Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed series tonight, Tuesday, March 1: REVOLUTION ’67
Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno and Jerome Bongiorno’s revisitation of the Newark Riots premiered at Full Frame in 2007. Other screenings included Sarasota, Atlanta, Rhode Island, Newark Black, Dallas Black, and the Langston Hughes African American fests. The doc was originally broadcast on POV in July 2007 and makes a return to public television as the WORLD Channel continues its focus on civil rights in America.
Over the course of six days in July 1967, frustration and anger amongst Newark’s African American population boiled over after reports spread that policemen had beat a black taxi driver to death for a minor traffic violation. By the end of the uprising, more than two dozen people had died, property damage was extensive, and the city was irrevocably changed. Through the testimony of several individuals who were in Newark at the time, archival footage, and animation and graphics that frankly haven’t aged well since the film’s debut, the Bongiornos recreate this tumultuous event. In the process, the commentators lay bare the inequities and systemic abuses that precipitated the eruption, grounding them not only in issues of racism and control, but, just as importantly, in questions of poverty and economic justice. While conventionally constructed, the doc, though focused on the past, remains unfortunately all too topical for the present.
what (not) to doc 