“1971” tells the story of the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI, a group of Vietnam War peace activists. Like many in the anti-war movement, they had seen how the Federal Bureau of Investigation was violating the First Amendment on a widespread basis. This included phone taps, surveillance, harassments, framings, break-ins, and informants. Local police were encouraged to raid dissidents’ meetings, sometimes resulting in assaults and killings. Activist groups were infiltrated and turned against each other, also sometimes resulting in violence. Marriages were destroyed, jobs were lost, and media was suppressed. Here is a link to the COINTELPRO plan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO…

On the night of March 8, 1971, the Citizens’ Commission broke into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and removed every single file. The papers revealed the existence of COINTELPRO, an organized program by the Federal Bureau of investigation to destroy dissent in America. Relevant COINTELPRO files were sent to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. The Media FBI break-in and the Watergate scandal led to the Church Commission hearings in 1975. (The Central Intelligence Agency had a similar plan called Operation Chaos, and the Nixon White House had its plan, Operation Gemstone).

Here’s a link to the film “1971”: https://www.1971film.com/