1971

Premiered May 18, 2015

Directed by

Johanna Hamilton

1971 reveals the stories of the burglars who broke into a small FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, took every file, and shared them with the public.

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About the Documentary

In the past several decades, whistleblowers have helped shape the nation’s history, from Deep Throat exposing President Nixon’s Watergate scandal to Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA’s surveillance. But long before the dawning of the digital age, one group of citizens risked everything when they uncovered illegal government spying programs.

The FBI, established in 1908, was for 60 years held unaccountable and untouchable until March 8, 1971, when The Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI, as they called themselves, broke into a small FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, took every file, and shared them with the American public.

After the break-in, the group sent the files to journalists at the Washington Post, which published them and shed light on the FBI’s widespread abuse of power. These actions exposed COINTELPRO, the FBI’s illegal surveillance program that involved the intimidation of law-abiding Americans, and helped lead to the country’s first congressional investigation of U.S. intelligence agencies.

The activist-burglars then disappeared into anonymity for forty years. Until now. Never caught, these previously anonymous Americans — parents, teachers and citizens — publicly reveal themselves for the first time and share their story in the documentary 1971. Using a mix of dramatic re-enactments and candid interviews with all involved, the film vividly brings to life one of the more important, yet relatively unexplored, chapters in modern American history.

The Filmmaker

Johanna Hamilton co-produced Pray the Devil Back to Hell, the gripping account of a group of brave, visionary women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to shreds by a decades-long civil war. The film won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, was shortlisted for an Academy Award, and premiered on PBS as part of the Women, War & Peace miniseries. Hamilton has produced non-fiction programs for PBS, History Channel, A&E, Discovery, The Washington Post/Newsweek Productions, and New York Times Television, among others. Her career began in South Africa, where she worked for that nation’s premiere investigative magazine program, Carte Blanche. Hamilton graduated from the University of London and has an MA in Broadcast Journalism from New York University. 1971 is her feature-length documentary directorial debut.

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