The Five Demands: Two Volatile Weeks that Changed the Face of Higher Education

FAIN: TR-280444-21

Jezebel Productions, Inc. (New York, NY 10001-4754)
Andrea Ruth Weiss (Project Director: January 2021 to present)

Production of a seventy-five-minute documentary film examining the legacy of the 1969 strike by Black and Puerto Rican students at City College of New York.

This proposal is for the production of a 75-minute documentary film on the 1969 campus strike by Black and Puerto Rican students at the City College of New York. These students were at the forefront of a national protest movement which transformed the culture, the mission, and the curriculum of American higher education. Building on ground-breaking humanities scholarship, our documentary tells the dramatic story of this defining moment in the history of student protest, one that literally changed the face of American universities. The two-week campus shut-down resulted in the controversial policy of Open Admissions, the longest and most ambitious attempt by any American institution to address inequalities in access to higher education. The challenges this policy presented led to profound changes in thinking about the role and purpose of higher education: what the university is, whom it serves, what is taught- questions that continue to confront us as a nation.

Associated Products

The Five Demands (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: The Five Demands
Writer: N/A
Director: Greta Schiller
Director: Andrea Weiss
Producer: Greta Schiller
Producer: Andrea Weiss
Abstract: "The Five Demands" tells the riveting story about the student strike that changed the face of higher education forever. In April 1969, a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students shut down the City College of New York, an elite public university located right in the heart of Harlem. Fueled by the revolutionary fervor sweeping the nation, the strike soon turned into an uprising, leading to the extended occupation of the campus, classes being canceled, students being arrested, and the resignation of the college president. Through archival footage and modern-day interviews, we follow the students’ struggle against the institutional racism that, for over a century, had shut out people of color from this and other public universities. The Five Demands revisits the untold story of this explosive student takeover, and proves that a handful of ordinary citizens can band together to take action and effect meaningful change.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: http://https://vimeo.com/724634499/a3ab988ae8
Primary URL Description: Please note this is a private link for internal NEH use only. Once the film is released into film festivals, cinemas and educational distribution, it will become available for public use via streaming platforms.
Access Model: It is available for festival, theatrical and educational distribution through Icarus Films.
Format: Digital File

---