Screening of La Chinoise, followed by a discussion with Dennis Berry.

La Chinoise (March 1968, Jean-Luc Goddard, director) In this dark French comedy, Maoist-inspired students plot murder to incite revolution. This film classic, shot in 1967, is considered prescient of the May ’68 uprising.

Dennis Berry, film director, actor, and screenwriter, is uniquely prepared to frame the events of 1968 through a discussion of the larger context of protests, political uprisings, and civil rights. His story takes us through the McCarthy era, which drove his family to seek exile in France; the Paris riots in May ’68; and the Civil Rights movement (connecting with the Black Panthers, through Jean Seberg, his wife at the time). As the son of blacklisted Hollywood film director John Berry (He Ran All the Way, The Hollywood Ten), Dennis arrived in France as a child. He later became active in the movie business in France himself, as an actor in New Wave films and the director of experimental cinema. Dennis will describe what it was like to be an insider in May ’68 Paris as the events unfolded — huddled in a small tourist agency in the Latin Quarter with Cohn-Bendit and the leaders of the movement at the epicenter of the revolution — as well as his experiences on the fringes with director Jean-Luc Godard.  His trajectory also offers a fresh view to lay the foundation for meaningful discussions about the culture of political protests in general.