So You Want to Start a Revolution

So, last night (Friday) I was invited at the very last minute to the SilverDocs Festival in Silver Spring. I had never heard of the movie Chicago 10. But I was not in the mood for a large crowd, and was informed of Dave Connelly’s Happy hour at RFD a bit to late.

The evening started off a little disappointed; great company with Jon, Darren & Ann at one of my favorite restaurant Cubano’s. Unfortunately I ordered the Masitas de Puerco, and this was the first time I have EVER been disappointed in the food there (luckily everyone else’s was very good, as usual). Surprisingly, we met up with Brandon, Candice & Kelly who had dragged the siblings to the Cubano’s on my recommendation from when I told her over the Memorial Day Weekend.

Anyway the whole point was to go see the Chicago 10, which as a minor aside should really be named the Chicago 8, and I still don’t get the number difference after looking up some of the history….

Basically in a nutshell, the movie depicts the events of the Democratic Convention of 1968, and the ensuing riots, and the trial that came after of 8 people who were charged with CONSPIRACY to incite riots across state lines, etc…. Now most people would think.. uughhh a documentary… and normally I am not one to shy away from them (former History Channel addict here). But this was definitely a new direction for this style of film.

The director Brett Morgen, uses no current interviews – instead he uses extensive archival footage to let the viewer experience the events as one might have during that time, albeit from the safety of your theatre seat and condensed (supposedly from over 700 hours of footage). He then interspaces that with the trial, depicted in rotoscope animation style, with actors reading/depicting from the transcripts. It is a VERY UNIQUE way of presenting a documentary for sure. Although the director says (he was present and supposedly said) that he leaves the viewers to make their own conclusions from the material, there is an obvious editing process. He was also trying to draw some parallels between the situation in Vietnam and Iraq with some eerie footage of LBJ saying almost the same as GWB, and thus sets a nice POV to make the actions somewhat contemporary.

It was also, it would so seem to me an obvious miscarriage of justice. How common is it to bind and gag a prisoner in the court for requesting the ability to represent himself? I was left stunned needless to say.

I think one of the thoughts that still definitely swirls in my head is our true ability to influence politics in this country as the protest in Chicago was meant to be. It seems that our influence as a people is minimal – contribute to this – contribute to that. Only rarely do I see what I figure is a politician who really listens to the people. Its all about political wrangling and money…… I feel saddened, and disheartened. I mean if you really try to start something, it might just destroy you. Even though I don’t particularly like her, look what the anti-war campaign did to Cindy Sheehan – and to what avail… the politicians in charge continue to “stay the course” (I’m not saying I have the right or wrong answer, just an observation here).

So do we do enough for our voices to be truly heard?

(For those of you wondering - the title was inspired by: 1- Obviously The Beatles Song - Revolution - lyrics here and coincidentally was released in November of the same year, recorded just before July also, and... ; 2 - Those idiots who try selling you the "Stop Bitching, Start A Revolution T-Shirt... What revolution are they starting? a commercial revolution?? pppppffffftttt!!!!!)