view
Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (Robert Drew, 1963)
Jun
10
1963
An energetic Bobby arrives at the White House in his limousine. DP: Gregory Shuker.
“This nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.”
– JFK
view
Grands soirs & petits matins [May Days] (William Klein, 1978)
May
24
1968
Sorbonne students discussing the political situation with an elderly Parisian man. DPs: William Klein & Bernard Lutic.
“Soyez réalistes, demandez l'impossible”
– May 68 slogan
view
1. April 2000 [April 1, 2000] (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1952)
Apr
1
2000
The President of the Global Union (Hilde Krahl) stepping out of her spaceship. DPs: Sepp Ketterer, Karl Löb & Fritz Arno Wagner.
view
The World's Greatest Sinner (Timothy Carey, 1962)
Mar
1
eggs
Clarence “God” Hilliard (Timothy Carey) sitting at a round dinner table talking to his wife who's leaning against a counter holding a carton of eggs and crockery. DPs: Frank Grande, Robert Shelfow, Ray Dennis Steckler & Edgar G. Ulmer.
“Let's be different. Let's not hate anyone.”
– Clarence “God” Hilliard
view
Ucho [The Ear] (Karel Kachyňa, 1970)
Jan
8
cake
A gold-rimmed plate with a messy piece of cake on its side. Near it two glasses and a bottle of alcohol. DP: Josef Illík.
view
La battaglia di Algeri [The Battle of Algiers] (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
Dec
18
Arabic Language Day
Petit Omar (Mohamed Ben Kassen) reading out a letter to Ali La Pointe (Brahim Hadjadj) in the قصبة, (Cashbah). If it were not for the leads' jeans and sneakers, this scene could be in any century. DP: Marcello Gatti.
“The first section's dead. There's no one left. We lost contact with the second. The third is reorganizing. All that's left is the fourth. It's enough to start over with.”
view
Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (Robert Drew, 1963)
Dec
14
Alabama Day
Bobby on the phone, seen from the back. DP: Gregory Shuker.
Filmed in Alabama: Alabama Day. In what he dubbed “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door”, George Wallace, Alabama governor, blocked Black students from walking into the University so he could uphold his inaugural promise of “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”. This prompted a national crisis, resulting in the President issuing Executive Order 11111, making the #NationalGuard step in.
“Come Senators, Congressmen,
Please heed the call,
Don't stand in the doorway,
Don't block up the hall”
view
Every Day's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937)
Nov
21
National Entrepreneurs Day
Lobbycard. Peaches O'Day (Mae West, dressed by Schiaparelli) hands her business card to yet another sucker. They're on the Brooklyn Bridge, which can be seen in the background. DP: Karl Struss.
In my book, entrepreneur is just a fancy talk for conman. A famous one, the one who may've tried to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, was George C. Parker. He'd peddle the famous landmark to any hapless rube, immigrant, or sucker who then would promptly erect a little tollbooth to make a fast buck from any hapless rube, immigrant, or sucker.
“Selling the Brooklyn Bridge again, huh?”
– Police captain Jim McCarey
Like Parker, Mae West's Peaches O'Day bamboozles it her way. And boy, does she have a bridge to sell you!
view
Muhammad Ali, the Greatest [Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee] (William Klein, 1974)
Sep
4
Mouthguard Day
A randomly picked screenshot showing Muhammad Ali fighting George Foreman. Each and every scene of a William Klein film is a photograph. DPs: Étienne Becker, William Klein, Richard Suzuki & Patrice Wyers.
“I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; Handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; Only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”
– Muhammad Ali
view
Festival panafricain d'Alger [The Panafrican Festival in Algiers] (William Klein, 1969)
Jul
26
One Voice Day
Black hands holding each other. In translation the caption reads “Down with colonialism! Down with imperialism!”. DP: William Klein et al.
In typical Western fashion the credits for William Klein's Festival panafricain d'Alger focusses on the French and American participants. After Algeria regained its independence in 1962, it became Africa's – and the #AfricanDiaspora's – centre for postcolonial and liberation moments.
“À bas le colonialisme ! À bas l'imperialisme !”
The 12-day Festival panafricain attracted 5000 people from all over the African continent, as well as liberation fighters from the United States.