Film Director: John Lennon Was A Peacemaker

Film Director: John Lennon Was A Peacemaker



TORONTO (Wireless Flash) – John Lennon wasn’t just a music maker, he was also a peace maker – and the director of an upcoming Lennon documentary says it’s time the Beatle got some credit. Paul McGrath, whose documentary John & Yoko’s Year of Peace will be released on DVD September 17, says Lennon is responsible for ending the riots at People’s Park in Berkeley in 1969, but he never got credit for it. While doing research for the film, he and producer Alan Lysaght, came across rarely seen footage of hippies listening to a radio broadcast where Lennon was asking the rioters to stop. At the time, the ex-Beatle and his wife Yoko Ono were holding their “love-in” at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel. McGrath says few people realize Lennon calmed down the crowds because they’ve never seen the footage. But don’t expect to see it in the documentary either. McGrath says ABC owns the rights to the footage, and he didn’t have enough of a budget to put it into the documentary.

Fri 05-17-02