The Sixth Side of the Pentagon
The Sixties
•
25m
Directed by Chris Marker & François Reichenbach • Documentary • 1967 • 26 minutes
"If the five sides of the pentagon appear impregnable, attack the sixth side."— Zen proverb
On October 21, 1967, over 100,000 protestors gathered in Washington, D.C., for the Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam. It was the largest protest gathering yet, and it brought together a wide cross-section of liberals, radicals, hippies, and Yippies. Che Guevara had been killed in Bolivia only two weeks previously, and, for many, it was the transition from simply marching against the war, to taking direct action to try to stop the 'American war machine.'
"Eloquent… impressive… Chris Marker is among that rare breed in whom the currents of political engagement and searching human honesty reinforce and enrich each other."—Film Quarterly
Up Next in The Sixties
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Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris
Directed by Terence Dixon • Documentary • With James Baldwin • 1970 • 27 minutes
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Documentary • 1970 • 14 minutes
Striking students meet at a "Revolutionary Seminar" at the Art Institute of Chicago in response to the invasion of Cambodia and the killing of protesting students at Kent and Jackson State Universities. They explore their role as artists in a capitalist society an...