FTA – Retroview by Jennifer Merin

February 19, 2021February 19, 2021 Jennifer Merin anti-vietnam war, documentaries, DONALD SUTERLAND, fta, jane fonda, kino lorber

0 Flares 0 Flares ×

FTA is an anti-war documentary that went missing shortly after its premiere in 1972. Now restored and available to the public, the film is an important record showing the strength of the American people’s opposition to the Vietnam War.

FTA’s title–a three-way acronym standing for “Free Theater Associates,” “Free The Army,” and, as the soldier would say, “F*ck the Army”– is a good tease about the film’s subject. Documentary filmmaker Francine Parker (who unfortunately died before the film’s restoration) followed Free Theater Associates, a theatrical touring troupe, as they toured to coffee houses, arenas and other venues near U.S. military bases across America and abroad, performing their anti-war cabaret show–and its catchy anthem song, Foxtrot, Tango, Alpha: F…ree the Army., to cheering audiences of G.I.s. In the Free Theater Associates troupe: folksinger Len Chandler, Holly Near, Rita Martinson, Michael Alaimo, Pamela Donegan, Steve Jaffe, Paul Mooney, Donald Sutherland and a young and energetic Jane Fonda, who was subsequently dubbed Hanoi Jane for her strong anti-war activities. Continue reading on CINEMA CITIZEN

0 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 0 0 Flares ×

Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin is the Film Critic for Womens eNews and contributes the CINEMA CITIZEN blog for and is managing editor for Women on Film, the online magazine of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, of which she is President. She has served as a regular critic and film-related interviewer for The New York Press and About.com. She has written about entertainment for USA Today, The L.A. Times, US Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Endless Vacation Magazine, Daily News, New York Post, SoHo News and other publications. After receiving her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts (Grad Acting), Jennifer performed at the O'Neill Theater Center's Playwrights Conference, Long Wharf Theater, American Place Theatre and LaMamma, where she worked with renown Japanese director, Shuji Terayama. She subsequently joined Terayama's theater company in Tokyo, where she also acted in films. Her journalism career began when she was asked to write about Terayama for The Drama Review. She became a regular contributor to the Christian Science Monitor after writing an article about Marketta Kimbrell's Theater For The Forgotten, with which she was performing at the time. She was an O'Neill Theater Center National Critics' Institute Fellow, and then became the institute's Coordinator. While teaching at the Universities of Wisconsin and Rhode Island, she wrote "A Directory of Festivals of Theater, Dance and Folklore Around the World," published by the International Theater Institute. Denmark's Odin Teatret's director, Eugenio Barba, wrote his manifesto in the form of a letter to "Dear Jennifer Merin," which has been published around the world, in languages as diverse as Farsi and Romanian. Jennifer's culturally-oriented travel column began in the LA Times in 1984, then moved to The Associated Press, LA Times Syndicate, Tribune Media, Creators Syndicate and (currently) Arcamax Publishing. She's been news writer/editor for ABC Radio Networks, on-air reporter for NBC, CBS Radio and, currently, for Westwood One's America In the Morning. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association in the Film, Documentary and TV branches and a voting member of the Black Reel Awards. For her AWFJ archive, type "Jennifer Merin" in the Search Box (upper right corner of screen).