Newspaper Page Text
JANUARY 16, 1970
Woodstock and Dr. King Caught on Film
Two documentary movies may well be
the hit motion pictures of 1970. The first
film is about the life of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. The other film is a pop festival
film about this past summer's WoodstockflßßHk
music festival.
By MALCOLM STOREY ■ ■ jAWMPHf
A FILMED RECORD. MONTGOMERY^DMEMPHIS^^
Two documentary movies may well be
the hit motion pictures of 1970. The first
film is about the life of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., and the other is a pop festival on
film about the past summer’s Woodstock
music festival.
On April 7, 1970, two years after the
assassination of the late Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., the American public
will have the opportunity to view what is
perhaps one of the most important films
ever made —a motion picture production
entitled “King From Montgomery to
Memphis.” Portraying in striking words
and images the struggle for equality and
justice waged by blacks and whites in
America, the film was made from
thousands of feet of television and movie
film taken throughout the career of Dr.
King. It is a moving account of the ac
tivities of the foremost spokesman of
Black America during the period from
1955 to 1968, and is a vivid depiction of the
philosophy of non-violence.
ONE NIGHTER
The movie will be shown in a unique,
one-night “theatre party” to be held in
more than 300 cities simultaneously on
the night of April 7. Through the en
thusiastic endeavors of Ely Landau, the
man who conceived and organized the
event, several prominent executives,
creative people, and organizations have
supported and contributed to the film
project. The unique collaboration of
several people within the motion picture
industry will make 1,000 fully staffed
theatres available for the single showing
of the two-and-one-half hour version.
All tickets for the event will sell for $5,
which is tax deductible, and the entire
proceeds will go into the Martin Luther
King, Jr. special fund. The fund will
make grants to special programs which
support Dr. King’s principles and ideals
of using non-violent methods in the war
on poverty and illiteracy, as well as in the
struggle for civil and human rights.
FREE TICKETS
It is expected that many large, in
terested organizations, companies and
institutions will buy blocks of tickets for
the free distribution to those who are
financially unable to support the film.
After the initial showing of “King
From Montgomery to Memphis,” copies
of the film will be made available to
schools, libraries, and various other
concerned organizations.
In terms of chronology, the film begins
in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 with the bus
boycott that thrust Dr. King into national
prominence. A series of episodes detail
the major campaigns and themes in Dr.
King’s struggle for fulfillment of his
“dream.” These include his 1957 “Prayer
Pilgrimage to Washington,” the sit-ins
and freedom rides of the 60’s, the Albany
movement, the confrontations in Bir
mingham, St. Augustine, Selma and
Chicago, the homage to Dr. King as
winner of the Nobel Peace prize, the
Meredith march, the Poor People’s
campaign, and the grief and pain of
King’s death in Memphis.
The film was produced by famed
Hollywood producer, Ely Landau, whose
productions include such films as “The
Pawnbroker” and “Long Day’s Journey
into Night.”
TRIBUTE TO KING
The significance of the film, in the
words of Landau, is that this “single
evening, nationwide showing of the film
will not only produce revenue for the
special fund and the continuation of Dr.
King’s work, but, with the help of the
hundreds of individuals and
organizations that are contributing their
time, talent, energies, and money, will
also serve as a dramatic tribute to Dr.
King’s memory. In some small way, I
hope this event will be worthy of, and do
justice to Dr. King’s life and work.”
Tilt: WEST GEORGIAN
Another film that promises to be a sure
hit is entitled “Woodstock.” Since last
summer’s Music and Art fair burst upon
an unsuspecting America, “Woodstock"
has passed into the language of the
current college generation. This film will
be ready for an already eager audience
of young Americans in early March.
For those who were there, “Wood
stock" has become both a password and
a symbol. It is also the memory of taking
part in that incredible mass of music,
surrounded by 400,000 of the friendliest,
most peace-loving people on the face of
the earth.
Now it has reached the screen. Warner
Bros, will soon be releasing “Wood
stock,” a full-length color feature film
directed by Michael Wadleigh, a 25-year
old graduate of Columbia Medical School
and N. Y. U., and possibly the top
ranking cinematographer to be tuned
into the specialized wave-length of
today’s rock music and folk scenes.
UNUSUAL PRODUCER
Wadleigh is a far cry from the usual
product of the Hollywood assembly line,
as you can see from his picture on this
page. He spent the last two months in a
vast, Kafkaesque working loft above a
run-down block off Broadway in New
York, surrounded by thousands of feet of
“Woodstock” footage.
Wadleigh’s associate and the film’s
producer is Bob Maurice, a gangling
C.C.N.Y. graduate, who is undoubtedly
the first producer in major motion pic
ture ranks with an electric-shock hairdo
that outshine Tiny Tim.
Together, Wadleigh and Maurice put
together the preparations, equipment
and immense under-30 technical crew
that covered the Music and Art fair. The
achievement was not a minor one. By the
time the first long-haired children of the
love generation appeared on the horizon
above Bethel, N. Y., the “Woodstock”
film crew were already in place on the
actual site. Wadleigh supervised a team
of 20 cameramen and was backed by a
virtual film-maker’s army that included
eight camera assistants, six documen
tary sound men, fourteen performance
sound engineers and synchronization
specialists, six still men and 30
production assistants.
On screen, Warner Bros.’ “Wood
stock” is two hours of good vibrations
and incredible sounds, the essence of that
MICHAEL WADLEIGH COMMANDED 20 camera crews to cover the largest
musical event of the past decade to make a movie about “Woodstock.”
memorable weekend without the
discomfort of weather or unscheduled
sleeping arrangements.
The performers include such folk
singers as Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez,
Johnny Winter and Richie Havens. Then
Janis Joplin, The Who, Sly and the
Family Stone, and Jimi Hendrix give
forth with the most improbable version
of the “Star Spangled Banner” ever
heard.
Among the rock groups are Canned
Heat, theCreedence Clearwater Revival,
Santana, Mountain. The Band is there
too, out on its own now without Bob
Dylan. And Joe Cocker, Ten Years After,
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the Paul
Butterfield Blues Band, Sha-Na-Na and
Country Joe and the Fish.
CLAN MEETING
Perhaps the true stars of the film are
the half-a-million youngsters flying high
on music and bivouacked on grassy
knolls, in cemeteries and on the margins
of mosquito-infested marshes like some
splendid, extravagantly garbed, joyful
meeting of the clans.
The talent line-up is outstanding, with
the music building in intensity and ex
cellence in spite of rain and mud, elec
tronic failures, even missing equipment.
Each group plays hard and well, ob
viously grooving on the astonishing
peace and joy of the youthful audience,
and the result that is captured on film
makes Warner Bros.’ “Woodstock” one
of the all-time great shows in rock music
screen history.
TWO FILMS
ONE NON—COMMERCIAL
Wadleigh-Maurice productions will do,
however, not one, but two versions of
their Woodstock film. After they com
plete the two-and-a-half-hour version to
be released by Warner Bros, they will do
a second, six-hour flick.
The six-hour edition will include “more
of what happened,” according to
producer Maurice. According to Maurice
the film will be shown in colleges and
other non commercial situations.
THE FINE ARTS COMMITTEE AT
THIS COLLEGE, HEADED BY
RICHARD COLLIER, IS LOOKING
INTO THE POSSIBILITY OF GETTING
ONE OF THESE VERSIONS FOR A
SHOWING AT WEST GEORGIA IN THE
SPRING QUARTER.
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