Assignment Four - What's Happening in the Haight

Assignment Four documentary film which first aired on Ch.4 KRON in the Bay area on February 5, 1973 at 7:30pm, although the copyright date is shown on-screen as 1972. Subtitled 'A report from the Neighborhood', this short documentary looks at how political, social and business interests in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury neighborhood have been changing since the late 1960s. There are many interviews with local residents including: shopkeepers; policemen; people on the street; architect and town planner Ron Jonash, who explains how the neighborhood was re-zoned downwards in the spring of 1972; State Assemblyman Willie Brown, who is seen driving around in a Porsche as he provides commentary; the Chairman of the Mayor's Committee to Restore the Haight David Johnson; Steve Keever and Ron Landberg of the Good Earth Commune and Joan and Rena McAuley. Also features: views of angry residents protesting at the Mayor's Committee Meeting on October 21st 1970; scenes from the Good Earth Commune which is described as a work collective, also running the Haight Ashbury Recycling Center and Free Store and part of a Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council meeting. Narration is by Art Brown, with original music by Jon Fromer. This film was written, produced and directed by Ira Eisenberg and edited by Bob Shafer and opens with a short montage of images and sounds from the 1960s, when Haight Ashbury was perceived to be associated with the hippie movement and the so called Summer of Love. It should be noted that David Johnson was Ansel Adam's first African American student. A review of this program by television critic Terence O'Flaherty can be read on p.38 of the February 5, 1973 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.