Abbie Hoffman

Abbie Hoffman

Born: November 30, 1936
Died: April 12, 1989
in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
Abbot Howard Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponent of the Flower Power movement.

As a member of the Chicago Seven, Hoffman was charged with and tried―for activities during the 1968 Democratic National Convention―for conspiring to use interstate commerce with intent to incite a riot and crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot under the anti-riot provisions of Title X of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Five of the Chicago Seven defendants, including Hoffman, were convicted of crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot;  all of the convictions were vacated after an appeal and the U.S. Department of Justice declined to pursue another trial. Hoffman, along with all of the defendants and their attorneys were also convicted and sentenced for contempt of court by the judge; these convictions were also vacated after an appeal.

Hoffman continued his activism into the 1970s and remains an icon of the anti-Vietnam war movement and the counterculture era. He died by suicide with a phenobarbital overdose in 1989 at age 52.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Abbie Hoffman, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies for Abbie Hoffman...

Jealous Guy: The Assassination of John Lennon
Title: Jealous Guy: The Assassination of John Lennon
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: December 21, 2020
Type: Movie
An exploration of the life and career of the Beatles superstar, with a look at the strange parallels between him and his killer Mark David Chapman.
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WBCN and the American Revolution
Title: WBCN and the American Revolution
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: April 18, 2019
Type: Movie
The amazing untold story of the radical underground radio station WBCN-FM set against the profound social, political and cultural changes of the late-1960s and early-70s, using the actual sights, sounds and stories of those who connected through the station, exploding music and countercultural scenes, militant anti-war and civil rights protests and emerging women’s and LGBTQ-liberation movements.
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TVTV: Video Revolutionaries
Title: TVTV: Video Revolutionaries
Character: Self
Released: October 19, 2018
Type: Movie
A documentary about Top Value Television (TVTV), a band of merry video makers who, from 1972 to 1977, took the then brand-new portable video camera and went out to document the world.
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Chicago 10
Title: Chicago 10
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: February 29, 2008
Type: Movie
Archival footage, animation and music are used to look back at the eight anti-war protesters who were put on trial following the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
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My Dinner with Abbie
Title: My Dinner with Abbie
Character: Himself
Released: February 7, 1990
Type: Movie
Ex flower child goes looking for revolutionary hero and finds a brilliant no-quitter with a good appetite.
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Heavy Petting
Title: Heavy Petting
Character: Self
Released: September 22, 1989
Type: Movie
Celebrities and creatives -- including musician David Byrne, performance artist Spalding Gray, comedian Sandra Bernhard, radical activist Abbie Hoffman, and poet Allen Ginsberg-- recall their earliest sexual experiences.
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Growing Up in America
Title: Growing Up in America
Character: Self
Released: April 16, 1989
Type: Movie
Filmmaker Morley Markson shows Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, and other '60s rebels, then and now in a follow up to his 1971 film "Breathing Together: Revolution of the Electric Family."
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My Name is Abbie
Title: My Name is Abbie
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1981
Type: Movie
Abbie Hoffman's first interview after seven years in hiding. My name is Abbie... I am an orphan of America.
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The Lord of the Universe
Title: The Lord of the Universe
Character: Himself
Released: February 2, 1974
Type: Movie
He was the 16-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji and, as the Millennium approached, he promised to levitate the Huston Astrodome. It was the early Seventies and anything was possible so thousands flocked to his gathering. Follow him from his mansion in New York to the limousines in Houston, listen to his followers and watch the spectacle unfold just as TVTV did in this Alfred I. du Pont award wining documentary.
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Breathing Together: Revolution of the Electric Family
Title: Breathing Together: Revolution of the Electric Family
Character: Self
Released: April 11, 1971
Type: Movie
The title of this Canadian documentary may have some relation to Canadian Marshall McLuhan's theories. It combines interview with famous U.S. militants of the '60s, such as Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, with reenactments of their Chicago trials (i.e., the "Chicago Eight," etc.). Other figures of cultural interest from the time, including Alan Ginsberg and Buckminster Fuller, are interviewed or featured. The filmmaker indicates his belief that powerful forces in the U.S. government worked together to suppress American radicals. This view, widely disbelieved at the time, has since been confirmed.
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Mayday
Title: Mayday
Character: Self
Released: December 31, 1970
Type: Movie
In the spring of 1970, thousands of protesters descended on New Haven to demonstrate against the trial of Black Panther members for the murder of suspected FBI informant Alex Rackley. Led by radical luminaries Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Tom Hayden, the demonstrators converged on the New Haven Green to vent their anger and shut Yale down. Yale President Kingman Brewster commissioned a small group of Yale students to document the demonstrations, resulting in this 22-minute black-and-white film.
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Brand X
Title: Brand X
Character: Policeman (Lawren Order)
Released: May 18, 1970
Type: Movie
In 1969, Taylor Mead complained to his friend artist Wynn Chamberlain that Andy Warhol had never paid him for any of the work he had done for him and Wynn said he would make a film especially for Taylor. Inspired by the banality of 1960's television, Chamberlain wrote and directed Brand X, an 87 minute series of faux television shows spoofing the politics and mass media of the day, complete with commercials for Sex, Sweat, Computer Dating and Peanut Butter. BRAND X follows Taylor Mead through a day in a wacky television studio as he portrays an exercise guru, a talk show host, a veteran returning from the American Civil War, a hospital patient in a soap opera, the President of the United States and a televangelist giving the Nightly Sermon. BRAND X satirizes President Nixon, the Vietnam War, sex, drugs, computers, money and race relations.
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Yippie
Title: Yippie
Character: Himself
Released: December 31, 1968
Type: Movie
The Youth International Party, whose members were commonly called Yippies, was a radically youth-oriented and countercultural revolutionary group opposed to war and the status quo of American culture. Known for using theatrics and humor to advocate social change, several Yippies were notably on trial as the Chicago 7. Primarily consisting of footage from the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago which sparked massive demonstrations that were met by violence and hysteria caused by the police. This film also includes found newsreel footage as well as Pigasus - the pig the Yippies advanced as a candidate for President of the United States.
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Emergency: The Living Theatre
Title: Emergency: The Living Theatre
Character: Self
Released: September 9, 1968
Type: Movie
The husband-and-wife acting team of Julian Beck and Judith Malina heads the cast of the "theatre on film" presentation “Emergency”. Screened at the First International Festival of Women’s Films, 1972.
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Last Summer Won't Happen
Title: Last Summer Won't Happen
Character: Himself
Released: September 1, 1968
Type: Movie
A critical yet sympathetic examination of the anti-war movement in New York City, shot in 1968, one year after the Summer of Love. The film traces the development group of activists on the Lower East Side. We see their growth from isolated, alienated individuals to a politically empowered community. Filmed between the protests at the Pentagon and the demonstrations at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, it includes portraits of Abbie Hoffman, editor Paul Krassner, folksinger Phil Ochs and anarchist Tom "Osha" Neumann.
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Title: The Dick Cavett Show
Character: Self - Guest
Released: June 6, 1968
Type: TV
The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks.