director
Freedom is Contagious explores the early history (1965-9) of the women’s movement that grew in the 1960s and 1970s, focusing especially on the interconnections with SDS. The video focuses on events and the thinking behind all the events, including the impact on men and their reactions. The video includes:
• Reminiscences of what it was like to be a woman in the early sixties.
• Casey Hayden speaking about the memo often called “Sex & Caste” that she & Mary King sent to a number of women in SDS and SNCC (Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee) in the late fall of 1965, as well as an earlier memo presented at the SNCC Waveland meeting. These make the connection between the civil rights movement and equality for women.
• The intense and important discussion among many of the women present at the December 1965 SDS National Council meeting, inspired by Casey’s paper.
• The formation of women’s groups.
• An early SDS women’s anti-draft demonstration in Texas — before the beginning of the women’s movement.
• The role of women within SDS.
• The influence of Vietnamese women on American activists.
• The ‘women’s resolution’ which was introduced, debated, and finally adopted – not without contention — at SDS’s annual convention in 1967.
• Some differences that later grew within the women’s movement about what direction it should take — especially whether to work within the antiwar movement or to focus on women’s issues.
• The role of the FBI and COINTELPRO within the women’s movement.
Featuring: Jane
Adams, Carolyn Craven, Carl Davidson, Bernardine Dohrn, Alice Embree, Carol
Glassman, Casey Hayden, Sharon Jeffrey Lehrer, Steve Max, Judy Schiffer Perez,
Bob Ross, Vivian Leburg Rothstein, Mike Spiegel, Elizabeth Stanley, Marilyn
Salzman Webb, and Cathy Wilkerson. (For more
information on people, see the Biographies section of the website.)
THE
DEMISE OF SDS
Students for a Democratic Society — 1968-70 (94 minutes)
Helen Garvy — producer/director
In 1968, SDS was the largest antiwar organization of the time, with over 100,000 members and 400 chapters across the country. Two years later SDS had splintered and ceased to exist as an organization. What happened? Why? How did it happen?
The Demise of SDS looks at the events of those critical years — and explores the thoughts and feelings of a variety of SDS activists who were in the middle of it all. The video includes:
• the effect of the continuing escalation of the war; attacks on the antiwar movement by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program and local police; and the murders of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, and Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.
• the increasing militancy and the escalation of rhetoric within the antiwar movement - & discussions on militancy and violence.
• the growth of factionalism within SDS.
• the formation of the Weatherman grouping within SDS and later their decision (with Weathermen then holding the leadership positions in SDS) to abandon SDS as a mass organization.
• the 1970 ‘townhouse explosion’ and its effect on the thinking and actions of a variety of SDS members, including those who became the Weather Underground.
Featuring: Jane Adams, Bill Ayers, Carolyn Craven, Carl Davidson, Bernardine Dohrn, Todd Gitlin, Juan Gonzalez, Tom Hayden, Mark Kleiman, Sue Eanet Klonsky, Steve Max, Carl Oglesby, Robert Pardun, Bob Ross, Vivian Leburg Rothstein, Mike Spiegel, Elizabeth Stanley, and Cathy Wilkerson. (For more information on people, see the Biographies section of the website.)
REMEMBERING VIETNAM: 1965-1975 (9 minutes)
Helen Garvy — producer/director
This short video features a few passionate comments on the Vietnam War that, unfortunately, are very relevant for today.
Featuring: Bernardine Dohrn, Sue Eanet Klonsky, Carl Oglesby, Robert Pardun, and Paul Potter’s speech at the 1965 SDS march on Washington. (For more information on people, see the Biographies section of the website.)
ORDERING
INFORMATION:
THE DEMISE OF SDS (94 minutes) VHS only
VHS cost: $20 (plus $2 shipping)
FREEDOM IS CONTAGIOUS (40 minutes) VHS only
DVD or VHS cost: $18 (plus $2 shipping)
REMEMBERING VIETNAM: 1965-1975 (9 minutes) VHS only
VHS cost: $10 (plus $2 shipping)
also available:
REBELS WITH A CAUSE (110 minutes) VHS or DVD (Please specify which format!)
$25 individuals (plus $2 shipping) (institutional sales through Zeitgeist Films (mail@zeitgeistfilms.com)
Rebels With A Cause, by Helen Garvy (book, 260 pages, illustrated) $18 (plus $2 shipping)
Prairie Radical by Robert Pardun (book - 376 pages, illustrated) $12 (plus $2 shipping)
Send order and check to:
Helen Garvy
Shire Press and Films
644 Hester Creek Road
Los Gatos, CA 95033
ORDER FORM
Name ___________________________________ e-mail _____________________
Address _________________________________
City, State, Zip ___________________________
_________ Freedom is Contagious (VHS) ________________
_________ Freedom is Contagious (DVD) ________________
_________ The Demise of SDS (VHS) ________________
_________ Vietnam Remembered (VHS) ________________
_________ Rebels With A Cause (VHS) ________________
_________ Rebels With A Cause (DVD) ________________
_________ Rebels With A Cause (book) ________________
_________Prairie Radical (book) ________________
TOTAL $________________