Film Date
5/15/70
Film Reference Number
KQN 751
Description
KQED News report featuring student activists fasting in protest against the Vietnam War at UC Berkeley from May 15th 1970. Includes interviews with fasters who explain what they are trying to achieve and a look at the community action programs being undertaken by other students as part of reconstituted classes referred to as Wheeler Action Groups. There are views of local businesses on Telegraph Avenue who have closed between 12pm-1pm in sympathy with peace protesters and also shots of a novelty Richard Nixon dummy on the sidewalk which flaps its arms and blows bubbles from its forehead. Ends with a press conference in which dissident students describe a recent trip they made to Washington DC to increase Congressional awareness of the popular anti-war movement. One of them poses a question they've been asking politicians to address: "Is this going to be the kind of nation that we can be proud of that we can live in? And even more than that ... does the American governmental system and all its high ideals and great principles really work?"
Format
16mm newsfilm
Copyright
NCPB/KQED