The Five Demands

Filmmaker Andrea Weiss IN PERSON, in conversation with featured student leader & author, Francee Covington after the film! 

In April 1969, a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students shut down the City College of
New York, an elite public university located right in the heart of Harlem. Fueled by the
revolutionary fervor sweeping the nation, the strike soon turned into an uprising, leading to the extended occupation of the campus, classes being canceled, students being arrested, and the resignation of the college president. Through archival footage and modern-day interviews, we follow the students’ struggle against the institutional racism that, for over a century, had shut out people of color from this and other public universities.

THE FIVE DEMANDS revisits the untold story of this explosive student takeover, and proves that a handful of ordinary citizens can band together to take action and effect meaningful change.

“Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss prove that savvy, relentless research can have a spectacular payoff” — B. Ruby Rich, film critic