Meinhof, Shigenobu, Kennedy: Revolution and Assassination in 1968

This article reflects on audiovisual representations of the events of 1968 and its aftermath in three national contexts through two archive-driven historical documentaries I have produced exploring this period: RFK Must Die (2008) and Children of the Revolution (2010). RFK Must Die investigates the assassination of Bobby Kennedy through both witness testimony and the hours of network footage available from the crime scene. Children of the Revolution charts the audiovisual historiographies of two female revolutionaries from the 1968 student movements in Germany and Japan to become leaders of the Baader Meinhof Group and the Japanese Red Army. Both women were journalists who used film to fight a propaganda battle against state broadcasters, through collaborations with independent filmmakers or demanding screen time through the television commissioning process. By choosing to frame their stories ‘through the eyes of their daughters,’ who are also journalists, the making of the film became a struggle for editorial control with key contributors and a round of complex negotiations to secure access to archive materials on such a highly-politicized and hotly-contested subject.

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