Possibly the most contentious of all Watkins’ films,Punishment Park was made when the war in Vietnam was escalating.
The United States president, amid civil unrest caused by an escalation of the Vietnam conflict,invokes powers granted by Article II of the 1950 Internal Security Act (the "McCarran Act"). An "internal security emergency" is declared. Secret detention camps are established—without the approval of Congress—to hold draft dodgers, antiwar demonstrators, militants, pacifists and those who "there is reasonable ground to believe ... may be involved in future, possible certain acts of sabotage."
Detainees are presented before tribunals "without right of bail" and without "the necessity of evidence." At a tribunal near Bear Mountain National Park in California, a collection of detainees, Corrective Group 638, is brought for hearing just as Corrective Group 637 is led into the desert.
Punishment Park is an alternative to a prison sentence for conscientious objectors,
offering a game in which a group are challenged to reach an American flag
53 miles across the mountains, pursued by law enforcement officers.
Sunday July 18th 7.30pm
at the Packhorse, Woodhouse Lane
Flyer Here
Detainees are presented before tribunals "without right of bail" and without "the necessity of evidence." At a tribunal near Bear Mountain National Park in California, a collection of detainees, Corrective Group 638, is brought for hearing just as Corrective Group 637 is led into the desert.
Punishment Park is an alternative to a prison sentence for conscientious objectors,
offering a game in which a group are challenged to reach an American flag
53 miles across the mountains, pursued by law enforcement officers.
Sunday July 18th 7.30pm
at the Packhorse, Woodhouse Lane
Flyer Here
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