Filmmaker Adam Curtis writes on his BBC blog:
In 1966 one of the most brilliant American New Wave movie directors—Joseph Strick —made a documentary for the BBC. It was about heckling in the British general election of that year. It is great piece of verite film-making…
In the film you can see both an old Britain and fragments of the new Britain that was emerging side by side in the audiences.
Empire Loyalists shout about the betrayal of Rhodesia and the loss of the last bits of the empire, while in the same audience – towards the end of the film – you can see early examples of British counter-culture. Long hair – but still beatnik, not hippie, fashion – with the slogan “Anarchy – don’t vote, Anarchy don’t vote”…
I’ve even witnessed (however, virtually) the heckling of Blair (who has his own ‘witch project’, if I’m not mistaken)
over the current war against ‘terrorists’. How can we circumnavigate the police-state-media that is the US politician-to-press-closed-circuit to get such freedoms of speech over the airwaves? (I mean, other than on the internet… itself a condemnation of our inability to confront one another on a daily basis… other than virtually).