Activist Video Archive

Preserving progressive, multicultural voices of Los Angeles area activists, and philanthropists.

Preserving progressive, multicultural voices of Los Angeles area activists and philanthropists.

“The important thing is being able to say that you punched the time clock every day. You did your tiny bit for social justice.” -Mike Davis

NEW AT THE ARCHIVE

Francisco Letelier

We started an exciting new feature-length documentary project about artist, poet and activist, Chilean/American Francisco Letelier. Francisco is known for his murals, poetry and profile in the arts community. He was influenced early on by his tragic family history. In 1976, when Francisco was a teenager, his father Orlando was murdered by Augusto Pinochet.

Please watch our 10 minute introductory piece and 4 minute supplementary piece on Francisco and help us complete the full-length project by clicking the link below and making a tax-deductible donation to the Liberty Hill Foundation for the Activist Video Archive.


Gary Phillips

Son of a mechanic and a librarian with roots in the Texas Hill Country and the Mississippi Delta, Gary Phillips must keep writing to forestall his appointment at the crossroads. He has written comics, novels, short stories, and The Washington Post named his novel One-Shot Harry one of the best mysteries of 2022. He was also a staff writer and co-producer on Snowfall, streaming on Hulu, about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central where he grew up.


Norman Lear

(1922-2023)

Norman Lear, who died Dec. 5th at the age of 101, visited KCRW in Santa Monica, CA six years ago to sit down and talk with host Robert Scheer in this two-part interview for Scheer Intelligence about Lear's life through his autobiography, "Even This I Get to Experience." Here is Part 1.

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When Norman Lear was on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn back in 2016, he was the subject of a PBS American Masters film — Norman Lear: Another Version of You. He talked with Jesse about his childhood, working on so many sitcoms, and writing for an all Black cast.


Len Chandler

(May 27, 1935 – August 28, 2023)

Go directly to our a 3-Part Interview with Len Chandler.

Len Chandler was born and grew up in Akron, Ohio. Pivotal early influences included his step mother and his grandmother, both of whom introduced him early on to the joys of music. His father was a jazz musician, and music curriculum in the schools he attended quickly became Len’s primary educational interest.

The first instrument he played was a recorder, but he quickly graduated to oboe. From his early training, when his Step-Mother would buy him opera librettos and take him to opera local productions, his emphasis in music was classical in nature. Once he was a teenager, he started writing and singing little songs to impress the girls.

Continue on to the complete interview…



We added a new section called L.A. RESISTANCE COLLECTION documenting the young Americans in the Los Angeles area who chose to resist the Vietnam War, and openly refuse military service, risking prison to end the horrors of war.

Many of the current generation are not aware of the war in Vietnam and they do not know of The Resistance.

View interviews, panel discussions, the film trailer, clips from the and access the feature length documentary film The Boys Who Said NO!

View the new
L.A. RESISTANCE COLLECTION


Michael Letwin

Michael Letwin is a lawyer and public defender whose early political experiences included being part of a high school collective that produced a radical newspaper against the Vietnam War, The Red Tide. His parents and grand parents were politically active leftists. His grandparents on both sides of his family were in the Russian Revolution. Thanks to Bob Zaugh for introducing us.

View The Red Tide (1971-1981) archive here.

More information about Michael Letwin and his family history:

Michael Z. Letwin
Alita Zurav Letwin (1932-2020)
Leon Letwin (1929-2015)
Zurav


At the Gary Tyler Birthday on Sunday, although I wanted to tell the story of The Red Tide, The Peace Press, Jan and Jerry's Home as ground zero for social change, and Liberty Hill, I knew that it would add too many words to the program. I told the audience that I would post the story on Facebook and stick strictly to thank you's for those who have help Gary Tyler over the years.

As the story of what happened relating to Gary Tyler is so unique I put it out to you as a lesson on the importance of people  staying connected over years, over decades, to make important things happen.


Click on this link to read the full story of how we linked up to help Gary Tyler…


Wally and Suzy Marks

As a part of our work throughout the last thirty years, we often did videos for social justice groups who were fund raising. One group we work with often was Physicians for Social Responsibility especially under the auspices of Jonathan Parfrey. This video highlights the philanthropy of Suzy and Wally Marks, who were foremost in our community of activists/philanthropists and who supported numerous organizations with their donations. This video was done for PSR when they honored Suzy and Wally at their annual event. To this day, Suzy is carrying on the legacy she and Wally built.


Acting Out Of Faith

In the early 1980's we were moved by the number of Catholic religious - nuns, priests and bishops - who were getting involved in feminist politics, the refugee crisis in Central America and/or the burgeoning anti-nuclear movement.

We started what we intended to be a feature length documentary. This section of footage gives a sense of what we were trying to explore with the film. It was a very controversial topic and there was a lot of opposition from more traditional parts of the Catholic Church.

We found it impossible to sustain the funding for the film which we were raising from individuals who championed this activism.


Twenty years after the civil unrest, Michele Prichard videotaped a series of interviews as background research for “LA Rising: the 1992 Civil Unrest, the Arc of Social Justice Organizing, and the Lessons for Today’s Movement Building” co-authored with Manuel Pastor of USC.

The collection includes interviews with Karen Bass, Anthony Thigpenn, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Kent Wong, Victor Narro and Maria Elena Durazo, to name a few. Each interview explores the theory, practice and lessons learned by these leaders in social change to chart a way forward for progressive L.A.

We are proud to host this important collection of interviews so they can be watched, analyzed, and used by journalists, filmmakers, and activists to further enhance the story of progressive Los Angeles.

View the new
L.A. RISING COLLECTION


CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF POLITICAL GRAPHICS
presents
A Conversation with Angela Davis and Rev. James Lawson


A TRIBUTE TO
SARAH PILLSBURY AND LIBERTY HILL


The Activist Video Archive exists because of the early and continuing support of the Chino Cienega Foundation of Palm Springs, California.

The Chino Cienega Foundation funds projects which deal with climate change and environmental sustainability, youth empowerment and education, post-conflict resolution and development, and cultural preservation and history. Visit their web site at ChinoFound.org for more information about this vital organization.

We salute the work of Chino Cienega and its founder, Steve Nichols. Sally Benson and its Board of Directors.


ARCHIVE LIBRARY

Featured Archive Voices

“This is an amazing collection that will deepen our understanding of the past and inform our activism of the future. In one word: Wow!”
-Manuel Pastor
Director, USC Equity Research Institute

"No history is mute. No matter how much they own it, break it, and lie about it, human history refuses to shut its mouth. Despite deafness and ignorance, the time that was ticks inside the time that is."
- Eduardo Galeano


Featured Archive Films


Featured Archive Specials

The Activist Video Archive is proud to be a research resource for Mike Davis and Jon Wiener’s new book:

SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE: L.A. IN THE SIXTIES

Read more about Mike Davis in Gustavo Arellano’s 7/22/22 LA Times Column

A Tribute to Norman Lear

Robert Scheer - Above the Fold
California Historical Society
Post-Screening Discussion

Dr. Jose Quiroga is a cardiologist and co-founder and director of medical services at the Program for Torture Victims (PTV).

Physicians for Social Responsibility hired us to produce this video about John Froines when they were honoring him in 2012. We have added it to the archive because of his important activist work.


In Remembrance

 

Peg Yorkin (1927-2023)

 

Daniel Ellsberg (1931-2023)

Reverend Al Cohen

Ed Asner (1929-2021)

Ed Pearl (1932-2021)

Rev. Dr. George Regas (1930-2021)

Congressman John Lewis


Archive Library

Authors, academics and filmmakers are starting to use the Activist Video Archive as a resource for their work product.  Please know that what we post here are "excerpts" from longer interviews with our subjects.  If you want to have access to the entire interview please get in touch by emai: info@activistvideoarchive.org


“Everything that is tearing us down today will become a memory, and this memory will be shared as an anecdote or a story or a poem or a play or a warning. It will be shared with another human being, who will then understand that he is not alone in his sadness. This is why we show up for others and tell our tales and listen to others. The great congregation meets daily, and you are someone’s angel today.”

-Tennessee Williams/Interview with James Grissom

info@activistvideoarchive.org

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