1971 scored by Philip Sheppard is streaming on PBS here.
In 1971, long before Edward Snowden’s revelations of NSA surveillance, a group of citizens broke into a small FBI office in Pennsylvania, took every file, and shared them with the public. Their actions exposed the FBI’s illegal surveillance program of law-abiding Americans. Now for the first time, these anonymous Americans who risked everything share their story publicly.
In the past several decades, whistleblowers have helped shape the nation’s history, from Deep Throat exposing President Nixon’s Watergate scandal to Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA’s surveillance. But long before the dawning of the digital age, one group of citizens risked everything when they uncovered illegal government spying programs.
The FBI, established in 1908, was for 60 years held unaccountable and untouchable until March 8, 1971, when The Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI, as they called themselves, broke into a small FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, took every file, and shared them with the American public.
After the break-in, the group sent the files to journalists at the Washington Post, which published them and shed light on the FBI’s widespread abuse of power. These actions exposed COINTELPRO, the FBI’s illegal surveillance program that involved the intimidation of law-abiding Americans, and helped lead to the country’s first congressional investigation of U.S. intelligence agencies.
The activist-burglars then disappeared into anonymity for forty years. Until now. Never caught, these previously anonymous Americans — parents, teachers and citizens — publicly reveal themselves for the first time and share their story in the documentary 1971. Using a mix of dramatic re-enactments and candid interviews with all involved, the film vividly brings to life one of the more important, yet relatively unexplored, chapters in modern American history.
Soundtrack/ score by Philip Sheppard.
For 60 years, the FBI was untouchable. Then one March day during the Vietnam War, everything changed.
Stream 1971 on @PBS. pic.twitter.com/xPAlo6jR6P— Independent Lens|PBS (@IndependentLens) September 18, 2017
Film Credits
A Film by
Johanna Hamilton
Directed and Produced by
Johanna Hamilton
Edited by
Gabriel Rhodes
Produced by
Marilyn Ness
Katy Chevigny
Executive Producers
Julie Goldman
Abigail E. Disney
Gini Reticker
Laura Poitras
Cinematographer (Interviews)
Kirsten Johnson
Cinematographer (Recreations)
Andreas Burgess
Original Music
Philip Sheppard
Written by
Johanna Hamilton
Gabriel Rhodes
Associate Producer
Danielle Varga
Animation and Motion Graphics
Dave Tecson
Additional Photography
Neil Barrett
Nicholas Blair
Sound
Judy Karp
Mark Maloof
John Zecca
Nejc Poberaj
Recreations Unit
Recreations Producer
Maureen A. Ryan
Production Designer
Markus Kirschner
First Assistant Director
Sara Neuffer
Production Manager
Brian Birch
Art Director
Shawn Anabel
Casting Director
Adine Duron
CAST
Peter Gregus: Bill
Lauren A. Kennedy: Bonnie
Jonathan Joel Brennan: Bob
Rich Graff: John
Daniel S. Taylor: Keith
Dennis Brito: FBI Agent
John Isgro: Custodian
Kerry Malloy: FBI Agent
Brian P. McCarthy: #9
Matthew Smith: Citizens’ Commission
Marilyn Ness: Citizens’ Commission
Danielle Varga: Citizens’ Commission
Paul Darren: Security Guard
The filmmakers do not know the three unidentified burglars or the ninth person who withdrew from the break-in team.
Any similarities that may exist between any of them and the actors in the reenactments are purely coincidental.
Costume Designer
Eniola Dawodu
Key Hair/Makeup Artist
Vera Stromsted
Gaffer
Nicola Guarneri
First Assistant Camera
Alex Peterson George Alvarez
Production Coordinator
Jacey Heldrich
Assistant Editors
Eric Rockey
Nora Ballard
Michael Peterson
Archival Clearances
Nan Wakefield
Legal Services
Karen Shatzkin
Post Production Services
Final Frame
Digital Intermediate Online Editor
Owen Rucker
Digital Intermediate Colorist
Will Cox
Digital Intermediate Producer
Caitlin Tartaro
Audio Post Provided by
Gigantic Post, NYC
Sound Designer and Re-Recording Mixer
Tom Paul
Dialogue Editor
Sam Edelstein
Sound Effects Editor
Andrea Bella
Foley Artist
Les Bloom
Foley Mixer
Carl Shillito
Bookkeepers
Phil Lane
Kelley A. Trotter
Archival Materials
All in the Family ©1972 Tandem Productions, Inc.
Episode “Archie and the FBI.”
Fight of the Champions © 1971
Director: Art Fisher Producers: Neal Marshall & Art Fischer
Interview with former FBI agent Terry Neist by Sam Green
© The Free History Project
ABCNEWS VideoSource and WPVI
Critical Past
FBI ©1965 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Historic Films
KPIX-TV
KRON-TV
KYW-TV
Pat McGrath
National Archives and Records Administration
NBC Universal Archives
Nixon Library
Oddball Film & Video
San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive
T3Media
Temple Urban Archives
UCLA Film & Television Archive
WHAM-TV
WPA Film Library
Anne Flitcraft
Associated Press
Baltimore Sun Media Group
Chicago Tribune
Courier Post, Cherry Hill
Carl Stern
Delaware County Times
Democrat & Chronicle, Rochester, NY
The Raines Family
Keith Forsyth
Sarah Davidon
Corbis
David Kairys
Delaware County History
Getty Images
Greg Moore
Haverford College
Life Magazine
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
LSUS Archives and Special Collections
New York Times
Newsday
Philadelphia Inquirer
Saint Joseph’s University Archives
Theodore Hetzel Photograph Collection
Swarthmore College Peace Collection
Anthony Giacchino Camden 28 [Motion Picture] Collection
Swarthmore College Peace Collection
Temple Urban Archives
University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections
Washington Post
Washington Star
Music
“I Spy (For the F.B.I.) / Foxy Devil”
Luther Ingram & The G-Men
Smash Records Re-released in 1971 following the revelations of the Media Burglary
“A Whole New You”
Written by Enion Pelta-Tiller
Arranged and Recorded by David Tiller and Enion Pelta-Tiller
Taarka, 2012
Special Thanks
The Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI
Sarah Davidon
James Kirkpatrick Davis
Paco de Onis
Kate Doyle
Henry Dunn
Mike German
David Kairys
Betty Medsger
Laura Poitras
Thom Powers, Ian Olds, and Rachel Rakes
Max, Theo and Layla van Zyl
Paul van Zyl
Ben Wizner
Pam Yates
Fiscal Sponsor
Women Make Movies, Inc.
Executive Producer for ITVS
Sally Jo Fifer
Funding provided by
The Ford Foundation JustFilms
Candescent Films
Fork Films
Open Society Foundations
Sundance Documentary Film Program
New York State Council on the Arts
The Fledgling Fund
San Francisco Film Society
Richard and Marianne Hamilton
The Fund For Constitutional Government
Vital Projects Fund
Steward R. Mott Foundation
Michael Hirschhorn and Jimena Martinez
AMJ Foundation
Susan Parker and Alan Belzer
Keating Hawkins Gift Fund
Puffin Foundation
David Rudovsky
Dr. Edward Herman
Rick Cummings
Josh Markel and Eva Gold
1971 is a co-production of Maximum Pictures LLC and the Independent Television Service (ITVS) in association with Big Mouth Productions, Motto Pictures, and Fork Films, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)
This film was produced by Maximum Pictures, LLC, which is solely responsible for its content.
