The Newsreel, most frequently called Newsreel, was an American filmmaking collective founded in New York City in late 1967. In keeping with the radical student/youth, antiwar and Black power movements of the time, the group explicitly described its purpose as using "films and other propaganda in aiding the revolutionary movement." The organization quickly established other chapters in San Francisco, Boston, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and Puerto Rico, and soon claimed "150 full time activists in its 9 regional offices." Co-founder Robert Kramer called for "films that unnerve, that shake people's assumptions…[that] explode like grenades in people’s faces, or open minds like a good can opener." Their film's production logo was a flashing graphic of The Newsreel moving in and out violently in cadence with the staccato sounds of a machine gun (see animated clip at right). A contemporary issue of Film Quarterly described it as "the cinematic equivalent of Leroi Jones's line 'I want poems that can shoot bullets.'" The films produced by Newsreel soon became regular viewing at leftwing political gatherings during the late 1960s and early 1970s; seen in "parks, church basements, on the walls of buildings, in union halls, even at Woodstock." This history has been largely ignored by film and academic historians causing the academic Nathan Rosenberger to remark: "it is curious that Newsreel only occasionally shows up in historical studies of the decade."
While the political left, Western intellectuals and cinephilesWR, Sex, and the Art of Radical Juxtaposition|Current|The Criterion Collection of those times often appreciated Newsreel's films, some critics also recognized their quality and the talent involved. An investigator for the House Committee on Internal Security observed during Congressional hearings: "although they are very peculiarly dressed and look rather peculiar...they do have some film-making talent because many of those films are quality films although they are extremely propagandistic and distorted. They are well put together."
Founding
Several founding members of Newsreel have written that it was the October 21, 1967 antiwar march of 100,000 people on Washington, DC and the Pentagon that was the precipitating event leading to the formation of the organization. A number of them were at the demonstration and, as the film historian Bill Nichols described it, observed "that the police brutality (tear gas, beatings, etc.) which they witnessed as a widespread phenomenon was minimized by the television reports." They decided that new and improved news outlets were required. On December 22, 1967, after several smaller initial meetings, the first Newsreel filmmaking collective was officially formed in New York City at the Film-Makers’ Cinematheque, soon to become the Anthology Film Archives. Depending on the source, somewhere between 30 and 70 people were at the founding meeting. The new organization proclaimed itself "a radical news service whose purpose is to provide an alternative to the limited and biased coverage of television news." It defined its "primary audiences" as "people working for change, students, organizations in ghettos and other depressed areas". Early members ranged from the relatively famous to the unknown and from experienced filmmakers to novices. They included Norman Fruchter, Robert Kramer, Christine Choy, Jonas Mekas, Tami Gold, Allan Siegel, Deborah Shaffer, John Douglas, Roz Payne, Peter Gessner, Melvin Margolis and Robert Machover; with Kramer, Fruchter and Gessner already being established filmmakers. Another member, Barbara Stone, recalled years later that "No one was officially credited on any of the films.... It would have been against the anti-establishment ideals to take any form of credit." The group was officially incorporated in 1968 as Camera News, Inc., although it never used the corporation name.
It began to develop its own unique style, which Kramer called "an 'empirical' approach to filmmaking... Present[ing] actual material with minimum of scientific analysis." This was described by photojournalist Jake Sherman as "[j]erky camera angles, violent quick transitions, and searing classical scores...meant to be interpreted as 'battle footage'". Michael Renov, with the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, called their films "guerrilla footage" and a "refuge from the seamless, ideologically complicit products of the culture industry." They were deeply influenced by radical filmmakers of what was then often called the Third World and the movements for decolonization and revolution that were occurring in those countries. For example, Kramer's thinking echoes the ideas of Julio Garcia Espinosa from Cuba who argued that what he called "[i]mperfect cinema is no longer interested in quality or technique...no longer interested in predetermined taste, and much less in 'good taste.'" The early Newsreel members were also influenced by Octavio Genito and Fernando Solanas of Argentina who argued for the "decolonization of culture" and a "cinema of liberation" in films that were to use the "camera as rifles". "There was no doubt", Nichols argues, "that these were agit-prop films...designed to foster political resistance to government actions and policies."
Rosenberger argues that "Newsreel was therefore part of an international movement that sought to use film to push back against the colonial and imperialistic powers." He also notes that Newsreel created "relationships and alliances" with other radical filmmaking groups around the world. Leonard M. Henny, a Dutch filmmaker, teacher and writer stated that "Newsreel served as a model for groups in England, Holland, Sweden, and Germany".
It also worked towards a distribution network which matched its radical and movement oriented goals. They called it "community distribution" and argued that films should not be commodities. An early article Newsreel submitted to the underground press explained, "If the films were not to be commodities they had to be distributed through non-theatrical channels where they could reach people in a community situation." This meant that films were to be distributed through leftwing channels already established and growing within and between the movements of the day. Films were to be put "into the hands of organizers and activists" who were expected to use it in their "daily political work. Payne put it this way, "We wanted people to work with our films as catalysts for political discussions about social change in America and to relate the questions in the films to issues in their own communities." She added, "We didn't like to just send our films out; we would go out and speak with our films. We saw them as weapons." Much of this did take place - as stated above, their films became regular, even popular, events at movement and counter-culture gatherings.
Like much of the New Left, Newsreel started as a mainly white, male-dominated organization, but soon became more diverse, by 1971 it "was not only predominantly non-white, it was also female-led. It worked with people of all races, ages, genders, and ethnicities." Newsreel continues today in the form of its two offspring, Third World Newsreel and California Newsreel.
Films
Within its first three years of existence Newsreel produced around 60 films covering many of the movements for change swirling around them, with a major emphasis on the anti-Vietnam War movement. They dealt with subjects like resistance to the war, draft-card burnings, student and youth protests and rebellions, the Black Panther Party (BPP), the Women's Movement, as well as a number of other subjects.
Early films
Resist - With Noam Chomsky
Newsreel's first film was Resist - With Noam Chomsky, an interview with the well known linguist and professor about his views on the Vietnam War, draft resistance and more. This twelve minute film was produced by the New York City chapter and released in early 1968.
No Game
With the October 21, 1967 October 1967 antiwar march of 100,000 people on Washington, DC and the Pentagon being a seminal event in the group's formation, their second film documented the episode. Several filmmakers who had taken footage during the demonstrations (Marvin Fishman, Masanori Oe and Jonathan Chernoble) were willing to give it to the newly formed Newsreel. This film became the seventeen minute No Game released in 1968. It shows the peaceful march that ended on the grounds of the Pentagon, as well as dramatic footage from "in the midst of the fixed bayonets and billy clubs as the military turned on the demonstrators".
American Sailors
Newsreel's third film was Four American Sailors a.k.a. Four Americans. It documented an extended interview with the Intrepid Four, four U.S. Navy seamen who deserted from the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier in protest against the war in Vietnam. Their action in 1967 was one of the first public protests against the war by American troops and the first within the U.S. Navy. Recorded in Japan where the sailors had deserted, the 19 minute film was released in 1968.
Jeannette Rankin Brigade
Jeannette Rankin Brigade was Newsreel's fourth film and the first directed and edited by women. It covered an anti-Vietnam War demonstration in January 1968 led by Jeannette Rankin, who was a pacifist, suffragette, women's rights advocate, and the first woman to hold federal office in the U.S. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 women marched, making it the largest march by women since the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913.
Garbage
Garbage a.k.a. Garbage Demonstration a.k.a. Up Against the Wall MotherFucker: Garbage was Newsreel's fifth film. It followed young demonstrators from New York City's Lower East Side as they dumped a truck full of garbage at Lincoln Center in support of a New York City garbage collectors strike and expressing contempt for "the bourgeois establishment". Their leaflet proclaimed, "America turns the world into Garbage, It turns its ghettos into garbage, It turns Vietnam into Garbage...we of the Lower East Side have decided to bring this cultural revolution to Lincoln Center – in Bags, Is not Lincoln Center where it belongs?" The demonstrators were from Up Against the Wall Motherfucker, a Lower East Side affinity group considered a "street gang with analysis".
Columbia Revolt
One of Newsreel’s most widely viewed early films was Columbia Revolt from the New York City chapter about the Columbia University student protests and building takeovers in 1968. This was one of the first campus uprisings of the late 1960s with a number of buildings, including the president's office, being occupied by the students. Students had discovered links between the university and a think tank helping the U.S. Department of Defense wage the Vietnam War. They were also outraged by the planned demolition of a nearby Black working-class neighborhood for a new university gym, quickly named "Gym Crow" after the Jim Crow laws the Civil rights movement was protesting in the Southern U.S. After five days of student control, protesters were violently removed by the New York City Police Department. Much of this was documented by Newsreel film crew. Apparently the film was so incendiary that following a viewing students at the State University of New York at Buffalo campus attacked the campus ROTC building. According to the New York City underground newspaper RAT, "five hundred members of the audience arose and made their way to the University ROTC building [where they] proceeded to smash windows, tear up furniture and destroy machines until the office was a total wreck". Released late in 1968, Columbia Revolt was Newsreel's fourteenth film.
Anti-Vietnam War films