Berkeley in the Sixties Reviews

BERKELEY IN THE 60S provides an informative history of the rise of political activism on the University of California Berkeley campus, encompassing the movement from the student protest against the House on Un-American Activities Committee to the Memorial Day march on People's Park. Including recent interviews with key players, news footage, and a great music score, this historical study brings the decade and its significance to life without the nostalgia and romanticism that usually plague such pieces. The first sparks of political activism appear on campus as early as May 1960 when students protest the paranoia and dubious nationalism of the House on Un-American Activities Committee. These protesting students were hosed down the stairs outside San Francisco City Hall by nervous powers-that-be. Filmed by the media, such televised images only served to drive like-minded and restless youth to the Berkeley campus. This idealistic, young group finds its next battle in the civil rights movement. After a victory at the Sheraton Palace Hotel, in which the entire hotel industry is forced to curb discriminatory hiring practices, the student movement becomes unstoppable. The local community urges the university to crack down, but disciplinary actions only fan the flames of dissent and reinforce a centralized student base of power, unified on issues of free speech and democratic ideals. This new liberalism forms a serious critique of the reactionary nationalism and growing consumerism of 1950s America. Gradually, a population of privileged, middle-class youth comes to identify itself as a marginalized, oppressed population, and the spirit of revolution is born. With confidence gained from civil rights victories, student activists turn their attention to the Vietnam War. Simultaneously, the San Francisco hippies emerge, asserting that the solution to the corruption of society lies not in political action, but in dropping out and adopting an anti-materialistic, communal, spiritual lifestyle based on freedom and experience. At first these two groups stand in opposition, but they both gradually adopt the characteristics of the other and cohere as a radical youth movement whose values and styles transverse the nation. The documentary covers the charismatic rise of the Black Panthers and the brutality of the Chicago Democratic convention, and ends with the Memorial Day March. In that action, 35,000 protesters marched to the site of the destruction of People's Park. In do doing, they saluted the broken symbol of building a utopian society where products are not artifacts of corporate profit, but rather useful tools in a decentralized, communal effort of cooperation and love. This informative documentary addresses the finer details of a familiar movement, serving best to elucidate the lesser known trajectory of its history. BERKELEY IN THE 60S primarily succeeds thanks to the memories and insights of the leaders of the student movement, who prove to be better spokespersons than the rock stars and the typical "I was there" commentators from whom we usually hear.