Members of the Catsonville Nine in action on May 17, 1968

Photo by: Chris Farlekas

“What would you do to stop a war?” This is one of the questions local filmmakers Joe Tropea and Skizz Czyzk set out to ask in their upcoming feature-length antiwar documentary, “Hit and Stay.”

One of the most aggressive answers to the question — and the core of the film’s narrative — is the story of the Catonsville Nine, the historic group of Catholic anti-Vietnam protesters who went to this sleepy Baltimore suburb and drenched 378 draft files in homemade napalm and set them on fire to protest the Vietnam War.

All in a name

The documentary, which is still in production, takes its title from a phrase from the era that means “to do an action and then stay around to be arrested, go to trial, and get media attention drawn to the issue,” explained co-filmmaker Joe Tropea.

According to Tropea, activists used to have different terms for their protests, like “stand-by action” or “serious action.” One of the film’s achievements is documenting the evolution of these terms in relation to activists’ beliefs about the effectiveness of different strategies, as they changed over time. “Eventually, some activists decided it would be better to live to fight another day than to willingly go to prison by hanging around to be arrested,” said Tropea.

“After the first few actions, they switched to ‘hit and split’ actions or ‘hit and resurface later to claim responsibility’…. They even had variations like ‘carry-out’ actions where the activists took draft files with them and then wrote letters to each potential inductee saying ‘We have your file. We hope you won’t re-register with Selective Service.’”

Though the terms and methods for activism have changed – or perhaps because they have – Tropea said he and Czyzk “decided to go with the term and title ‘Hit and Stay’ because it speaks to the subjects of the film in the long term. Many of them never stopped putting their necks on the line and are still standing up for what they believe in today.”

Seven members of the Catonsville Nine on May 17, 1968 (Photo by Chris Farlekas)

In addition to archival footage of protesters’ staged actions – including the 1968 Catonsville Nine burning – Tropea and Czyzk’s documentary features interviews with antiwar movers and shakers from the 60s all the way up to today.

“I started thinking I was making a film about the Catonsville Nine,” said Joe Tropea. “I soon learned that there were many actions afterwards all over the country.” The Baltimore Four. Milwaukee 14. The D.C Nine. The Camden 28.

In addition to participants in the Catonsville Nine action, interview subjects include members of the Baltimore 4, and Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn.

“I just started to…meet all these people involved in these actions who wanted their stories told,” said Tropea, who explained that many of the people involved in the Catonsville Nine and consequent anti-war actions during the same time period, such as politician and activist Ted Glick and activist Father Paul Mayer (recently arrested in Senator Joe Lieberman’s office during a sit-in to raise awareness for a single-payer health bill), are still active today protesting healthcare and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Evolution

The project was conceived while Tropea was doing oral histories for his masters thesis in public history, “and it took off from there,” he explained. After convincing Czyzk, who Tropea calls “a natural filmmaker,” to accept a promotion from cameraman to co-director, the final necessary ingredients to make the film fell into place.

Skizz Czyzk (left) and Joe Tropea (right) waiting to interview Amy Goodman on the set of Democracy Now! (Photo courtesy of Joe Tropea)

“I sort of worked away on him like dripping water,” Tropea said. “Eventually he realized he had as much stake in the movie as I did.”

The filmmakers, who began working on the project in 2007 and hope to release it in 2011 (pending a financing campaign), call their film the “definitive documentary about the Catonsville Nine and the actions that followed.” Tropea said they’d like to show the documentary in the film festival circuit and would love the opportunity to air it on PBS and the Sundance Channel in addition to a DVD release.

The main obstacle standing in the way of the documentary’s release now is practical not creative. Tropea and Czyzk have been able to fund the film up until this point, but have launched a fundraising campaign to help finance the editing and distribution process. They’ve given themselves until September 11 of this year to raise $20,000 to make it happen, and have come up with $2,000 so far.

Impact

What do they hope to accomplish through the project?

Tropea said he hopes the documentary will make people think about “the price that they [wars] take out on our society and other societies.” He said he also hopes that it will help viewers consider the potential impact of the anti-war movement today.

As Noam Chomsky pointed out to Tropea, this movement is bigger in numbers now then it was during Vietnam—a point that struck Tropea as interesting. To “a certain degree the antiwar movement stopped the [Vietnam War],” noted Tropea, suggesting how powerful the impact of antiwar protest could be today.

What one message does Tropea hope the documentary will ultimately relay to anyone who watches it? “What I’m hoping it does is sort of start a conversation about the wars that we wage, the cost that it has, and how we react to it.”

Counter-protesters jeer supporters of the Catonsville Nine at demonstration during their trial, October 1968 (Photo by William Morganstern)

View the trailer for “Hit and Stay” here.