“There is a middle ground in the documentary terrain: taking two (contrasting) impulses – the rigorously journalistic and the lyrically experimental – and bringing them together.”
The Weather Underground, directed by Sam Green and Bill Siegel, is a sensitive yet precise historical record of the women and men who came to epitomize the violent excesses of radical politics in the 1960’s and 70’s. The feature documentary, a 2004 Academy Award nominee, interweaves interviews with members of the original group along with still-shocking contextual montage images of the Vietnam war. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was broadcast on PBS, included in the Whitney Biennial, and screened widely around the world. Prodigiously researched, this highly regarded film reflects on the still-relevant theme of the violent outlaw ideological few who aim to influence the many.
About Sam Green: Director Sam Green is a New York-based documentary filmmaker. He received his Master’s Degree in Journalism from University of California Berkeley, where he studied documentary with acclaimed filmmaker Marlon Riggs. His most recent projects are the “live documentaries” The Measure of All Things, (2014), The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller (with Yo La Tengo) (2012), and Utopia in Four Movements (2010).
Doc Talk recorded February 8, 2016 at The New School.
The New School Doc Studies 