Didion and the Counterculture

Copresented by the Hammer Museum and the UCLA Film & Television Archive

Ringing throughout Joan Didion’s pieces on the counterculture and political militancy of the long 1960s is a clear note of skepticism. These four works offer contrasting vibe reports from those same milieus: Agnès Varda’s dispatch on the Black Panthers in Oakland, Kenneth Anger’s avant-garde summoning (which stars Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil), Ralph Arlyck’s portrait of a four-year-old hippie in the Haight, and a Newsreel documentary about one woman’s path to feminist self-understanding.

Black Panthers
(1968, dir. Agnès Varda, color, 31 min.)

Invocation of My Demon Brother
1969, dir. Kenneth Anger, 35mm, color, 12 min.)

Sean
(1969, dir. Ralph Arlyck, 16mm, color, 14 min.)

Janie’s Janie
(1971, dir. Geri Ashur, Peter Barton, Marilyn Mulford, Stephanie Palewski, 16mm, black & white, 25 min.)

Total runtime: 82 min.