In every generation, we must get free. Let everyone of us work, let none of us shirk our duty.

I do not think that there is anything that is functionally–by its very nature–absolutely liberating. Liberty is a practice… The liberty of men is never assured by the institutions and laws that are intended to guarantee them… I think that it can never be inherent in the structure of things to guarantee the exercise of freedom. The guarantee of freedom is freedom.

–Michel Foucault.

This is “NOW” (1965) a short film by Cuban filmmaker Santiago Alvarez. The song in the film is called NOW, and is sung by civil rights activist, Lena Horne, (who also performs in the video clip below, with another civil rights activist, Kermit the Frog). A classic archive of the civil rights struggle in the cities of the United States of America.

What I find interesting about the film, is how it is composed almost entirely of still images, mostly photos that one might find in the newspapers of the period. Simple materials, but the rhythmic editing, matched to the intensity of the music, produces a remarkably moving effect. Alvarez was a master of using found materials. As he once said: “Give me two photographs, a moviola and some music and I’ll make you a film.”

Now, Now, Now, Now, Now, Now, NOW IS THE TIME. THE TIME IS…NOW!

Martin Luther King Day, New York City, 2010

Martin Luther King could never be president. Not because of racist attitudes of America in the 1960s (those haven’t changed all that much), but because he was an enemy of the state, not its benign friend– not a smiling visage on a t-shirt, or a McDonald’s advertisement. We ought to be careful to whom we compare this man, who never hesitated to call out the injustice at the heart of American existence.

This is a man who neither extolled the inherent “greatness” of America, nor tried to “restore” America to a pristine past, which never existed. This was a man who set out with a clear motto: to “Save the soul of America” from itself. He was certainly never silent in the face of wanton destruction of life.

The war in Vietnam is a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality… we will find ourselves organizing “clergy and laymen concerned” committees for the next generation… We will be marching for [Guatemala and Peru, Thailand and Cambodia, Mozambique and South Africa] and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.

Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change.
Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change.