Silverdocs Opening Night

When the press office at Silverdocs, the AFI - Discovery Channel Documentary Festival suggested that we might want to take a look at their list of films specifically connected with seniors or age-related issues, I balked. We would be interested in everything, I imagined, not just the stuff for oldsters.
(filmmaker Jim Brown and Odetta, photo by Lauren Ruane, courtesy AFI)
But after the opening night film, celebrating the life and work of legendary singer/activist Pete Seeger, and several other films that revisited some of the signal moments of the 1960s, I backed off my high horse. Yes, the Festival had something for absolutely everyone, but what it offered to filmgoers of a certain age was a reminder about the important times, places, and faces of our lives.
"Pete Seeger: The Power of Song" is a straightforward biography of an American hero. Seeger never did the easy or the expected thing in a wide-ranging career of sharing music to change the world. From standing up for workers, to the struggle for Civil Rights, to the early realization that environmentalism was as important an issue as human rights, Seeger knew that music had the power to change the world.
The toll was often high, as he was blacklisted from television and major concert appearances during the McCarthy era, and called in to appear before the House Unamerican Activities Committee to answer questions about his political affiliations. But no matter what the threat, Seeger never backed away from a fight.