May '68: When Culture was Radicalised
Sympathy for the Devil Cert 15
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard, France 1968, 1hr 42mins
4 May 08
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Made at a time when students were taking to the streets of France and featuring the biggest and baddest band of the day, the Rolling Stones, Sympathy For The Devil blends rock 'n' roll, counter-culture and politics to examine the role of the revolutionary within western culture.

Rather than creating swinging Sixties rock n'roll mythology, Godard attempted to demystify it, to show it as cultural production, incorporating episodes featuring black power activists and an interview with anti-corporate graffiti artist Eve Democracy (Wiazemsky).

Four decades on, this is a fascinating historical artefact twice over - a musical one and a political one. Introduced by Mark Cosgrove, Head of Programming at Watershed.