Chronicling the political atmosphere of the 1960s by focusing on one of the largest student activist organizations of that time, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), REBELS WITH A CAUSE includes archival footage of protests and present-day interviews with former members. Helen Garvy, the director of REBELS WITH A CAUSE, was one of those members. Her interviews with Tom Hayden, Bernardine Dohrn, Todd Gitlin, and Carl Oglesby explain the group's growth into the Black Power movement and the women's movement as well as the group's beginning in 1960 with a few hundred members. The SDS issued the Port Huron Statement, a document that was circulated at campuses across the country and soon drew thousands of idealistic followers to its call for "participatory democracy." Their members organized action projects along with SNCC (Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee) and CORE (Congress of Racial Equality). When the U.S. government entered into an undeclared war in Vietnam, the SDS organized, protested, and quickly grew to more than 100,000 members. Garvy combines footage of protests, sit-ins, and teach-ins with interviews, making REBELS WITH A CAUSE a history of, and tribute to, all the thousands of people who protested for social and political change.
