Rebels with a Cause

This program portrays two intensely different types of activism. Both ask people to question societal systems and norms and ultimately have faith that their acts will bring about change, whether to individuals or to society at large. On May 17, 1968, nine Vietnam war protesters, including a nurse, an artist, a nun, and three priests, walked into a Catonsville, Maryland, draft board office, grabbed hundreds of files, and burned them with homemade napalm. Investigation of a Flame (Lynne Sachs, U.S., 2001, 45 mins, Color, 16mm) is an intimate portrait of this disparate band of resisters who chose to break the law in a defiant, poetic act of resistance. The Magic of Radio by San Francisco-based filmmaker Greta Snider (U.S., 2001, 23 mins, Color, 16mm) is a funny and lyrical documentary about the mystery and wonder of radio transmission. Despite the availability of cheaper, easier, or more legal means of disseminating information (web-casting or publishing, for example), Snider's characters are pirate radio enthusiasts. Meet Erin Yanke, a bicycle pirate from Portland, Oregon, formerly an intern at NPR's "This American Life"; Grinder Bitch and Feral from Free Radio Austin, broadcasting on the Trailer Muff Hour; and Robert Magnani, who bounces signals off the moon. Plus the beautifully abstract signature film of Mary Ellen Bute, Mood Contrasts (U.S., 1953, 7 mins, Color).

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