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Although REBELS WITH A CAUSE is her feature-directing debut, Helen Garvy has been making films for 20 years as a producer, director, writer, and/or editor. A self-taught filmmaker, she co-founded Shire Films in 1980, and has made films for theaters, television, and schools. Over the years she has taught numerous classes in film production and is the author of several books, including Before You Shoot: A Guide to Low-Budget Film and Video Production now in its third edition and used in film classes nationwide.
REBELS WITH A CAUSE combines Helen’s filmmaking experience with her long involvement in SDS. She became active in the civil rights, university reform, and peace movements while in college at Harvard in the early sixties and joined SDS in 1962. In the summer of 1963, Helen worked at a government job in Washington, DC during the day and spent her evenings tutoring kids from the overwhelmingly black public schools. Appalled by the effects of de facto segregation and racism, her experiences that summer changed the course of her life. Although she returned to Harvard in the fall, she spent her time mostly working against racism in nearby Roxbury, and convincing other college students to join the civil rights movement. She helped start the Harvard SDS chapter and went on to become very active in the national organization over the next few years.
In 1964, Helen was elected Assistant National Secretary of SDS, and spent the next year working in the national office where she also edited SDS’s paper and helped organize the first large March on Washington against the Vietnam War in April 1965. She then joined an SDS community organizing project in Hoboken, New Jersey and in 1967, moved to San Francisco to teach in an alternative school, while continuing to be involved in SDS and antiwar activities. In more recent years, she has been instrumental in reconnecting the core of the SDS community. This history has given her both an understanding of the period and excellent cooperation from SDS members.
Helen was born in New York, graduated with a major in government from Harvard in 1964. She now writes and makes films in the Santa Cruz mountains of California. |
