Here is what I remember about the taking over of the Detroit News Reel. I think someone asked about this one time and I finally got around to writing it up. We, George D., Barbara and I, were going to Detroit to be a part of the Detroit News Reel Collective, but we were not allowed to stay in the commune, I don't know why, some conflict about about us not really being members. Ha! So we had to find an apartment of our own to live in and I worked at The 5th Estate Newspaper doing paste-up and layout and Barbara worked as a temp typist to pay the rent there. George had no job, he spent the day at News Reel doing whatever. We also worked in the News Reel Office, manning the desk, filling film orders and cleaning and repairing returned films, plus doing office watch. I once did a film showing in Kalamazoo at the University, taking the bus out there to emulate the barefoot doctors of Communist China. I showed People's Park, Resnais' Night and Fog and Mayday, The Black Panthers. I stayed with Vicki and her brother Dan at their farmhouse outside of Kalamazoo. They were friends of News Reel. I was never able to film or learn more inthat area but I was able to learn how to take sound. Peter G. taught me on a Nagra tape recorder and I was going to go with them for the D.R.U.M. interview but I never got to do that. That whole plan was ended by the great Detroit takeover that happened on my watch. I think George and Barbara were in the office with me too, I don't know, but it was I who opened up the door, or the can of worms. There was a bang on the barricaded door and I went over to see who it was. I believe there was a peephole where I could see her or else I could only hear Nancy's voice asking me to open the door. I did and behind Nancy were the league members who came in and took over the office. They came into the office and walked out with any equipment they could carry, like cameras, a shotgun, but of course not the large machine for editing films. I do not know if they tookany of the films, but anyway they stayed and I left. I remember running the couple of blocks over to the commune where the other News Reel members lived but that was in disarray too. I think Rene was there but I was not let in. That's all I can remember about it now.

Jane Capellaro - Millerton, NY