Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune

Phil Ochs There but for Fortune is a documentary film on the life and times of folk singersongwriter Phil Ochs. The film, released theatrically in January 2011, was written and directed by Kenneth Bowser. Its title is taken from one of Ochs best known songs, There but for Fortune 1963.

The film is a biography of Ochs as well as a history of the antiwar movement, the folk song revival in the United States, and leftwing political activism during the 1960s. Tracking Ochs rise to fame during the folk and protest song movements of the period, the film depicts his growing involvement in the radical politics that developed over the decade. Throughout, he wrote hundreds of songs, many of them ripped straight from the daily news. As the films interviews bring out, Ochs firmly believed his music could change the world for the better.Besides the archival footage of Ochs and the interviews with others involved in the folk movement, the film features extensive news clips of the events of the times, including the Civil Rights struggle in the South, assassination of President John F. Kennedy, rallies protesting US military involvement in Vietnam, assassinations of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, shootings of students at Kent State, and the police riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Ochs became a part of the inner circle that sought to defeat US policies, and the film shows interviews with some of the movements central figures, several of whom were close friends with Ochs, including Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, cofounders of the Youth International Party, and Tom Hayden, who went on to become a California State Senator. ........

Source: Wikipedia