Really interesting coverage on the San Fran screening from ABC News. Holmes says, “They got the overall idea right, but almost all the particular facts are garbled” – especially the part about us being anti-copyright. You can watch by clicking on funny projection screen below:
So many people are demanding and organizing screenings of “Eyes on the Prize” – it’s so touching and moving how everyone is coming together on this. To facilitate this, we set up a tape distribution center of sorts – basically you can find out if your local library or local friend has tapes and easily tell others if there are tapes in libraries, videostores, homes and other places in every city and town. So if you’re in the know about the whereabouts of some “Eyes” tapes and they can be loaned out, please leave the info here. If you don’t know, call your local library and they can tell you easily. Matthew told us that he owns a copy of “Eyes on the Prize” but his authorized copy is on a laserdisc (and apparently there are 400 copies left) – who would have thought that?
Also, check out this Democracy Now interview with Lawrence Guyot and someone from Archive.org (archivist activist). Lawrence commanded maybe 50 screenings after this show. You can watch by clicking on Lawrence:
To download and listen, click here.
You can read organizers’ reportbacks here but we wanted to point out two jewels: Here is an email from New York, NY that shows what people are doing to make these screenings happen. Harriet writes, “Yes, I had a dramatic hand-over of the first two tapes to Justin last night at Port Authority, where he ran like Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate to meet me the last second before I had to step on the bus to Kingston. I’d be happy to lend the east village people the tapes next–why don’t you just put them in touch with me?”
And Frank in Atlanta who held a great screening on the 8th: More funny things with my phone number. I just got a call from the Manager of a huge Atlanta mall. Somebody has wheat pasted flyers for the screening on all the exterior coke machines of the mall. The funny part is that my phone number is printed on the flyers! This thing is getting out of hand – I love it! Though you might enjoy hearing about this.
And Judy Richardson, one of the producers on Eyes, has just signed on to the, statement from the Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, so that’s really great news.
Screenings are still going on– If there are people out there who still can’t get tapes at their library or videostore, we have a few volunteer tapes from some very generous people, desperate situations can email us at eyes@downhillbattle.org. Check the screening list for one near you.
We were on WGBH Boston television (they helped produced “Eyes” back then) on 2/9/05 and the show had a filmmaker and a copyright lawyer talking about the situation of “Eyes”. It was great coverage but there are a few things to point out here: 1. The show used clips of “Eyes on the Prize” in the segment – WGBH did not pay for them, they didn’t have to have a lawyer to call around to find out who owned the right, and they don’t have to because they’re a news show and they have a clear fair use right to document what the heck is going on in this world. Documentary filmmakers play a similar journailstic role and they shouldn’t have to be fearful of using clips and impotent in their filmmaking. 2. They wanted to use a picture of me from when I was in fifth grade. I think I found scanning in a photo of me and sending it by email would shift the focus and was too egotistical.
The reason why we chose to center these screenings on February 8th at 8PM was because we wanted people and communities to come together around “Eyes” and get excited about that moment when everyone came together. In return people could feel like they were a part of a bigger event and celebration and feel like “Eyes” was airing on television for the first time in 10 years (after running to their television sets). In reality, there were many moments over the course of these two weeks when many people came together around “Eyes” and we still have the rest of the month and hundreds more screenings to have.You can read what people are saying about their screenings here. Others should let us know how it went, email: eyes@downhillbattle.org. “Eyes” is so amazing.
Wired News attended yesterday’s screening put on by the Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, and they have a wonderful article about it.
The organizers of that screening did an amazing job, and perhaps more than any press so far, this story hits the nail on the head. More soon…
Did we mention that there were over 100 screenings yesterday??? It’s so great. Our screening was a really touching experience.
And check out these photos of screenings that a New York teacher had in his classes yesterday. If you haven’t been in a high school recently, you might think that some of these kids look bored– but I taught at a Philly high school last year and I can tell you from experience that this is a classic case of kids who are trying-to-look-bored-but-can’t-help-being-fascinated.
Our Screening here in SF was a rousing success. We had about 25 people attend… The crowd was mostly young: politicos,
techos and anarchists, but there were a couple bona-fide civil rights
veterans there. One, a Mr. Blue, had participated in protests with
Doctor King in Greensboro, NC in 1964 and lost his position as a
professor at a college there as a result. It was really something to be
thanked by a 75 year old man for showing a movie in my friends co-op.
Send feedback from your screening to eyes@downhillbattle.org.
Hey everyone, the screening in Worcester went great last night, and the other ones we’ve heard about sound awesome. Here’s one email we got:
I just screened Eyes on the Prize, Part 2, in Silverton Colorado,
population 350.  The entire middle and high school, plus some community
folks, settled in to watch it in the Miners’ Union Theater.  Everyone
was rapt and at times shocked.  Several asked why they hadn’t seen it
before.
I wish I knew enough coding to do more than just suggest this, but you
might want to throw a bulletin board up on the site for people to post
accounts of how it went.  I’d definitely write up something.
It’s a good idea and we might try to pull something like that together, but for now, just email your accounts to eyes@downhillbattle.org.
The LA libraries are completely out of Eyes on the Prize videos– the few scattered volumes that they still have left after 10 years are checked out. This of course is a perfect example of how bad the public access problem has gotten. But the more immediate issue is that there’s a screening scheduled for tonight, but it still needs videos. If you can help, call Jason at 310-733-7703.
Whoah– new Eyes on the Screen screenings are being added amazingly fast today. We’ve added 15 new screenings in just the past 7 hours. That’s incredible. If there wasn’t one near you before, there might be one now: take a look.