Who’s Watching: The Early Films of the Pacific Street Collective
On Saturday, October 29th, Spectacle and Cine-Móvil will host a tribute to the Pacific Street Collective and their early works of counter-surveillance. This program celebrates the 50th anniversary of RED SQUAD (1972), which will be followed up by the equally audacious SURVEILLANCE: WHO’S WATCHING? (1971).
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29TH – 7:30 PM
Red Squad
dir. Pacific Street Collective, 1972
45 mins, USA.
In English
“An extraordinary work of investigative journalism.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Made by then-NYU students under the tutelage of Martin Scorsese, RED SQUAD sees the Pacific Street Collective disrupt and annoy extrajudicial police and FBI surveillance units who continually intruded on anti-Vietnam War demonstrations throughout the ‘70s. Their brave efforts to disclose these wanton acts of targeted surveillance by a prejudiced police force was acclaimed by critics, including Amos Vogel who dubbed it “an extraordinary political film.”
Surveillance: Who’s Watching?
dir. Pacific Street Collective, 1971
60 mins, USA.
In English.
SURVEILLANCE: WHO’S WATCHING? can be seen as a direct precursor to RED SQUAD, as young members of the newly formed Pacific Street Collective position themselves as bait during a peaceful demonstration to out members of Chicago PD’s radical squad on television. Despite catching PD knuckleheads Maurice Daly and Truman Stromberg in the act of surveillance, all three members of the Collective were arrested and told to leave Chicago under threat of violence, a testament to their courage as politically-motivated documentarians at an early point in their careers.
Special thanks to Steve Fischler, Joel Sucher and Cine-Móvil.
Cine Móvil is a pop-up cinema collective spreading revolutionary culture across the five boroughs. Founded in the wake of the 2020 uprisings, the collective endeavors to bring together audiences to view and discuss radical cinema. Cine Móvil recognizes the role that culture plays in movements, and aims to uplift the revolutionary consciousness of people, connecting the films they screen with the real material conditions which people and organizations face in the present. Cinema is for the people!