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Time of the Locust

Directed by Peter Gessner

13 minutes / Color
Release: 2002
Copyright: 1966

Asia
History (United States)
Vietnam Era
History (World)
American Studies
Documentary
Shorts

film still
Time of the Locust is included on the same DVD as Last Summer Won't Happen

Compiled from American news film, Vietnamese National Liberation Front combat footage, and unreleased material filmed by Japanese Television camera units, this now classic film by Peter Gessner provides one of the strongest treatises against the war in Vietnam.


"Peter Gessner pioneered the anti-Vietnam war filmmaking movement with his 1966 Time of the Locust, one of the first, if not the very first documentary to take aim at the war. Today, it retains its ability to stir and anger." —Peter Biskind, author of 'Easy Riders, Raging Bulls' and 'Down and Dirty Pictures'

"Gessner's Time of the Locust is one of the best anti-Vietnam films made by underground filmmakers." —Susan Braudy, New York Magazine

"This motion picture is more powerful than collections of statistics, political rhetoric, and even the cleverest written argument. Its point is simple and dramatic: it exposes the cruel agony of Vietnam." —Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation

"Brutal, truthful, terse, and extremely memorable" —New York Post

"Readers Poll: One of the best films of 1966." —The Village Voice

Other Ways to Watch

Individuals

Home use DVD for $29.98

Available online from:

Colleges, Universities, Government Agencies, Hospitals, and Corporations

Purchase DVD for $175.00

Credits

Peter Gessner

Select Accolades

  • Grand Prize, 1967 Florence Festival dei Populi
  • Special Prize Winner, Prix de la Critique, 1967 Tours International Festival of Short Films
  • First Prize, Protestant Film Jury, 1966 Manheim International Film Festival
  • Golden Dove Award, 1966 Leipzig International Film Festival
  • 1966 San Francisco International Film Festival
  • 1966 Vienna International Film Festival

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