Past screening

Medium Cool

Directed by: Haskell Wexler
Runtime: 1hr 51min Year: 1969

Details

Directed by: Haskell Wexler
Runtime: 1hr 51min Year: 1969
Country: United States
Topics: History & Archive
Last Screened: Sat 2nd Jul 2022

A TV news cameraman finds himself becoming personally involved in the violence that erupts around the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler broke the mould with his first narrative film as director, amidst the social upheaval of the late 1960s. Shooting a ‘fiction’ story with a documentary technique, he shook up the world of Hollywood storytelling, creating a visceral cinematic snapshot of the era, climaxing with an extended sequence shot right in the middle of the riots surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Still as engrossing and original today as it was in 1969, Medium Cool remains a landmark film and testament to Wexler’s genius.