Thursday, March 7th at The Carnegie Institution for Science
6:20pm – 8:50pm

Get sneak preview tickets here

Tickets also available at the door

WBCN and The American Revolution

Directed by Bill Lichtenstein
USA / 2019 / 125 mins

“WBCN and The American Revolution” is a new, feature-length documentary film that takes viewers on a dazzling, rock and roller-coaster ride to witness the historic political, social and cultural changes that took place in the late-1960s and early-1970’s in Boston and nationally, during one of the most transformative periods in American history.

The film tells the incredible, true story of “how a radio station, politics and rock and roll changed everything,” and is produced by the Peabody Award-winning Lichtenstein Creative Media. The film has already received extensive press and public attention even before its release, being called at preview screenings, “epic,” “magical,” and “perhaps the first film to tell the true story of the 1960s.”

“WBCN and The American Revolution” includes never before exhibited film material shot by Andy Warhol and cinema vérité pioneer Ricky Leacock, as well as photographic images from a host of top 1960s photographers including the late Peter Simon, brother of singer Carly Simon, and Jeff Albertson.

The film includes first-person accounts from the station’s staff, as well as newly filmed and archival material that features leading political, social, cultural and musical figures of the day, who crossed paths with the radio station. They include Noam Chomsky, Abbie Hoffman, Jane Fonda, Lou Reed, Jerry Garcia, Bruce Springsteen, in his first radio interview, and Patti Smith, performing with her band in her first live radio broadcast.

Film producer and director Bill Lichtenstein began working at WBCN-FM in 1970 at the age of 14, first as a volunteer on the station’s Listener Line and later as a newscaster and announcer with his own program. Bill’s last film, “West 47th Street,” won the Special Jury Award for Documentary Film at the 2001 Atlanta Film Festival; Audience Award for Best Long Form Documentary at the 2002 DC Independent Film Festival; and an Honorable Mention at the 2002 Woodstock Film Festival. It later aired on PBS’s P.O.V. and was called “must see” by Newsweek and “remarkable” by the Washington Post.

These dramatic and compelling stories in “WBCN and The American Revolution” are expertly and powerfully interwoven with the original sights and sounds of the critical events of the era, through archives gathered by producers in an unprecedented search that resulted in more than 100,000 audio and visual items shared by the public for the film. The film tells a story that is timely and relevant, especially to young people, who are seeking to use media to create social change. Sneak Preview Screening.

Visit the film’s website