1/13/2022—2/1/2022

Report

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Shot during the 1968/69 school year at University of California Berkeley, Report was created as part of Norman Jacobson’s experimental political science course “Toward an Expression of the Idea of Freedom.” The film, which features cinematography by avant-garde filmmaker Ed Emshwiller, merges fiction and documentary as it portrays the widening generation gap within the university, and in society at large. At the center of the film is an uncertain teacher and the students who challenge him. The filmmakers sought to not only capture this scenario but the real-life experiences and opinions of the students in the class. Combining scripted elements, on-the-street interviews, behind-the-scenes conversations, and cinema verité footage of the demonstrations and police crackdown connected to the Third World Liberation Front campus protests, Report is a complex portrait of American higher education at a particularly tumultuous time in history. As issues surrounding free speech on college campuses continue to dominate our public discourse, Report is a fascinating time capsule from the epicenter of student activism. (Jean-Bernard Bucky & Norman Jacobson & Robert Peyton, USA, 1970, 56 min.)

Report was digitized through a partnership between Anthology Film Archives and Lightbox Film Center at University of the Arts, with funding from Ron and Suzanne Naples. Special thanks to Jean-Bernard Bucky, Robert Peyton, and Max Bienstock