Emile de Antonio

Released
Full name:Emile Francisco de Antonio
Date of birth:14. 05. 1919
Date of death:15. 12. 1989
Age:70† Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1970s
State:New York
Support
Marxism Anti-War
Emile de Antonio

Biography

Emile de Antonio was a Marxist American documentary filmmaker known for Point of Order (1964), In the Year of the Pig (1968), and Millhouse (1971). In 1975, while making Underground with co-directors Haskell Wexler and Mary Lampson, he interviewed fugitive members of the Weather Underground; on May 28, 1975 the Department of Justice and a federal grand jury subpoenaed all three filmmakers, demanding their footage to help locate the fugitives. De Antonio resisted on First Amendment and journalistic-privilege grounds, backed by a public campaign of film-world figures (Jack Nicholson, Shirley MacLaine, Warren Beatty, Mel Brooks, Daniel Ellsberg and others), and the subpoena was withdrawn — a First Amendment victory in which no filmmaker was charged or jailed. He is listed among grand jury resisters on the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee's 1984 "Stop the Grand Jury" roster.

Case

Charges: No criminal charges — federal grand jury subpoena for Underground documentary footage (1975)
Sentence: Verdict as recorded: No — never charged; the grand jury subpoena was withdrawn after a First Amendment / journalist's-privilege challenge. He was never jailed.
Convicted: No

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