BELLOWS FALLS-The Commons recently had occasion to talk with Green Mountain Post Films co-founder and filmmaker Charlie Light about the upcoming Bellows Falls Opera House series. [See main article this issue.]
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Annie Landenberger: How did the series come about? Is this the first time you've done such a retrospective?
Charlie Light: It came out of Far Out. Susan McNeil [a volunteer for Bellows Falls Pride, the Bellows Falls Opera House, and the Miss Bellows Falls Diner restoration effort] saw the film at the Latchis and was really enthusiastic about it. That's how the idea grew. She's a real community booster who's put together a bunch of films that are shown at the Opera House.
And I came up with this idea: I mean, in a way, Far Out is made from pieces of all our other films, so why not do a retrospective?
It seemed like a perfect time to put together a film series on activism and on people working for change in the past.
A.L.: You saw a lot of that. You've really got some perspective going way back.
C.L.: The No Nukes movement was very successful. As far as movements go. I mean, nothing lasts forever and then [nuclear power is] making a comeback now, but No Nukes really [helped stop] an industry in its tracks.
A.L.: And there was Madison Square Garden.
C.L.: That was 1979, late September. It was five nights. And like it says in Far Out, it just muscled [the No Nukes movement with appearances by Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, John Hall, Graham Nash, and others].
A.L.: Were you there?
C.L.: Yeah, we had to move down to the city. I mean, we basically got the job of making a film to show concertgoers.
The rock 'n' roll stars who were giving their time - they were really in charge of what they wanted, and they really didn't want speakers. They knew the audience was there for the music. [...] So we got the job - basically within two months - of putting together Save the Planet to show on a big drive-in 60-foot screen in the Garden. That was a trip.
A.L.: Talk to me about the arts as a vehicle for change. Specifically, film. What did you see then? What hope do you have now?
C.L.: Back then, we really began with Lovejoy's Nuclear War in '75, so this is the 50th year of starting distribution of that. And we were very successful in organizing the No Nukes movement with that film. We had no money, no experience in distribution. And we arranged, through a series of grants, to get five or 10 prints of the film.
And we were fortunate to have people like Anna Gyorgy and Harvey Wasserman and Sam Lovejoy, who would go around with the film and speak with it. It was an introduction to this nascent movement which then, through Seabrook, became nationwide.
The film was very popular: It basically financed our next few anti-nuclear films, and it was a great example of using film as an organizing tool. It really helped create this larger movement.
A.L.: I just want to get your vision here. So you're talking 50 years ago, the galvanizing of the No Nukes movement. Things are so much more complicated now. If you had the energy and bandwidth now, what movement would you put your art to?
C.L.: I think we have one overarching concern and that's the No Kings movement. What we need is a united front. We have to bury our differences and factionalism and sectarianism and unite.
No Kings is a great slogan. And it says it all. It says what the focus must be.
Even though I'm not a big fan of mass demonstrations, I think we have to bring those back like they were during the Vietnam War [when we were] singularly focused on the practicalities of getting hundreds of thousands of people to Washington, training them if they were going to get involved in any kind of civil disobedience actions, having marshals for the parade, coordinating with authorities to the extent that we can.
I think there are avenues there, and we really must not devolve into various disputes that the left is always prone to doing.
We have to really bury them in this one united front - and do so along with anti-Trump Republicans and anyone who agrees that the republic is worth saving.
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Editor's note: Columns that include interviews in this format are edited for clarity, readability, and space. Words not spoken by interview subjects appear in brackets, as do brief editorial clarifications.
Annie Landenberger is an arts writer and columnist for The Commons. She also is one half of the musical duo Bard Owl, with partner T. Breeze Verdant.
This Arts item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.