The Boys Who Said NO! (film)
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'The Boys Who Said NO!' is a 2020 documentary film directed by Judith Ehrlich about the draft resistance movement in the United States during the Vietnam War, the largest refusal to fight a war in American history.[1]
The film features present day interviews with men who publicly refused to be drafted, risking up to 5 years in federal prison, as a means of opposing a war they believed was unnecessary and unjust. Archival footage shows many of the draft resisters during the war, including world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, who refused induction, risking his boxing career. The film also features women and men who supported the draft resistance movement, including folksinger Joan Baez who married resister David Harris, civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame, and baby doctor Benjamin Spock.
The film illustrates how the draft resistance movement was influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and its nonviolent tactics to oppose the war. Featured in the film Cleveland Sellers, co-founder of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, an early draft resister who spent time in federal prison.
The film was initiated and produced by Christopher Colorado Jones and Bill Prince.
Film Festivals
The Boys Who Said NO! had its first festival screening in July 2020, at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.
The film will have its U.S. premiere on October 8 in the Mill Valley Film Festival.
References
- ^ Lawrence M. Baskir; William A. Strauss (1978). Chance and Circumstance: The Draft, the War, and the Vietnam Generation. Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-72749-3.