Sixty eight – 10 years that shook the world

This documentary series is imbued with the decade's fieriness – it recounts the mind-numbing dash of these years when everything seemed possible, yet whose heritage is still so polarizing.
50 years later, what remains of the 1968 movement that turned the world upside down? From Berkley to Paris, from Berlin to Mexico and from Warsaw to Tokyo, the world in 1968 is marked by multifaceted and simultaneous contestations, led by a new generation.

Type (Documentaire / Documentaire fiction / Série documentaire)DocumentaryGenre en anglaisHistoryWritten byDon Kent, François-Xavier Destors Directed by Don Kent EditingToby Trotter, Claire VandewalleCinematographyDon KentOriginal score Bruno CoulaisSupported by CNC, DRK, Histoire, Procirep, Région Ile-de-France, RTS, ZDF DiffuseurARTE France Distributed by ARTE France Year2018Duration2x90min

On December 24, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8, orbiting the Moon, captured the Earthrise. For the first time in history, humanity saw the planet in its entirety.

What did they see?

A world in transition, marked by the effects of the post-war economic miracle soon to be jolted by the oil shock. It was a world increasingly self-reflective, where daily life was transformed by the revolution in transportation and technology, and where the early signs of globalization were emerging.

A world in turmoil, fighting, at war, and resisting—from Berkeley to Paris, Berlin to Mexico City, and Warsaw to Tokyo—facing endemic and multifaceted dissent from a new generation critical of societies they view as colonial, authoritarian, rigid, hierarchical, repressive, and moralizing.

A world fragmented by the challenge to bipolarity and imperialism, characterized by the rise and fall of collective ideologies, the emergence of new societal models and actions, and novel experiences that foster a new global awareness but also lead to violent contradictions.

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