This is an incredible filmed sequence where we recorded a meeting which took place at the University of Illinois in the spring of 1968. Student political leaders, radicals, administrators and professors as well as people from the “community” were invited to speak together live on national television. Seeing conversations with no editing on national television was and in my view still is, amazingly real. Raw. Even though people were aware that they were being filmed, they presented themselves and how they felt as best they could. I was just a cameraman but I could see and feel the reality.

As this clip shows, communication between the groups who were there proved difficult and at the end, most attendees felt that little was accomplished. Somewhat reminiscent of today I would say. Sad.

Many have commented about this debate ( the attendees did not see this as a debate but merely as a chance to express their points of view and hear the points of view of others) and how we could not have a similar debate today as the country is so fractured. My remembrance is that back in 1968, the country was fractured, possibly as fractured as we seem to be today, at the end of 2022. I can specifically remember people attending Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with their families and finding it unable to go through the ceremonies because the subject of Vietnam or race relations came up and caused people to fight with such passion that a family celebration turned into a yelling match.

Also remember that this kinescope recording was taking place shortly before a segment of Black Americans came to support the Black Panther Party who expressed a Malcolm X point of view that violence would be necessary to achieve justice as they saw it.

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David Hoffman filmmaker