Before the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, Wikileaks, and Edward Snowden… there was Media, Pennsylvania. On March 8, 1971, eight ordinary citizens broke into an FBI office in a small town just outside Philadelphia. They took hundreds of secret files, and shared them with the public. In doing so, they uncovered the FBI’s vast and illegal regime of spying and intimidation of Americans exercising their First Amendment rights.
Mailed anonymously, the documents started to show up in newsrooms. The heist yielded a trove of damning evidence that proved the FBI was deliberately working to intimidate civil rights activists and Americans nonviolently protesting the Vietnam War. The most significant revelation were references to COINTELPRO – a previously unknown illegal program overseen by lifelong FBI director J. Edgar Hoover – the Counter Intelligence Program.
John and Bonnie Raines, two of the members of the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI, with their children.
Despite searching for the people behind the heist in one of the largest investigations ever conducted, the FBI never solved the mystery of the break-in, and the identities of the members of the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI remained a secret until now. For the first time, the members of the Citizens’ Commission have decided to come forward and speak out about their actions. 1971 is their story.
Executive-produced by Laura Poitras, director of this year’s Academy Award-winning Best Documentary Feature CITIZENFOUR, and told through a combination of exclusive interviews, rare primary documents, and contemporary national news coverage, the story of the Citizens’ Commission unfolds with haunting echoes to today’s questions of privacy in the era of government surveillance.
Our Friday night screening of 1971 will be introduced by civil rights lawyer Bill Goodman of the firm Goodman and Hurwitz, who will offer legal perspective and context for the events depicted in the film. Goodman’s practice is devoted almost exclusively to matters of police and law enforcement misconduct. He teaches a seminar on Constitutional Theory at Wayne State University, emphasizing issues of separation of powers, presidential war powers, scope and extent of the writ of habeas corpus. His expertise is sure to enrich the viewing experience.
1971
Documentary, history, thriller – NR – 79 min – Tickets $9 – Get tickets online
Fri, March 27: 7:00 p.m.
Sat, March 28: 5:00 p.m.
Sun, March 29: 3:00 p.m.
Mon, March 30: 7:00 p.m.
Tues, March 31: 7:00 p.m.
Weds, April 1: 7:00 p.m.
Thurs, April 2: 7:00 p.m.
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