Search Help

How does this work?
There are many ways to search the collections of the Freedom Archives. Below is a brief guide that will help you conduct effective searches. Note, anytime you search for anything in the Freedom Archives, the first results that appear will be our digitized items. Information for items that have yet to be scanned or yet to be digitized can still be viewed, but only by clicking on the show link that will display the hidden (non-digitized) items. If you are interested in accessing these non-digitized materials, please email info@freedomarchives.org.
Exploring the Collections without the Search Bar
Under the heading Browse By Collection, you’ll notice most of the Freedom Archives’ major collections. These collections have an image as well as a short description of what you’ll find in that collection. Click on that image to instantly explore that specific collection.
Basic Searching
You can always type what you’re looking for into the search bar. Certain searches may generate hundreds of results, so sometimes it will help to use quotation marks to help narrow down your results. For instance, searching for the phrase Black Liberation will generate all of our holdings that contain the words Black and Liberation, while searching for “Black Liberation” (in quotation marks) will only generate our records that have those two words next to each other.
Advanced Searching
The Freedom Archives search site also understands Boolean search logic. Click on this link for a brief tutorial on how to use Boolean search logic. Our search function also understands “fuzzy searches.” Fuzzy searches utilize the (*) and will find matches even when users misspell words or enter in only partial words for the search. For example, searching for liber* will produce results for liberation/liberate/liberates/etc.
Keyword Searches
You’ll notice that under the heading KEYWORDS, there are a number of words, phrases or names that describe content. Sometimes these are also called “tags.” Clicking on these words is essentially the same as conducting a basic search.

Search Results

BBC on Weathermen BBC on Weathermen
Call Number: CD 175Format: DVDProducers: BBCCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
A BBC documentary on the Weathermen. Actually fairly balanced given the American media frensy during this era. Good interviews with Linda Evans, Bernardine Dohrn, Jennifer Dohrn & Jonah Raskin. This is a DVD!
The Weather Underground: the Explosive Story of America’s Most Notorious Revolutionaries The Weather Underground: the Explosive Story of America’s Most Notorious Revolutionaries
Date: 7/1/2004Call Number: CD 192Format: DVDProducers: Sam Green, Bill SiegelCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
The Weather Underground is a feature-length documentary that explores the rise and fall of this radical movement, as former members speak candidly about the idealistic passion that drove them to "bring the war home" and the trajectory that placed them on the FBI's most wanted list. Thirty years ago, with those words, a group of young American radicals announced their intention to overthrow the U.S. government. In THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND, former Underground members, including Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Mark Rudd, David Gilbert and Brian Flanagan, speak publicly about the idealistic passion that drove them to "bring the war home" and the trajectory that placed them on the FBI's most wanted list. Fueled by outrage over racism and the Vietnam War, the Weather Underground waged a low-level war against the U.S. government through much of the 1970s--bombing targets across the country that they considered emblematic of the real violence that the U.S. was wreaking throughout the world. Ultimately, the group's carefully organized clandestine network managed to successfully evade one of the largest manhunts in FBI history, yet the group's members would reemerge to life in a country that was dramatically different than the one they had hoped their efforts would inspire. Extensive archival material, including, photographs, film footage and FBI documents are interwoven with modern-day interviews to trace the group's path, from its pitched battles with police on Chicago's streets, to its bombing of the U.S. Capitol, to its successful endeavor breaking acid-guru Timothy Leary out of prison. The film explores the Weathermen in the context of other social movements of the time and features interviews with former members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Black Panthers. It also examines the U.S. government's suppression of dissent in the 1960s and 1970s. Looking back at their years underground, the former members paint a compelling portrait of troubled times, revolutionary times, and the forces that drove their resistance.
The Fourth World War The Fourth World War
Date: 1/1/2004Call Number: CD 302Format: DVDProducers: Big Noise FilmsCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
From the front-lines of conflicts in Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Palestine, Korea, 'the North' from Seattle to Genova, and the 'War on Terror' in New York, Afghanistan, and Iraq. It is the story of men and women around the world who resist being annihilated in this war. While our airwaves are crowded with talk of a new world war, narrated by generals and filmed from the noses of bombs, the human story of this global conflict remains untold. "The Fourth World War" brings together the images and voices of the war on the ground. It is a story of a war without end and of those who resist. The product of over two years of filming on the inside of movements on five continents, "The Fourth World War" is a film that would have been unimaginable at any other moment in history. Directed by the makers of "This Is What Democracy Looks Like" and "Zapatista", produced through a global network of independent media and activist groups, it is a truly global film from our global movement.
The War at Home The War at Home
Date: 1/1/1979Call Number: V 234Format: DVDProducers: Glen Silber, Barry Alexander BrownCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
An acclaimed documentary, The War at Home reveals what happened in Madison, Wisconsin during most of the 1960s and the early '70s when students and the community began to protest the Vietnam War. Directors Glenn Silber and Barry Alexander Brown spent a long time going through the news archives of a local television station to cull footage from those years. Then they selected specific clips and first put together a background on the war. Quotes from John F. Kennedy to Richard Nixon and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, along with many other public figures vividly bring back the past. Next, the events at Madison are brought forward and local public figures speak memorable lines. Demonstrations are shown, as well as news events, like the man, now in jail, who bombed an Army information center on campus and killed a student. Emotion and drama run high throughout, making this a worthy documentary for anyone who either has forgotten or never knew what those days were like. This documentary won a Special Jury Prize at the now defunct U.S. Film Festival and was nominated for "Best Documentary" at the 1979 Academy Awards.
American Revolution 2 American Revolution 2
Date: 1/1/1969Call Number: V 244Format: DVDProducers: Howard Alk, Mike GrayCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
A gritty but essential documentary charting social turbulences in late 1960's Chicago. American Revolution 2 includes footage of the 1968 Democratic Convention protest and riot, a critique of the events by working class African-Americans in Chicago, and attempts by the Black Panther Party to organize poor, southern white youths on the city's north side. Using direct sound, a handheld camera, no script, black-and-white film stock, and natural lighting, the directors' no-frills approach appropriately reflects the raw energy of this upheaval.
Sir! No Sir! Sir! No Sir!
Date: 1/1/2006Call Number: V 271Format: DVDProducers: David ZeigerCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
In the 1960's an anti-war movement emerged that altered the course of history. This movement didn't take place on college campuses, but in barracks and on aircraft carriers. It flourished in army stockades, navy brigs and in the dingy towns that surround military bases. It penetrated elite military colleges like West Point. And it spread throughout the battlefields of Vietnam. It was a movement no one expected, least of all those in it. Hundreds went to prison and thousands into exile. And by 1971 it had, in the words of one colonel, infested the entire armed services. Yet today few people know about the GI movement against the war in Vietnam. The Vietnam War has been the subject of hundreds of films, both fiction and non-fiction, but this story-the story of the rebellion of thousands of American soldiers against the war-has never been told in film. This is certainly not for lack of evidence. By the Pentagon's own figures, 503,926 "incidents of desertion" occurred between 1966 and 1971; officers were being "fragged"(killed with fragmentation grenades by their own troops) at an alarming rate; and by 1971 entire units were refusing to go into battle in unprecedented numbers. In the course of a few short years, over 200 underground newspapers were published by soldiers around the world; local and national antiwar GI organizations were joined by thousands; thousands more demonstrated against the war at every major base in the world in 1970 and 1971, including in Vietnam itself; stockades and federal prisons were filling up with soldiers jailed for their opposition to the war and the military. Yet today, with hundreds of thousands of American GIs once again occupying countries on the other side of the world, these history-changing events have been erased from America's public memory.
Vietnam Anti-War Protests Vietnam Anti-War Protests
A variety of protests that were held against the continued presence in Vietnam. Columbia Student Revolt (1969) - A detailed documentary of the Columbia University student strike in 1969. Organized protests and steps taken to take over the school. - Sound, Black & White Run time: 49:05; Peace March. Thousands Oppose Vietnam War, 1967/04/18 (1967) - Antiwar demonstrators protest in Central Park, march to UN building, included students and hippies and priests and nuns, burn draft cards, shouted confrontations with anti-antiwar marchers, prowar signs, Martin Luther King leads procession; another march in downtown San Francisco, "President Johnson meanwhile let it be known that the FBI is closely watching all anti-war activity." - sound, b&w Run time: 2:50; Protests Galore! 1967/05/05 (1967) - This newsreel contains the following scenes: 1. Vietnam protest demonstration in Britain; also at Madrid University in Spain, burned American flag; also 4000 in Detroit at "love-in" and "be-in" with hippies and wild constumes 2. News In Brief - U.S. jet bombers hit North Vietnam targets 3. May Day parade in Moscow, Premier Kosygin - sound, b&w Run time: 3:16; Anti-War Demonstrators Storm Pentagon, 1967/10/24 (1967) - This newsreel contains the following scenes: 1. Mass protest against Vietnam war in Washington DC, on mall, across Potomac river to Pentagon, MPs with bayonets emerge from Pentagon, tear gas used, next day camp fires burn on the 2nd day of sitting-in 2. new turbo-jet transport plane by Germany - sound, b&w Run time: 1:51
Chicago 10 Chicago 10
Date: 7/1/2008Call Number: CD 610Format: DVDProducers: Brett MorganCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Combining bold original animation with extraordinary archival footage, explores the buildup to and unraveling of the Chicago Conspiracy Trial. The film brings viewers inside the courtroom to experience firsthand the drama, legal wrangling and raucous political theater. During the infamous 1968 Democratic national convention, antiwar protesters - denied permits to march and blocked from the political process - fought for their right to be heard. Confronted by Mayor Richard Daley's political machine, backed up by billy clubs and the stinging fog of tear gas, bloody riots splashed nightly on live television. Eight of the most vocal activists were charged and brought to trial in a courtroom circus that pitted activism against the establishment.
Shutdown - the rise and fall of Direct action to Stop the War Shutdown - the rise and fall of Direct action to Stop the War
Date: 1/1/2009Call Number: V 331Format: DVDProducers: AK PressCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Using the March 20, 2003 occupation and disruption of the San Francisco Financial District as a case study, the film casts an eye on one of the most successful actions of the current anti-war movement, facilitated by Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW). The movie tells the story of how social justice organizers and everyday people came together to plan and shut down the financial district of a major US city.
Oakland Seven Oakland Seven
Date: 10/18/2010Call Number: CD 755Format: DVDProducers: Russ WatkinsCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Transfer from 16mm prints of anti-draft demonstrations in Oakland, CA in 1968.