1971

Before the Pentagon Papers and WikiLeaks, before Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations, there was Media, Pennsylvania. On March 8, 1971, during the “Fight of the Century” boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, eight activists calling themselves the “Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI” broke into a small FBI office outside Philadelphia. They picked the lock and loaded every file into suitcases. Then they simply walked out the front door. The activists shared hundreds of secret documents with the public, revealing the FBI’s vast program of spying on citizens. An outraged Congress conducted its first-ever investigation of a U.S. intelligence agency. Now the burglars finally tell their story. The film’s reenactments and news footage add to this fascinating snapshot of American concerns circa 1971. The Media incident shocked many who believed in the integrity of their government, raising the level of cynicism in America for one of the first – but sadly not the last – times. – B.B.