Part One: 2-5 p.m. Part Two: 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Peter Watkins's most recent project is radical on many fronts-oversize and inventive, it uses nonactors who draw on their own research to reenact the Paris Commune, a heady experiment in creating a just society from the bottom up. It relies on long, moving shots which glide between spirited arguments in the street, school lessons, and marching drills to reveal the deepening civil war. The media-Watkins audaciously inserts a mainstream and alternative news station into the past-try to make sense of the swirl of events whether through on-the-street interviews or in-the-studio commentary. Debates as to political strategy are interwoven with disputes as to the role of the media. Watkins's ambitious, engrossing history is revisionist: it draws special attention to the contributions of women, but perhaps most extraordinarily, La Commune reveals how difficult it is to actually make history-whether to fundamentally alter society or accurately describe events. His account unfolds in the present tense, where we, just as much as his characters and actors, seek to understand a complex moment. In some of the most intriguing scenes, the cast break out of 1871 to comment on the relevance of past events to the present day.