Inside the Making of “The Five Demands” with Director Greta Schiller
By Paola Holguin
Greta Schiller knew about the 1969 student takeover of City College but wondered why most other people didn’t. To change that, the CCNY professor and alumna made the film The Five Demands. She recently held a press conference in Shepard Hall to share some insight on her recently released documentary.
The movie covers the 1969 protests led by Black and Puerto Rican students who wanted to transform the structure of higher education. The demonstrations resulted in student arrests, a complete shutdown of the campus, and the resignation of the former City College president Buell G. Gallagher who lived on campus at the time. The film follows the journey of the students dismantling the structures that prevent people of color from enrolling in college, and more specifically the barriers that keep City College segregated from its community in Harlem. “It was so important to us that we represent the way that the Harlem community is,” Schiller emphasized.
The film took Schiller and her collaborators nine years to complete. They conducted the first interview for the movie in 2014 and then followed a period of fundraising and working on rough cuts section by section. “Somehow we stayed with our enthusiasm, which wasn't always easy,” said Schiller.
The pandemic allowed the production team extra time to hone in on finishing the film, which was released earlier this year, “I don't know if we could have afforded to spend all that time, but in a weird way, it was a gift,” Schiller explained. “We were just stuck at home.” The archival process extended the development of the movie as well but collecting the right images and videos of the community proved crucial. Mainstream archives from outlets like The New York Post were available for use, but they didn't depict the everyday people in the neighborhood. So, the crew dug deeper. “There was nothing about the way people actually lived,” said Schiller. “There were no images of kids playing in the street, of just normal people's lives.
The Five Demands highlights students and people from the community advocating for change. It portrays staff, professors, faculty members, and Harlem residents as supporters of the cause, but the students who initiated the change, lead the narrative. Schiller hopes this emphasis on young people having the power to change a system motivates current students.” I want you guys to be inspired that there has been social change,” Schiller said. “And it was done by people just like you.”
