1971 (2014)

Directed by

Johanna Hamilton

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 20m

Rating

6.7 of 10 from 14 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary recounts the 1971 break-in at an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania where activists stole classified documents. It follows the story of the burglary and the people involved, including the journalist who later revealed their identities.

historicalinformativeinvestigativeearnestlow-keyarchivalthoughtfulrevelatory

What happens

1971 is a 2014 American documentary film and the directorial debut of producer Johanna Hamilton, who also co-wrote the film. The film had its world premiere on 18 April 2014 at the Tribeca Film Festival and focuses on the break-in of an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania on Monday, March 8, 1971, to steal over 1000 classified documents. It was pitched at the Sheffield Doc/Fest 2011 MeetMarket preceding its debut. The break-in took place on the night of the first Ali-Frazier boxing title fight dubbed the Fight of the Century. Hamilton was inspired to create the film after learning that Betty Medsger was working on her book The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI, which discussed the 1971 events and revealed the identities of many of the participants, who had remained anonymous up to that point. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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