The Urban Crisis and the New Militants: Module 7 - Cicero March (1966)

Movie
Audience Score
58
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NR 8 minJan 1st, 1966DocumentaryThe Urban Crisis and the New Militants PosterPart of The Urban Crisis and the New Militants
For a generation of young activists, the reality of war, imperialism, racism and the growing fragility of democratic liberalism was too much to handle. Force became a means to wrestle with this tension. As the discourse of a “country torn” finds its way into mainstream political analyses (for many the deep divisions in this country are not a new political reality), we should reflect on the writings of political dissidents and radicals. We should recognize the diversity of political analysis that is very much alive. The histories of armed struggle, if taken seriously, provide us with a means to think more critically about the center, and complicate its claims of moral and political right.
DirectorsMike GrayBill Cottle

Movie Details

Theatrical Release:January 1st, 1966
Original Language:English
Production Companies:The Film Group

The Urban Crisis and the New Militants

By the late 1960s Chicago had become a battleground in struggles for social change, civil rights and against the war in Vietnam. The 1968 Democratic Party convention was accompanied by anti-war demonstrations and clashes between students and police. Civil rights marches and Black Panther groups were attempting to redefine the place of Blacks in the United States. The Film Group, a Chicago-based production company set up to create industrial films and ads, found a new purpose during the Chicago Democratic Convention in late August 1968. On a lunch break from shooting a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial, founding member Mike Gray and his crew were shocked by police violence on the very streets where they lived and worked. Radicalized, they filmed the chaos and created their feature-length documentary American Revolution 2. From their footage grew the 7-part educational film series called The Urban Crisis and the New Militants.