Joan Didion and Cinema Didion and the Counterculture

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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
France/U.S., 1968

DCP, color, 31 min. Director: Agnès Varda.

Invocation of My Demon Brother
U.S., 1969

16mm, color, 12 min. Director: Kenneth Anger.

Sean
U.S., 1969

16mm, color, 14 min. Director: Ralph Arlyck.

Janie’s Janie
U.S., 1971

Digital, b&w, 25 min. Director: Geri Ashur, Peter Barton, Marilyn Mulford, Stephanie Palewski.

Total runtime: 82 min.