The documentary film tells the life story of John Sinclair, US underground icon, political activist, author, blues historian, poet and musician. As a key figure in revolutionary pop-culture movements and manager of the proto-punk band MC5 in the Detroit of the 60s, under the motto of the “total assault on the culture”, he pursued the forceful intertwining of pop and politics both on the level of symbolic representation and through the tangible development of independent infrastructures – collective forms of living, workshops, information media, music labels, artist management. As a co-founder of the “Rainbows Peoples Party” and the “White Panther Party”, he supported the civil rights struggle of the black population of the USA. His actions and radical viewpoints soon came up against a repressive response by the US American state. Due to the possession of 2 joints, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In jail, he wrote, among others, the underground classic “Guitar Army” and “Music & Politics”, which inspired following generations to their own political pop-cultural practice and became a “bible” of the independent music scene. Film director Steve Gebhardt was the personal filmmaker for John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The film includes commentaries from Sinclair, his family, and friends and acquaintances, as well as a series of his improvised poetry performances with blues and jazz musicians.
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