A presentation of the documentary People's Wall on KQED's Open Studio, followed by an interview with one of the filmmakers. Peoples Wall' is a a documentary about the mural "Our History Is No Mystery," painted on the wall of John Adams Community College in San Francisco in 1976.
00:00Copy video clip URL Barbara Deloney introduces KQED’s Open Studio, a which will present the film People’s Wall, by the Haight-Ashbury Film Collective.
00:39 People’s Wall screens. A band plays on top of the mural “Our History Is No Mystery.” A montage of people in the neighborhood.
01:49Copy video clip URL A woman speaks to the crowd, noting that it is May 19, the birthday of Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh. She says that “the mural isn’t just about people who are well known. The mural’s, like, about all the people, all the everyday people who really make history and who are building our future. You know, like, history isn’t just about presidents and rich men and kings. It’s really all the everyday people who work to build everything. And the mural’s about the creative energy that we all have in our hands, in our minds. It’s about the sweat and blood that our mothers and grandmothers and grandfathers and all the people who work have put out. It’s about the joy and power of all the cultures of all the peoples. And it’s about all the struggles against oppression.”
03:06Copy video clip URL One of the muralists describes the origins of the wall and their aims in the work. Discussion of the inspiration found in the murals of Mexico City.
05:27Copy video clip URL Murals breaking down the mystique of art making. Showing everybody the process of making art and bringing art outside, to the people, rather than keeping it in a museum.
07:27Copy video clip URL Developing forms of leadership for a collective artwork that aren’t overpowering or dominating.
08:34Copy video clip URL Murals as “a creative reflection of reality.” A kind of realism that isn’t literal but which connects to real life for the people.
09:31Copy video clip URL Voiceover: “This mural is a people’s history.” The voiceover follows the mural’s chronological history of the San Francisco and the United States more broadly that focuses on the experience of the people who live there, beginning with the indigenous communities that were killed and displaced by European settlers.
12:24Copy video clip URL The United States’ military intervention in the 20th century. The history of San Francisco fighting for justice and peace.
14:22Copy video clip URL Racism in America and in San Francisco, beginning with the treatment of Chinese immigrants in the 1800s. Continued persecution and inequality for Asian/Asian-American communities throughout the 20th century and persisting to the current day.
16:13Copy video clip URL The United Farm Workers Union and the struggle for justice for workers in the fields.
17:004Copy video clip URL George Jackson’s militant activism for equality, which led to his murder.
18:44Copy video clip URL A local news report about vandalism damaging the mural, focusing on the areas depicting black civil rights leaders. Followed up by the community’s response, with large groups of people from the neighborhood aiding in the repair and restoration of the mural.
22:00Copy video clip URL In voiceover, an assertion of the principles of the organization behind the mural and the need to build a new society that is just, peaceful, and inclusive.
23:13Copy video clip URL End of the documentary. Deloney returns, along with People’s Wall filmmaker Joaquin Wilson, to discuss the film.
23:40Copy video clip URL Wilson discusses the Haight-Ashbury Film Collective, which is part of a larger organization called the Haight-Ashbury Arts Workshop “An organization of two men and two women who work together collectively.”
24;10 The origins of the film. Wanting to make a film about cultural workers, a sister organization within the Haight-Ashbury Arts Workshop was beginning a mural chronicling a “radical history of San Francisco.”
24:49Copy video clip URL Defining a “cultural worker” as “someone whose real work in life is art, whose work is based in the community and supported by the community and it can be a tool for progressive social change.”
25:22Copy video clip URL The way the work functions collectively, “trying to get away from destructive and overbearing hierarchies, and at the same time, bring out the creative of all the members of the collective and harness that creativity to a finished product that would be better than if one person was directing the whole thing.”
26:07Copy video clip URL Negotiating disagreements and differences of opinion while moving towards a consensus while making a film collectively.
26:47Copy video clip URL Future projects, including a film that analyzes “rape as it relates to sexual conditioning in our culture.”
27:55Copy video clip URL The best way to contact the Haight-Ashbury Film Collective is to call KQED and ask for the Collective’s phone number.
28:16Copy video clip URL End of interview. Credits roll over an image of “Our History Is No Mystery.”
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