The Gene Siskel Film Center screened "Rebels with a Cause", a documentary by Helen Garvey about Students for a Democratic Society, followed by a Q&A session with Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Carl Davidson, Sue Ellen Klonsky, and Robert Pardun.

The film traces the history of Students for a Democratic Society from its beginnings in 1960, through the Port Huron convention, its involvement in civil rights, organizing in poor communities, its increasing focus on ending the Vietnam War, and its eventual dissolution in 1969 under pressure from factionalism and the U.S. government. The film was long on personal interview and easy on historical footage; so it was light on context and heavy on reminiscence. It does a good job of capturing the view of the movement from individual participants. One former SDS member (I forget which) stressed, "We didn't know what we were doing. We were just doing what we thought was right." Because of this emphasis on interviews with former SDSers, the film takes on a slightly nostalgic, even self-celebratory feeling.

The full house, progessives all, consisted largely of activists of that generation (at three separate points in the screening, an audience member shrieked, "That's me!" in self-recognition), but also had some younger folks.

The Q&A following was wide-ranging. Panel members, particularly Davidson and Dohrn, spoke about their relationships with other groups of the day (Davidson called their relationship to the Yippies "tense"), their thoughts on the anti-globalization movement today (supportive, although Klonsky expressed dismay at reports of violence of any sort), the revolutionary tendency (Davidson found that turning revolutionary didn't work and advised against using Lenin as an instruction manual).

In the film and panel discussion, the progessive worldview was fully present: both its positive aspects, such as lifelong commitment and a politics founded solidly on clearly-articulated values and demanding self-discipline, and its more problematic ones, such as a tendency towards insularity (the impact of the 60s progressive movements in subsequent American politics was never raised in the discussion.)

The film was a worthwhile waste of $7 and an afternoon, and will make a fine video for classes and study groups (though long for such purposes at 110 minutes). It plays again Thursday February 1, at 6:00 pm.

www.artic.edu/saic/art/filmcntr/gazette0101.html

www.sdsrebels.com