Saturday, January 7, 2017

"Bed Peace" Revisits John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Famous Anti-Vietnam Protests

by , Open Culture: http://www.openculture.com/2011/08/ibed_peacei_starring_john_lennon_yoko_ono_free_until_sunday.html



Briefly noted: Yoko Ono has posted on YouTube a 70 minute documentary that revisits John and Yoko’s famous 1969 Bed-Ins, which amounted to a peaceful protest against the Vietnam War. The film has been added to our list of Free Documentaries, a subset of our collection 1,150 Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns, etc.. Below the jump you can find Yoko’s letter to viewers and a summary of the film.

Dear Friends,

In 1969, John and I were so naïve to think that doing the Bed-In would help change the world. Well, it might have. But at the time, we didn’t know. It was good that we filmed it, though. The film is powerful now. What we said then could have been said now. In fact, there are things that we said then in the film, which may give some encouragement and inspiration to the activists of today. Good luck to us all. Let’s remember WAR IS OVER if we want it. It’s up to us, and nobody else. John would have wanted to say that.

Love, yoko.

Yoko Ono Lennon
London, UK
August 2011

Film Synopsis

1969 was the year that John and Yoko intensified their long running campaign for World Peace. They approached the task with the same entrepreneurial expertise as an advertising agency selling a brand of soap powder to the masses. John and Yoko’s product however was PEACE, not soft soap, and they were determined to use any slogan, event and gimmick in order to persuade the World to buy it.

BED PEACE (directed by Yoko and John and filmed by Nic Knowland) is a document of the Montreal events and features John and Yoko in conversation with, amongst others, The World Press, satirist Al Capp, activist Dick Gregory, comedian Tommy Smothers, protesters at Berkeley’s People’s Park, Rabbi Abraham L. Feinberg, quiltmaker Christine Kemp, psychologists Timothy Leary and Rosemary Leary, CFOX DJs Charles P. Rodney Chandler and Roger Scott, producer André Perry, journalist Ritchie York, DJ and Promoter Murray The K, filmmaker Jonas Mekas, publicist Derek Taylor and personal assistant Anthony Fawcett.