Bay Area Video Coalition remaster of raw 1/2" portapak footage. The original tape appears to have been recorded over many times, so often a random image will insert itself in for a minute or so. The tape appears to have been in extremely terrible condition, so the images are always flashing or the are obscured by everything looking almost completely white.
Much of the tape consists of 20-second long segments where someone says something like, “Is this on?” and then the camera shuts off. The important part of the tape is a press conference at the Federal Building about the Chicago Conspiracy Appeal.
00:00Copy video clip URL Black screen and color bars.
02:10Copy video clip URL White screen and then Tom Weinberg and someone else testing the microphone, and talking about video electronics.
04:00Copy video clip URL Cuts to a press conference (and cuts in and out). Defense lawyer William Kunstler, Jerry Rubin, and Abbie Hoffman answer questions from the press. (Other Chicago 7 figures are visible standing behind the speakers). The issue of the day seems to be related to a discrepancy between the audio tapes and printed transcripts of the trial. Kunstler is speaking about the decision of the judge to throw out the tapes. Hoffman says, “the government is more interested in harassment than it is in the truth.”
05:40Copy video clip URL A second man then says, “whether they are accurate or not cannot be determined until they are listened to.” The tape then cuts to electronics.
06:15Copy video clip URL Cuts back to the press conference, where a second man questions the judge’s motives in throwing out the tapes. Kunstler returns and says that, “We are hoping… that out of this trial may come at least the beginning of a new day with the stopping of the perverted use of the courts by the executive branch of this country to accomplish the most heinous and illegal of purposes.”
08:28Copy video clip URL “We’re going to build our case on justice and rightness and decency and light.” Rubin says, “the tapes will exonerate us” and that Nixon should be impeached.
10:10Copy video clip URL Rubin talks about how the people who originally prosecuted them were now in jail themselves. “If there was justice in this court, then Julius Hoffman would be on trial, not us. I hope everyone joins us in saying that this case should be stopped, that Nixon should be impeached, and that the real criminals be brought to justice.” Hoffman says, “If it wasn’t for John Dillinger and us, who would know about Chicago?”
10:54Copy video clip URL Cuts to tape of Hoffman’s toddler (America) on the city streets, and then cuts to a crowded room, and then back to the streets. Includes shot of Berghoff sign.
14:09Copy video clip URL The tape cuts to audio of someone counting, and then back to the streets, at night.
14:44Copy video clip URL Footage of a dog laying down, and a woman laying in bed.
15:50Copy video clip URL Tape of a woman talking about a sort of temple that she runs that worships the Guru Maharaji. She says that they have projects every night, and describes her schedule, which appears to revolve around communal meditation. She continues to talk about meditation.
19:34Copy video clip URL The tape cuts and follows a woman getting ready, who is bickering with Tom Weinberg. The tape then cuts to women eating.
21:20Copy video clip URL Cuts to tape of a television, which shows a television program and commercials. It was off the air from Chicago’s WCIU, Channel 26. The show was called “Don’t Budge ‘Cause You’re the Judge”, which had the same format as late night talk shows, with comedic banter between host and guest punctuated by musical performances (including Lee Charles (?)). The first guest talks about crime prevention and the Chicago Housing Authority, and the second guest talks about astrology.
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