One of TIBET IN SONG’s DPs joins forces with the creator of a 1970s nightly free-speech television program to unearth the story of what happened when the media was used to tell the truth.
Co-director Howie Samuelsohn produced and directed the original UNDERGROUND NEWS out of Chicago’s WSNS-TV in 1970 as a response to what was perceived as the whitewashing of the mainstream news, especially with regard to news on Vietnam. Originally broadcasting for ten minutes each night before midnight, the radical and loosely-structured show quickly grew, attracting the attention of the counterculture and its celebrity supporters, many of whom became guests of the program. In its time on the air, its young college student host (and future Emmy, Peabody, and Dupont Award-winner) Chuck Collins welcomed the likes of Abbie Hoffman, Joan Baez, Jane Fonda, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Donald Sutherland, Cheech and Chong, and even R Crumb in his first televised appearance. Poised for national syndication, investors unexpectedly pulled out, and Samuelsohn and Collins discovered the limits of free speech in an era of surveillance an counterintelligence. When Carrie Lederer learned that Samuelsohn still had an extensive archive of tapes, film, and other materials from the show, the duo set out to reveal the buried story of UNDERGROUND NEWS for a new generation, unfortunately more relevant than ever given the compromised state of the mass media today.
While the filmmakers are currently running a Kickstarter campaign, there’s unfortunately quite a way to go to make their $20,000 goal with only three days left. Hopefully, if they don’t make it this time, they can regroup and try again. Those interested in keeping updated about progress on the film can sign up to be on the mailing list on the film’s website.
I’d never heard about UNDERGROUND NEWS before chancing upon the film’s Kickstarter page for potential projects to profile here, and I’m sure that I’m not in the minority. I’m drawn to archives, and to the idea of revealing what they contain for larger audiences. Especially in a world where so much information should be available to us but is nevertheless so mediated by outside interests and forces, it seems more necessary than ever to be aware of history like that included in the little-known UNDERGROUND NEWS program. Forty years on, co-conspirator Collins has already passed away – I’m hopeful that the filmmakers will somehow come up with the funding to bring this voice of the American counterculture back while some of the original participants might still be able to reflect on it now.
what (not) to doc 