Bettina Aptheker featured in NBC’s 'Rebels & Revolutions' documentary

Alumnus David Talbot also interviewed in film premiering May 9

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UC Santa Cruz Professor of Feminist Studies Bettina Aptheke
UC Santa Cruz Professor of Feminist Studies Bettina Aptheker (Photo by Carolyn Lagattuta)
David Talbot (photo by Jay Blakesberg)
UC Santa Cruz alumnus David Talbot (photo by Jay Blakesberg)

An interview with UC Santa Cruz professor of feminist studies Bettina Aptheker will be featured in Rebels & Revolutions--the second installment of NBC Bay Area’s year-long documentary series Bay Area Revelations--premiering Saturday May 9, at 9 p.m.

Narrated by Emmy Award-winning actor Peter Coyote, the one-hour film examines the San Francisco Bay Area’s history in leading political and social movements, beginning with the Free Speech Movement and covering gay liberation, black power, drug culture, AIDS, assassinations, cults, and same-sex marriage.

The program is told primarily through personal interviews with individuals who played a major role in these pivotal points in history—also including Senator Dianne Feinstein, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, Mayor Willie Brown, State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, UC Santa Cruz alumnus and author David Talbot, and San Francisco District Attorney and civil rights lawyer Terence Hallinan.

Rebels & Revolutions will shed light on a significant time in the Bay Area’s history, weaving together stories that are not familiar to most,” noted Rich Cerussi, president and general manager of NBC Bay Area. “Our intention with this second film in our Bay Area Revelations series is to reflect on those little known, powerful moments that were each responsible for sparking a revolution.”

Aptheker taught one of the country's largest and most influential introductory feminist studies courses for nearly three decades at UC Santa Cruz. She has played a role in major historical events ranging from her co-leadership of the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, the movement against the war in Vietnam, and the trial of Angela Davis, to the building of the Women's Studies Department at UC Santa Cruz.

Aptheker was recently named a University of California Presidential Chair in Feminist Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz, and is currently teaching a course on feminism and social justice.

Founder of the popular San Francisco-based web magazine Salon, David Talbot has been hailed as a “web pioneer” by the New York Times, as well as "one of 50 people who matter most in the new media world" by Newsweek.

The UC Santa Cruz alum has written for The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Time; served as a senior editor for Mother Jones magazine; and was a features editor for the San Francisco Examiner.

Talbot’s latest book is Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love, a dynamic story of the turbulent years in San Francisco from 1967 to 1982.

WATCH A PREVIEW TRAILER of Rebels and Revolutions