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Park City, Utah, 2007. It's January, and hot off the tails of an election that was supposed to change things, President George Bush decides to send thousands of American soldiers to fight in another land that's also thousands of miles away. So what do you do? Well…
"If you listen to the pollsters right now, 72 percent of Americans don't support the war. But if you go down the street and look around, you don't see it."
That's Brett Morgen, director of "Chicago 10," a documentary about the turmoil and youth movement surrounding the 1968 DNC and the infamous trial of the Chicago 7.
"When we started this film five years ago, the idea was to try to remind people about what it means to take a stand, and to get out there and raise your voice, and get heard."
Morgan picked a good time to premiere "Chicago 10."
"I was born a month after the convention, and the first time I saw the footage of the police riots in Chicago and the march to the Hilton, I was absolutely blown away by the courage, and the ability people have to put themselves in harm's way."
Morgen considers the film a call to arms. "I didn't make this film for people who lived through it - they've done it. If there is going to be any change in this country, it's going to be your generation."
My generation? Damn straight. With the opening chords of Rage Against the Machine's "Wake Up," a song instantly recognizable to most of our generation, this message is apparent. It's indeed a rallying call; "Chicago 10" is a positively electrifying documentary that engages your senses and confounds your emotions without ever being preachy, despite its clear-cut political agenda. And you've never seen a documentary like this; dramatic archival footage of the marches and images of police brutality set to some of the best known fist pumping protest music of our generation, including Eminem and the Beastie Boys.
