Slog News & Arts

Line Out

Music & Nightlife

« American Prayer | Savage Love Letter of the Day »

Friday, August 22, 2008

Convention Prep

posted by on August 22 at 13:52 PM

As you’ve heard, Eli Sanders, Charles Mudede and I will be flying to Denver this weekend to cover the Democratic National Convention. Part of Charles’s beat will be to cover the protests, organized by the hilariously self-monikered Recreate ‘68 group. But why would you bother to recreate ‘68 when you can experience the real thing on film? (Kidding. Sort of.)

One of my favorite movies ever, despite its hokey Appalachian flashbacks and low-grade, persistent sexism, is Medium Cool, cinematographer Haskell Wexler’s enormously enjoyable treatise on the difficulty of journalistic objectivity. There’s a sun-bathed baptism in green mountains. There’s a Chicago slum. There are rock doves. There’s a deeply sympathetic child.

MediumCool1TN.jpg

But more excitingly for our purposes, there’s actual footage of the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which resulted in some famous police riots. The fictional narrative is woven into the documentary footage, sometimes literally, as when a fictional character in a bright yellow shirtdress passes in and out of a stream of actual protesters and police, searching for her son.

You should come. Eli and I are going to be at the 7 o’clock show tonight, but it plays at 7 and 9:15 through Sunday. (A contemporary documentary about the crazy summer leading up to the convention plays Sat-Sun only.)

Look out, Haskell, it’s real!

RSS icon Comments

1

If you're looking for riots, you're in the wrong place.

This year it's at the GOP convention.

Posted by Will in Seattle | August 22, 2008 2:58 PM

Comments Closed

Comments are closed on this post.