Melvin and Jean [electronic resource] : an American story / directed by Maia Wechsler.

New York, NY : Filmakers Library, 2012.

English

In English.

1 online resource (60 min.)

005947

This video is a poignant tale of two people, the radical 60s, crime in the name of a cause, and second chances. The documentary follows Melvin and Jean McNair from revolt and exile to renewal and reconciliation. As a young couple in 1972, the McNairs made news when they hijacked a plane from Detroit to Algeria to join the international section of the Black Panthers. Simultaneously an act of political resistance to racism and the Vietnam War and an act of desperation committed by two young people who saw no other way to escape the constant state of racial oppression in the US, the controversial act continues to have long-term repercussions decades later. After serving several years in prison in France for the hijacking, the McNairs remained in France and, for 35 years, have lived as model citizens in their adopted country. Forty years after the fact, the two are still coming to terms with their crime and its lifelong consequences as they try to gain the freedom to return home without spending the rest of their lives behind bars in America.

Title from resource description page (viewed Feb. 9, 2014).

Original

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