The Dryden will screen the ominous documentary Gimme Shelter (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin, U.S. 1970, 91 min., 35mm).

The landmark documentary about the ill-fated Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway on December 6, 1969. Only four months earlier, Woodstock had defined the love generation, which now lay in ruin on a desolate racetrack six miles outside of San Francisco. Before an estimated crowd of 300,000 people, the Stones headlined a free concert featuring Tina Turner, Jefferson Airplane, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and others. Due to concerns about security, members of the Hells Angels biker gang were asked to help maintain order. Instead, an atmosphere of fear and dread arose, leading ultimately to the stabbing death of a fan. What began as a flower-power love-in had degenerated into a near riot; frightened, confused faces wondering how the love generation could, in one swift, cold-blooded slash, become a generation of disillusionment and disappointment. "There's no way to escape the image on the screen, nor deny its truth. We blew it at Altamont; Gimme Shelter lets us watch ourselves blowing it, and makes us understand how and why. It's a lot harder than it looks to make a film as good as this one." — Rolling Stone (1970)

[source: Dryden website, 2015-Jul-15]