If your head is still spinning from the whirlwind of activity surrounding GESO's pending conflict with Yale, Laura Dunn and William Mack's documentary Radical? may have the answer. On Monday, Jan. 22, in WLH 119, Dunn and Mack showcased 45 minutes of footage of GESO's struggle, to an audience of close to 100.
After a few technical difficulties, the video began with a slow pan of newspaper articles which chronicled GESO's 1995-1996 activity. Radical? is the first cut of a compilation of interviews with top GESO officials, undergraduates, and Yale administration. It also includes coverage of GESO's various meetings, rallies, and protests.
Beginning with a narrative statement of some of GESO's mandates: "living wage, health care, smaller classes, fair and consistent policies, and a more diverse environment," the video concentrates primarily on GESO's need for a "written and binding agreement" with Yale, and their struggle to attain that.
The film was noticeably biased toward GESO, often taking isolated comments by administration and juxtaposing them with GESO complaints. This technique results in ambiguity concerning the true context of their remarks. A knowing chuckle ran through the room when President Levin claimed that he did not want to pin "undergraduates against graduates."
The film's major problems were technical. The obviously hand-held camera was constantly jarring up and down and focusing on the side of a subject's face, their hands, or zooming in at random moments. The cuts between scenes were rough and often cut subjects off in mid-sentence. Sound was also a problem: echoes and inadequate amplification made many interviewees difficult, to understand. Dunn commented that the equipment to edit the film had been inadequate and that they had had a "hard time getting funding from the university."
"It's not the quality of video we wanted it to be," said Dunn. "We have a lot more footage." Dunn and Mack's current goal is to raise the money to give Radical? a chance at a second cut.
The near climax of the film is a long scene depicting the GESO members demonstrating on the streets of New York City and attempting to get into a boardroom to let their case be heard. In the fashion of Roger and Me, the graduate students were brushed off, denied access, and told, "this is not the place" for their complaints. GESO members then returned to the streets. The film ends with still shots of GESO's struggles, accompanied by rapper Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise:" "Power and the money, money and the power..."
Copyright 1995, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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