On the right sat Paul Krassner, co-founder of the Yippie Party, and on the left sat Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party. And in the middle, there was filmmaker Brett Morgen, who was a mere fetus when the epochal cum apocalyptic Chicago Democratic Convention went down in 1968. But he probably felt the rumblings through the umbilical cord back then, since some 40 years later, following an opening at Sundance 07, then a theatrical run, Chicago 10, a largely animated documentary about the 1969 Chicago Conspiracy Trial that evolved from the Convention, is coming this fall to PBS' Independent Lens series.

At the recently concluded Television Critics Association conference in Beverly Hills last week, Independent Lens producer Lois Vossen moderated the discussion among Krassner, Seale and Morgen; Seale was a co-defendant in the trial, and Krassner wrote several of the re-enactment scenes in the film. Morgen had opted to engage history differently, telling the story of the trial not through archival footage and on-camera testimonials, but through animation. He explained that he wanted to re-introduce this moment in history to a new generation, creating a film "not steeped in nostalgia, but in the present." He explained that some of those who had lived through that period asked him why he had chosen the music of Rage Against the Music and Eminen instead of Phil Oaks and Judy Collins. "I told them, ''Where Have All the Flowers Gone?' is not our anthem.'" Former SDS member Todd Gitlin, now a professor at Columbia University, had taken Morgen to task at Sundance for not adding a postscript to the film indicating that "We lost." But at the press conference, Krassner mused, "I don't think in terms of winning or losing. An experiment is successful just by trying it. We revealed who was behind the curtain." When asked about the relative lethargy in the midst of an unpopular war today as opposed to the global activism of 40 years ago, Seale noted , "A military draft would change things. We had to defend ourselves back then; that was part of the politics at the time."

All politics may be local, but they're also global, and in the US President Election Year, Independent Lens will air Sabiha Sumar's Dinner with the President: A Nation's Journey, in which Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf reflects on his vision for democracy.