The Cinematheque

Regarded in its time as one of the best documentaries of the New Left, Troublemakers, subtitled ​“a film about organizing people for change,” follows the frustrated efforts of community activists to bring theory into practice in an African-American community in Newark, New Jersey, two years prior to the July 1967 uprising there. Troublemakers sets the stage for a pair of shorts programmed to mark this month’s 50th anniversary of the May 1968 revolution in France: Cinetracts, a series of short agit-prop films made anonymously by Chris Marker, Jean-Luc Godard, and others, using still photography; and the recently-unearthed Actua 1, which catches the spirit of ​’68 through footage shot by Philippe Garrel and other young protesters on the barricades. American Bruce Baillie, in ​“one of the most beautiful films ever made” (Chuck Stephens, Cinema Scope), sings us out with an old song about a revolutionary hero.

Troublemakers • Norman Fruchter, Robert Machover • USA 1966 • 54 min. 16mm Actua 1 • Philippe Garrel • France 1968 • 6 min. DCP Cinetracts • France 1968 • 20 min. DCP Valentin de las Sierras • Bruce Baillie • USA 1968 • 10 min. 16mm