Capital Celluloid 2018 - Day 140: Tue May 29

Medium Cool (Hexler, 1968): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 6.10pm


This 35mm presentation is is part of the The Spirit of '68 season at BFI Southbank. You can find all the details of the season here.

Time out review: 
Focusing on a news cameraman's responses and responsibilities to the world framed through his lens - in particular, the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention and its attendant political riots, during which parts of the film were shot - ace liberal cinematographer Haskell Wexler's feature debut as director is a fascinating though not wholly successful fusion of cinéma-vérité and political radicalism. Already under the FBI's gaze for his civil rights and socialist documentaries, Wexler was actually accused of inciting the Chicago riots (the script was registered a year before); later he would again be subpoenaed over Emile de Antonio's film on the Weather Underground, which he shot. Recent movies owing a sizeable debt to Medium Cool include Newsfront and Circle of Deceit.
Paul Taylor


Here (and above) is the trailer.
 

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