Undergraduate Filming of 'Sit-down' Wins Spoleto, San Francisco Awards

"There is no film-making in Hollywood today, only money-making," according to Daniel Drasin '65, a New Yorker who has filmed and directed several documentaries, some of which have been internationally acclaimed.

His documentary called "Sunday" shows the demonstration protesting a police ban on folk-singing in Washington Square, and is currently entered at the Tours Film Festival in France. It was very well received at the July 1961 Spoleto Festival organized by Gian-Carl Menotti, and subsequently took a second Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival in November.

Shows Sit-Down

Filmed on a Sunday afternoon in April, the day of a scheduled protest, the documentary shows folksingers staging a sit-down to assert their right to sing in Washington Square. The City Park Commissioner and the police met the demonstrators and broke up the crowd, arresting those who refused to leave.

Drasin and three of his friends filmed the sit-down in black and white, using a technical method known as "synchronized sound." In this process the pictures and sound are recorded simultaneously, and no artificial sounds or sound effects are used. The only background music in "Sunday" was the folksinging.

All the filming was done with "completely conventional equipment, and could have been done with home movie cameras," Drasin said. "Sunday" is now being entered in Academy Award competition, and will be shown locally, either in Boston or Cambridge, once the picture is in full distribution.

Drasin is currently working on a script, part of which he hopes to film at Harvard in the spring. He also plans to complete a one and one-half hour feature on nuclear war in New York City this summer.