It’s a Berkeley event, involving an independent Berkeley movie theater, screening a documentary made by a Berkeley resident, to benefit a Berkeley school. Berkeleyside couldn’t live with itself if it didn’t cover this one.
On Thursday May 6th, at 7:15 pm, Elmwood Rialto will present a screening of The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, a documentary which tells the thrilling tale of the run-up to Watergate. The film will be followed by Q&As with co-director Rick Goldsmith and Patricia Ellsberg, wife of Dr Daniel Ellsberg whose story is at the heart of the documentary (Dr Ellsberg is out of the country that night).
The special movie showing will benefit Willard Middle School — Rick Goldsmith has a student there, after all.
The Most Dangerous Man in America — an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature — was directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith. Here’s a taste:
In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a high-level Pentagon official and Vietnam War strategist, concludes that the war is based on decades of lies, and he leaks 7,000 pages of top secret documents to The New York Times, making headlines around the world. Hailed as a hero, vilified as a traitor, and ostracized by even his closest colleagues, Ellsberg risks life in prison to stop a war he helped plan.
This riveting story of one man’s profound change of heart is also a piercing look at the world of government secrecy as revealed by the ultimate insider. Marked by a landmark battle between America’s greatest newspapers and its president — that goes to the Supreme Court — this political thriller unravels a saga that leads directly to Watergate, Nixon’s resignation and the end of the Vietnam War.
Tickets cost $20, $25 at door. To buy tickets in advance, send a note and checks — by April 28 — to: Kathy Burns, Willard Middle School PTA, 2425 Stuart Street, Berkeley, CA 94705.
