Cobb: Eyes On the Prize

January 26, 2005

Eyes On the Prize

The prize is the documentary itself. It's available here. If you never downloaded anything in your life, this is the thing to download.

At 8pm on February 8th we will celebrate the struggle and triumph of the civil rights movement with screenings of Eyes on the Prize Part 1: Awakenings. Eyes on the Prize is the most renowned civil rights documentary of all time; for many people, it is how they first learned about the Civil Rights Movement (more about the film). But this film has not been available on video or television for the past 10 years simply because of expired copyright licenses. We cannot allow copyright red tape to keep this film from the public any longer. So today we are making digital versions of the film available for download. Join us in building a new mass audience for this film: organize or attend a screening in your city, town, school or home on February 8th.

I'm simply going to add to the chorus of right-minded people who agree that 'Eyes on the Prize' is worth taking. While I really wanted to reserve judgement and hear what Juan Williams had to say, I think that we're simply not going to hear from him. It's probably something he can't say, given his association with NPR. But I've made my decision.

I am hoping this will be a watershed event. I expect that it will be. And you know what else? Somebody is going to put together a deal and put this out on DVD anyway. In some ways it will be too late, but I think it points to the sad fact that there's not enough of the well-heeled part of the Old School hooked into the issue. I'm glad for the initiative of the Downhillers, but I think the right entity with the right money could have done this. There's no argument about the value of the material. None whatsoever.

So this is a ribbon I'll proudly wear, as I shuffle things around a little bit at Cobb.

Posted by mbowen at January 26, 2005 07:28 PM

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� Attivismo politico via Torrent from ThePoliticals
via Marco Montemagno: Downhill Battle é un gruppo storico specializzato, tra l'altro, nella realizzazione di strumenti per il coinvolgimento politico degli utenti. L'ultima iniziativa [Read More]

Tracked on January 27, 2005 06:35 AM

� Get "Eyes on the Prize" from Blackhacker
Downhill Battle has done something great. They are making available "Eye on the Prize" for download. I am not going to comment on the legalities of this, providing this. But I feel it is absolutely import that Every American see it. The ... [Read More]

Tracked on January 27, 2005 07:16 AM

Comments

Downhill Battle may have great motives, but there are multiple ways of looking at what they're doing. For another point of view, I invite you to read the URL in my sig. I'm Henry Hampton's nephew, and since BoingBoing and Downhill Battle won't link to my opinion of the whole thing (it's inconveniently negative) I figured I'd just blog it. Thanks for your interest in Eyes on the Prize, and please be assured that we are doing everything we can to produce a legally licensed new DVD release of Eyes - and had Downhill Battle ever bothered to contact the rightsholders to Eyes itself before starting this, we would have been able to tell them that and detail what steps are in progress, steps which this action will hinder.

-Jacob Zimmerman

Posted by: JB Zimmerman at January 28, 2005 05:25 PM