The Weather Underground
Encyclopedia
The Weather Underground is a 2002 documentary film
based on the rise and fall of the American
radical organization The Weathermen
. Using much archive footage from the time as well as interviews with the Weathermen today, the film constructs a linear narrative of the militant organization.
The film, directed by Sam Green
and Bill Siegel won the audience choice award at the Chicago Underground Film Festival
and went on to be nominated for an Academy Award in 2004.
(SDS) and the Black Panther Party
. The documentary also examines the U.S. government's suppression of dissent during this turbulent era through projects such as COINTELPRO
. Using archival footage from the 1960s and 1970s, the film also intersperses recent interviews with high profile ex-Weathermen like Bernardine Dohrn
, David Gilbert, Bill Ayers
, Mark Rudd
and Brian Flanagan
, who talk about their involvement in the organization, their experiences, and the trajectory that led them to be placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
based on the rise and fall of the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
radical organization The Weathermen
Weatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
. Using much archive footage from the time as well as interviews with the Weathermen today, the film constructs a linear narrative of the militant organization.
The film, directed by Sam Green
Sam Green
Sam Green is a San Francisco-based documentary filmmaker. His film, The Weather Underground, was nominated for an Academy Award in 2004, broadcast nationally on PBS, and included in the Whitney Biennial.- Life :...
and Bill Siegel won the audience choice award at the Chicago Underground Film Festival
Chicago Underground Film Festival
Chicago Underground Film Festival, founded in 1994, occurs each spring at various venues in Chicago, Illinois in the USA.Over the last 18 years it has become one of the most respected festivals in the USA and is today well attended by critics and programers. The festival's stated goal is "to focus...
and went on to be nominated for an Academy Award in 2004.
Story
In 1969, a small group of leftist college student radicals announced their intentions to overthrow the U.S. government in opposition to the Vietnam War. This documentary explores the rise and fall of this radical movement as former members speak candidly about the passion that drove them at the time. The film also explores the group in the context of other social movements of the time, featuring interviews with former members of the Students for a Democratic SocietyStudents for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
(SDS) and the Black Panther Party
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
. The documentary also examines the U.S. government's suppression of dissent during this turbulent era through projects such as COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations.COINTELPRO tactics included discrediting targets through psychological...
. Using archival footage from the 1960s and 1970s, the film also intersperses recent interviews with high profile ex-Weathermen like Bernardine Dohrn
Bernardine Dohrn
Bernardine Rae Dohrn is a former leader of the American anti-Vietnam War radical organization, Weather Underground. She is an Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law and the immediate past Director of Northwestern's Children and Family Justice Center...
, David Gilbert, Bill Ayers
Bill Ayers
William Charles "Bill" Ayers is an American elementary education theorist and a former leader in the movement that opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He is known for his 1960s activism as well as his current work in education reform, curriculum, and instruction...
, Mark Rudd
Mark Rudd
Mark William Rudd is a political organizer, mathematics instructor, and anti-war activist, most well known for his involvement with the Weather Underground. Rudd became a member of the Columbia University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society in 1963. By 1968, he had emerged as a leader...
and Brian Flanagan
Brian Flanagan
Brian Flanagan is a former member of the American radical left organizations Students for a Democratic Society and the Weather Underground Organization .-Early life:...
, who talk about their involvement in the organization, their experiences, and the trajectory that led them to be placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list.
Quotes
- "We felt that doing nothing in a period of repressive violence is itself a form of violence. That's really the part that I think is the hardest for people to understand. If you sit in your house, live your white life and go to your white job, and allow the country that you live in to murder people and to commit genocide, and you sit there and you don't do anything about it, that's violence." Naomi JaffeNaomi JaffeNaomi Esther Jaffe is a former undergraduate student of Herbert Marcuse and member of the Weather Underground Organization. Jaffe was recently the Executive Director of Holding Our Own, a multiracial foundation for women.-Early life:...
- "Once Richard Nixon was elected president and inaugurated in January 1969, we were targeted, bam, bam, bam, by a very sophisticated, advanced, counterintelligence program; At the same time, by very crude and violent police." Kathleen Neal CleaverKathleen Neal CleaverKathleen Neal Cleaver is an American professor of law, known for her involvement with the Black Panther Party.- Early life :...
, Black Panther PartyBlack Panther PartyThe Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
- "This pattern of harassment is going on against the Black Panther Party across the country. On Friday, the Watts office of the Black Panther Party was bombed and demolished. Last week the Des Moines office was bombed. They can't stop anything we're doing as a legitimate political organization so they come in and shoot us and shoot tear gas at us like they've lost they minds." Kathleen Neal CleaverKathleen Neal CleaverKathleen Neal Cleaver is an American professor of law, known for her involvement with the Black Panther Party.- Early life :...
Black Panther Party
- "There's no way to be committed to non-violence in the most violent society that history has ever created. I'm not committed to non-violence in any way." Bernardine DohrnBernardine DohrnBernardine Rae Dohrn is a former leader of the American anti-Vietnam War radical organization, Weather Underground. She is an Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law and the immediate past Director of Northwestern's Children and Family Justice Center...
- "Freaks are revolutionaries and revolutionaries are freaks." Bernardine DohrnBernardine DohrnBernardine Rae Dohrn is a former leader of the American anti-Vietnam War radical organization, Weather Underground. She is an Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law and the immediate past Director of Northwestern's Children and Family Justice Center...
- "I cherished my hate as a badge of moral superiority." Mark RuddMark RuddMark William Rudd is a political organizer, mathematics instructor, and anti-war activist, most well known for his involvement with the Weather Underground. Rudd became a member of the Columbia University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society in 1963. By 1968, he had emerged as a leader...
- "I think that part of the Weatherman phenomenon that was right was our understanding of what the position of the United States is in the world. It was this knowledge that we just couldn't handle; it was too big. We didn't know what to do. In a way I still don't know what to do with this knowledge. I don't know what needs to be done now, and it's still eating away at me just as it did 30 years ago." Mark RuddMark RuddMark William Rudd is a political organizer, mathematics instructor, and anti-war activist, most well known for his involvement with the Weather Underground. Rudd became a member of the Columbia University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society in 1963. By 1968, he had emerged as a leader...
See also
- Days of RageDays of RageThe Days of Rage demonstrations were a series of direct actions taken over a course of three days in October 1969 in Chicago organized by the Weatherman faction of the Students for a Democratic Society...
- Greenwich Village townhouse explosionGreenwich Village townhouse explosionThe Greenwich Village townhouse explosion was the premature detonation of a bomb as it was being assembled by members of the American radical left group, Weatherman – later renamed the Weather Underground – in the basement of a townhouse at 18 West 11th Street between Fifth Avenue and...
- Murder of Fred HamptonFred HamptonFred Hampton was an African-American activist and deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party...
External links
- The Weather Underground site for Independent LensIndependent LensAiring weekly on PBS through ITVS, the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens introduces new drama and documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of Independent Lens have been presented by hosts Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence Howard, Maggie...
on PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia.... - The Weather Underground Official Website
- The Weather Underground at Netflix
- The Weather Underground at Hulu