Panelists participating in the discussion following the films are:
Anne Weills, a labor organizer who is active in the women's movement, was an anti-war activist during the Vietnam war, worked on Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign, and is involved in Oakland electoral politics.
Arlene Goldbard, a partner in Adams & Goldbard, a consulting firm specializing in collectives and other non-traditional forms of organization, teaches a course at San Francisco State University on culture and politics and is widely published on the subject.
David Wellman, professor of Community Studies at UC Santa Cruz, was a member of the Free Speech Movement and Students for a Democratic Society, and an editorial board member of Leviathan and The Movement.
“If Bob Dylan isn't exactly an ‘event' of the sixties, surely he is a felt presence for the decade. Marrying the social impulse of Woody Guthrie to the rhythms of rock and roll is only part of his achievement. To look once more at him now, through the direct-cinema prism of Leacock-Pennebaker's Don't Look Back, is to see him navigate the difficult terrain between art and commerce, once again between Woodstock nation and Ticketron, and navigate it he does, with brilliance and not a little arrogance.
“Dylan was certainly in a lot of the heads that took to the streets in the sixties. The times changed almost weekly, it seemed, as protest became civil disobedience, and Yippie ‘disorder.' Black veterans of SNCC and non-violence turned to militant, armed self-defense. The train of history was moving fast, and there appeared to be no scheduled stops. A movement which traced its beginnings to spontaneity and ‘participatory democracy' quite suddenly found itself with media-designated leaders and spokesmen. Just as the young Dylan was wooed by managers and promoters, so, too, do the Chicago Eight defendants find themselves caught up in an electronic storm. On the other hand, for a movement to deny the function of leadership seems equally crippling. Tonight's films raise these important questions.” Peter Gessner

Don't Look Back