MONDAY JANUARY 5th

20 TO LIFE:
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN SINCLAIR (2007)
Directed by Steve Gebhardt
86 minutes
In English

What a wonderful way to start the new year at the CINEMANITA. Tonight we will host John Sinclair, a man whose life is almost legendary in relation to the turbulent 60s in America.

John Sinclair first emerged from his small-town Michigan background to forge a legendary course through the 1960s. He helped begin the alternative press in the US and was also chairman of the White Panther Party (a group that supported the radically anti-racist Black Panther party).

He was also the manager of the hard-edged proto-punk band the MC5 from 1966 though 1969 (their influence reaches far and wide, with everyone from Green Day, The White Stripes, Motorhead, Ramones, Rage Against The Machine and Bad Brains citing them). Under his guidance the band embraced the counter-culture revolutionary politics of the White Panther Party.

An early victim of the War on Drugs who faced 20 years to life in prison for giving two joints to an undercover policewoman, Sinclair served 29 months before his legal victory on appeal changed the law for good. John Lennon wrote a song about him, and the long campaign waged by Sinclair culminated in a massive \"John Sinclair Freedom Rally\" headlined by John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger, Phil Ochs, Allen Ginsberg and Bobby Seale that resulted in Sinclair's release from prison.

Begun in 1991 and completed in 2004, 20 TO LIFE is the real-life story of this legendary poet-provocateur and American cultural warrior whose exploits have reverberated throughout the international underground for the last 40 years. Tonight we will screen this new documentary film about him, and also talk a bit with the man himself.

Want more information about the film? Then check out the official website: http://www.twentytolifefilm.com/

SPECIAL EVENING:
JOHN SINCLAIR WILL BE AT THE SCREENING TO INTRODUCE THE FILM

THE NEW ANITA
Frederik Hendrikstraat 111 (Hugo de Grootplein)
Doors open at 19:30
The film starts at 20:30 sharp

Location
Frederik Hendrikstraat 111 Amsterdam



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