UNMAKING OF A COLLEGE Director Up Next on THE SOUNDS OF FILM

Director Amy Goldstein Talks THE UNMAKING OF A COLLEGE on Tom Needham’s SOUNDS OF FILM

THE UNMAKING OF A COLLEGE delves into the 2019 crisis at Hampshire College when students led a 75-day sit-in – the longest in American college history – at the new president's office to thwart her underhanded attempt to shut down one of the most experimenting colleges in the United States.

Hampshire College was founded 50 years ago based on the seminal book “The Making Of A College" to radically reimagine liberal arts education. Inspired by this philosophy of critical thinking, a collection of dedicated and charismatic students went on a rescue mission with a coalition of undergrads, faculty, staff, and alumni to find out who was leading the threat to their college, and why.

The thrilleresque unfolding of this singular story goes beyond a single school, and foretells a looming crisis in higher education at a time when many colleges are failing. If Hampshire were to close, what would that mean for colleges and universities throughout the country? This is also a story of young people moved to action, how they were changed forever by their choices and how they are becoming our future leaders.

The film is constructed from a mix of video captured by the students and their social media threads, traditional observational footage, press conferences, news footage, and radio broadcasts. Hampshire alum, Amy Goldstein, weaves their powerful documentation with interviews with students, professors, whistleblowers, and alumni including filmmaker Ken Burns, into a suspenseful and raucous ode to democracy in action.

Amy Goldstein is a director/writer of music videos including Rod Stewart’s Downtown Train, episodic TV with Veronica Clare for Lifetime, and the features The Silencer, East of A starring Adam Arkin, and Rashida Jones (Burning Vision award at Santa Barbara IFF), and the documentary The Hooping Life introduced by Shaquille O’Neal, an Official Selection at the Montreal World Film Festival, released by Cinedigm. She wrote original pilots for HBO, CBS, Fox, Showtime, and MTV and a hip-hop musical for Jersey Films.

TOM NEEDHAM's SOUNDS OF FILM is the nation's longest running film and music themed radio show. For the past 30 years, the program has delivered a popular mix of interviews and music to listeners all over Long Island, parts of Connecticut and streaming worldwide live on the internet at wusb.fm. Past people interviewed for the show include Laurie Anderson, Rory Kennedy, Mike Leigh, Wild Style's Charlie Ahearn, Brinsley Forde, Theresa Rebeck, Astra Taylor, Melanie, Judy Carmichael, Dionne Warwick, author Andrew Solomon, philosopher Peter Singer, Alec Baldwin, Tree Adams, Bob Geldof, and filmmaker Lizzie Borden.

Worldwide listeners can tune into the SOUNDS OF FILM internet livestream on Thursday at 6 pm EST at wusb.fm.