I generally don’t follow through on press release style emails, but I got one last night that happened to catch my eye, only because it sounds like the sort of event I’d love to attend. I can’t, because it’s happening tonight and I’m not in Los Angeles. And anyway, I’m supposed to fight a duel at sundown.
Celebrating the release of the new film Chicago 10, Vanity Fair Magazine, Participant Media and Roadside Attractions is staging a town hall meeting at The Pacific Design Center tonight in West Hollywood. The event is called ACTIVISM THROUGH ART and is described as “a town hall meeting about the power and implications of movements through media.”
The film looks fascinating. It’s dives into the world of the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention (remember Medium Cool?) as well as the farcical courtroom trial that came after it. The courtroom scenes are taken from transcripts of the actual trial and told in an animated style using an array of actors as the voices, including Nick Nolte, Hank Azaria, Jefrrey Wright, Mark Ruffalo and the late, great Roy Scheider.
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=M9uJL7lWdFg]
Complete information about the event after the jump.
Los Angeles: Speaking Your Peace: Activism through Art
When: February 20, 2008 (beginning at 7:00 PM)
Where: Pacific Design Center (2687 Melrose Ave.)
Moderator: Chris Connelly
Panelists:
- Brett Morgen (Director of CHICAGO 10)
- Jeremy Strick (Director of MOCA LA)
- Paul Krassner (contributing writer for Huffington Post and founder of The Realist)
- Aaron Sorkin (writer of the upcoming film, THE TRAIL OF CHICAGO 7)
Synopsis:
From his Academy Award-nominated On the Ropes, to his singular blend of fact and legend in the Robert Evans portrait The Kid Stays in the Picture, Brett Morgen has explored increasingly provocative ways to transform documentary materials into new and exhilarating kinds of movies. CHICAGO 10 tells the story of the buildup and unraveling of the Chicago Conspiracy trial not as “history,” but as an electrifying experience felt with up-to-the-moment immediacy.
Interweaving footage of the brutal clashes between police and demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic convention with 3-D animated reenactments of the outrageous trial that followed it, Morgen turns the audience into eyewitnesses of violent turmoil and absurdist spectacle. Set to a blazing soundtrack that ranges from Black Sabbath and Steppenwolf to the Beastie Boys and Eminem, CHICAGO 10 is a stirring account of young Americans taking a stand in the face of an oppressive government-a story with deep resonance to the world of today.
