Bloomington-Normal was home to the longest running underground newspaper in United States history. The paper, called Post Amerikan, ran from 1972-2004 and is now the subject of a feature length documentary film titled Post Amerikan: The Newspaper that Wouldn’t Die.
The film is being shown Friday at the Normal Theater.
Filmmaker Gary Fritz is a biologist by trade, having spent 26 years teaching and researching at Eastern Illinois University [EIU]. His research included the genetics and reproductive biology of malaria mosquitoes, fire ants and yellow jackets. After Fritz retired in 2016 he spent nearly seven years creating the Post Amerikan film. A film that centered on a concept Fritz had only learned about through a chance conversation with a colleague.
“There was a professor that I know at Eastern Illinois University who wrote for the Post-Amerikan, and I think we were just talking about things back in the '60s, that sort of conversation, and he brought up the fact that he had contributed to this underground newspaper,” Fritz said in an interview for WGLT's Sound Ideas.
From there Fritz said he "went down a rabbit hole" on the web where he could not find much information on the long running paper —and that intrigued him even more. Then Fritz contacted another person who happened to be involved which linked him to the Post Amerikan Facebook page which exists today.
“Little by little, I started getting interested in this group of people, and I met them, and I started reading issues of the newspaper because it turned out that Illinois State University had copies,” Fritz said. “I think there's a story here that needs to be told, and I think I'll do a documentary on it. So that's sort of how I got my foot in the door of this idea.”
The filmmaker had some experience with underground newspapers, saying he enjoyed their counterculture narrative in his teen years.
“You know, a different viewpoint on what was happening socially and politically,” Fritz said. “When I read the Post Amerikan, I was touched by its idealism, its audacity, its hopes to make a positive change in the community and at large.”
The Post Amerikan gave away its very first paper on Illinois State University’s Quad in 1972 and had a tumultuous history with the University. Fritz said although the paper was not directly tied to the campus, many of the writers involved across the 32 year period were ISU students, but not all.
“A lot of non-students were involved who were community members, so it was a real mix. And when the paper first started, it was focused on on campus issues. So one of the first things they did was go after the president of ISU at that time,” Fritz said.
The writers at the Post Amerikan did a great amount of digging according to Fritz and what was uncovered was eventually published leading to ISU’s president stepping down from his position.
“The lion's share of work and effort came from the post-American digging around and publishing it in that newspaper, and so that was the first thing they did: get rid of the ISU president, so to speak, and then they even took over his office and sat in his chairs,” Fritz said.
The paper focused on several areas, including national, state and local news. It threw shade at the Bloomington Pantagraph, covering issues such as abortion, marijuana and women's rights, topics the city's mainstream newspaper wouldn't touch. Despite this the paper always had an ISU focus and a community focus Fritz said.
“...Bloomington-Normal issues, drug issues, housing issues, you know, corruption of all levels. They went after the sheriff and the jail system and then they went after the multi-county enforcement agency.”
For many of those involved in the Post Amerikan, the time period became an enormously impactful part of their lives and, according to Fritz, many continued being activists.
“Some of them will say it was the most impactful part of their lives. It had that kind of meaning to them. It completely changed their lives, opened doors, opened their eyes,” Fritz said. “They're all doing something in that vein of action as in being activists, trying to make things better, social activists, political activists. For example, one became the head of the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] for Colorado.”
This somewhat helped the filmmaking process, as the Post Amerikan community has stayed close over the decades, Fritz said. Every time he spoke to one person it opened several doors for further interviews, overall broadening the scope of the project.
Fritz believes the paper has had a lasting impact on the community and beyond, with members of the Post Amerikan, for example, taking part in the beginnings of a statewide rape crisis center.
“There were many other social service efforts at that time from that counterculture community that still exists in Bloomington-Normal, and led to things like Not in Our Town. That movement and others that are alive and well,” Fritz said.
Fritz said making the film wasn't always smooth sailing. Many of the members of the paper are now in their sixties and seventies, as well as dispersed around the country. Fritz said this could make the process challenging at times, but was ultimately worth it.
“Editing the film, putting it together — it is an emotional experience for me and a positive one because I picked something that I thought I would enjoy and I did. That meant something to me,” Fritz said.
He also remarked that if he starts crying during editing, that is generally a good sign.
Nothing quite like it
Since the paper was discontinued in 2004 there have been several like-minded groups that have created similar more short lived papers and established activist groups. Although Fritz is skeptical anything quite like the Post Amerikan will ever exist again.
“There are a gazillion underground newspapers that came and went,” Fritz said. “The reason being that they're usually populated by students, and then students come and go. So the original energy for something like that, whether it's an underground newspaper or a club, usually disappears when the original leaders leave campus and go off. It's hard to replace them.”
Fritz said this will be his last film — He is a biologist, not a filmmaker. He said he just wanted a hobby.
“I am at that age when I think I want to do some other things in my life, and with my wife too, we want to focus on other parts of our life rather than me being squirreled away in my office, spending so much time putting something together right by myself, it was fun though.”
Post Amerikan: The Newspaper that Wouldn’t Die is being shown at the at 7 p.m. Sept. 18 at the Normal Theater, 209 W. North St. Fritz plans to show it at film festivals and then make the film available to stream online.
