ICONOCLAST FILMMAKER CEVIN SOLING TAKES ON THE 1960’S
Disparate documentaries reveal turbulent decade from opposite ends of the spectrum
Writer-Director Cevin Soling’s new documentary, The Gilligan Manifesto, is garnering interest from distributors because of its unique spin on a classic television series as a commentary on the 1960’s and the Red scare. Currently, he is in post-production on his highly-anticipated film, The Summer of Hate, a documentary that focuses on the summer of 1966, where the Beatles US tour took an unexpected turn for the worse, and became an integral part of the volatile political landscape in response to comments on religion and as “payback” for their forcing the Gator Bowl in Florida to desegregate two years prior.
In 1963, just one year after the Cuban Missile Crisis, radio and television writer Sherwood Schwartz began filming Gilligan's Island, which depicts seven Americans shipwrecked on a deserted island. Soling’s film reveals that this seemingly innocuous sitcom was an analogue for a post-apocalyptic world where survivors had to rebuild civilization as this was a major concern during the Cold War where many families had fallout shelters in their homes. What is even more shocking is that the society depicted on Gilligan’s Island is founded on Marxist Communism. Soling’s revelation was first published in the prestigious academic journal, Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture.
To convert his article into a feature documentary, Soling interviewed creator Sherwood Schwartz. He also spoke with Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells, who played the Professor and Mary Ann, as well as several professors from Harvard.
“The political messages of Gilligan's Island are as relevant today as they were when the show originally aired. Genuine threats to Western civilization still persist from outside and within that feed escapist fantasies to a utopian world,” says Soling. “Today, Gilligan's Island would be set on Mars and again, the society would be communist and, again, no one would notice because most people have no idea what communism is and erroneously equate it with the totalitarian governments of the Soviet Union or China.”
On a totally different track from the same decade, Soling’s The Sumer of Hate documents the backlash the Beatles faced during their 1966 tour when John Lennon stated that they were “more popular than Jesus.” The band received international scorn after the quote was deliberately misinterpreted and exploited by a couple of disc jockeys in Alabama. While the Beatles had received numerous death threats in the past, calls for violence became blatantly open where the KKK even went so far as to lynch the Beatles in absentia. Scores of radio stations boycotted the Beatles and bonfires were staged all over the country including as far north as Albany, New York. One consequence was that the Beatles decided to stop touring and became exclusively a studio band – something unheard of at the time.
When asked what stands out as most about this film, Soling replied: “When people think of the division between the conservative world of the 50’s and the tumultuous 60’s, it is really 1966 when the American landscape changed dramatically becoming visibly fractured and violent. There was a mass shooting in Texas, a serial killer in Chicago, race riots, war protest, record burnings, and KKK rallies. Many of the same issues persist, but in the 60’s the Beatles helped steer a generation out of the darkness and watching them prevail over hate as they ushered the world into the summer of love the following year, can provide solace and guidance for viewers today.”
The film features interviews from many of those relevant in the summer of 1966. Among them: Civil Rights activist James Meredith, iconic DJ George Klein, guitarist Reggie Young and bluesman Clarence “Frogman” Henry (“I Ain’t Got No Home.”)
Soling produced and directed the first theatrically released documentary on education, The War on Kids, which was honored as the best educational documentary at the New York Independent Film and Video Festival and has been broadcast on Pivot, The Documentary Channel, and The Sundance Channel.
He wrote, produced, and directed Ikland, which documented his efforts to rediscover the lost Ik tribe of northern Uganda, who were famously disparaged in the early 1970s as the worst people in the world. The film won Best Documentary Content at the Boston International Film Festival and was heralded by the NY Times and other major media outlets. Last year, he completed Mr. Cevin & the Cargo Cult, a documentary about a tribe in Vanuatu who worship America.
