1971

On March 8, 1971, Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier came face to face in the boxing ring, and all of America was watching it on TV. Meanwhile, a group of anti-war activists called the Citizen’s Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and stole all the documents stored there. Shortly thereafter, copies of sensitive information about the FBI’s illegal surveillance practices started landing on the desks of newspaper editors around the country. A scandal was born. The Media affair triggered the first major Senate-led investigation into the FBI’s methods, and it was a big blow to the authority of erstwhile bureau chief J. Edgar Hoover. The thieves were never caught, but now for the first time four of them have come forward to tell their tale. With the help of archive footage, interviews and dramatized scenes, the story covers the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and the group’s dogged willingness to undermine the FBI. The four look back on the consequences, intended and otherwise, of the Media break-in. Although these were different times (a locksmith course provided sufficient preparation for breaking into the unsecured FBI office), draws a parallel with more recent privacy violations – a parallel underscored by the involvement of co-producer Laura Poitras, who was the first to be tipped off by Edward Snowden about the NSA’s spying activities.