“The Takeover” is a new documentary directed by Larry Buskey, a film teacher at Fieldston Upper School, that takes you back to the 1970s as Fieldston alumni discuss their “takeover” of the school. It is an interview-style film that unfolds chronologically, with interwoven clips from past to present. It goes on the journey of Black and Latinx students who led a protest fighting against the general dismissal of black culture at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. It also chronicles the lives that were committed to political activism.
The film is driven by memory, outrage, friendship and protest. Some of the student demonstrator-alums include Janet Pugh, Tanaquil Jones, Rick Cohen, Leslie Giddings, Keith Wright and Mary Bassett. The film touches on the limitations of integration for students of color students at Fieldston, the experience of how “Black Pride” and “Black Power” became rallying cries on the campus and how seizing the Administration Building and sleeping at Fieldston for several days until the school accepted the demands of the Black Students Club forever changed Fieldston. In just forty minutes, this film goes on a powerful and emotional protest led by Black students who “felt like it was [their] responsibility to participate in the movement and understand the energy and synergy.”
Fieldston’s alumni association asked Mr. Buskey to apply to make this film. He was competing against others who were “vying for the chance to tell this story.” After being given the opportunity to make it, the plan was for the documentary to be filmed in 6 months. However, it was not completed in 6 months due to Covid-19. Buskey and his co-executive producer and writer Laura Vural started filming during the pandemic, forcing them to conduct the interviews over Zoom. There were several hiccups along the way, and not just because of the pandemic. When conditions began to improve about a year later, Buskey was allowed to perform his interviews in people’s homes. “It was a long and arduous process, including the conducting of over 25 interviews,” Buskey says.
In addition to interviewing the alums, research was key to the making of the film. “We were researching and discovering things right up to the very end. At every step of the way, we had to check and cross-check our facts by various means.” Buskey was able to draw from people’s personal archives as well as the school’s.
“The Takeover” served as a reunion, both physically and spiritually. Buskey discovered that many of the participants had stayed in touch but hadn’t thought much about the Takeover until their interviews. Buskey explains that “when it came time to speak with us, some remembered things very clearly while others,understandably, struggled to recall the specifics of an event that occurred over 50 years ago.” Buskey says that he was unable to gather everyone in one place, “however, email chains from person to person became more active as the participants checked in with each other to get clarification on the course of events and to inquire how each other’s interviews had gone.”
Laura Vural, Buskey’s producing partner, graduated in the same year as the seniors during the takeover at Fieldston in the 70s and had similar experiences when she was younger, so filming the documentary was “an intensely powerful journey for her.”
The team’s main concern was attempting to match the “intensity and veracity of the moments through the use of the tools of cinema.” In particular, Buskey was struck, “both by how much things have changed, but also how much work still needs to be done.”
It ended up taking two years to complete the film, and Buskey felt “relieved” when it was completed. “It was a long and grueling process.” But, in the end, Buskey felt honored to have been given the opportunity to tell this story about students who took a stand for what they believed. He emphasizes, “Their brilliant resilience and determination to take action continues to reverberate through the halls of Fieldston to this day.”
Buskey hopes that after watching this film, people should realize that Fieldston, “was and is a remarkable place to get an education. Although the institution is still evolving, Fieldston continues to try to provide an incredible education for curious and devoted students just like the students in the film.” Another important message is the “value of character.” Buskey explained that it was, “the high moral character of those who participated in the Takeover that was foundational to them continuing to lead wonderfully active and engaged lives long after their time at Fieldston.”
There are a myriad of messages from the film that are still present at Fieldston. Several of the 1970s alums served as wise counsel, ombudsmen and negotiators with Students Of Color Matter (SOCM) and the school during the Spring 2019 takeover. Inequalities and inequities persist. As Buskey points out, “Things don’t change on their own. We must fight for what we believe and confront what diminishes our humanity at every opportunity.”
