March 10, 2011
Cointelpro 101
Co-organized by the Calarts Aesthetics and Politics Program and the CalArts School of Art
“The government’s COINTELPRO program was nothing short of an assault and that assault, Cointelpro 101 makes clear.“ —Black Commentator
CalArts faculty member Sam Durant introduces a screening and discussion of COINTELPRO 101, a film that exposes illegal surveillance, disruption, and outright murder committed by the U.S. government in the 1950s to the 1970s. COINTELPRO refers to the official FBI Counter Intelligence Program carried out to surveil, imprison and eliminate leaders of social justice movements, and to disrupt, divide and destroy the movements as well. Through interviews with activists who experienced these abuses first-hand and rare historical footage, the film provides an educational introduction to a period of intense repression and draws relevant lessons for the present and future.
Following the screening, Martín Plot moderates a discussion with COINTELPRO 101 filmmaker Claude Marks of the Freedom Archives, SF8 defendant and organizer Hank Jones, and legendary author and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.
