In the wake of the October 1967 antiwar march on the Pentagon, a disparate group of filmmakers – many of them participants in the march, and hence painfully aware of the censored nature of mainstream media coverage of the event – met at the offices of the Film-Maker’s Coop in New York (at the invitation of Jonas Mekas among others), and founded a new, activist film collective. Adopting the name Newsreel, these filmmakers – including Robert Kramer, Norm Fruchter, Robert Machover, Peter Gessner, Allan Siegel, Marvin Fishman, and Masanori Oe – immediately set to work producing numerous politically and socially committed short films, which were skillfully crafted but which invariably privileged political engagement and urgent topical relevance over formal or aesthetic niceties.
Almost immediately upon its inception, Newsreel began a process of transformation, expanding both geographically (chapters soon sprang up throughout the U.S.) and in terms of its membership. Numerous filmmakers joined the fray, including some who would go on to develop important independent careers, such as Christine Choy, Tami Gold, Deborah Shaffer, and others. During the initial phase of its existence – from 1967-72 – Newsreel produced dozens of films covering topics spanning the anti-war movement, labor politics, civil rights, feminist struggles, housing rights, police brutality, colonialism, and much more.
