Matthews interviews Aaron Sorkin, Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne for 'Chicago 7' virtual Newsmaker, Feb. 18

National Press Club President Lisa Matthews will interview the writer and two stars of the Netflix original film "The Trial of the Chicago 7" in a virtual Newsmaker that will stream at 8 p.m. EST tonight, Thursday, Feb. 18, on the Club website.

Matthews talks to the movie's writer and director, Aaron Sorkin, and two of its stars -- Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays Abbie Hoffman, and Eddie Redmayne, who plays Tom Hayden. She and the artists discuss the legacy of the Chicago 7 and the movie’s relevance today following a year of massive protests and America’s long-overdue reckoning with systemic racism.

The interview will be posted on the Club’s website and YouTube Channel two days before the 51st anniversary of the verdict in the trial of seven organizers of a protest that brought thousands of demonstrators to the streets of Chicago in the summer of 1968 to oppose the Vietnam War and what they believed was a broken democratic system. The interview will be accessible to both the media and members of the general public free-of-charge.

"It’s been more than 50 years since the trial’s end, but the film feels remarkably relevant, particularly in the wake of the massive protests sparked by the death of George Floyd just last year," Matthews said.

Launched a few days before the start of the 1968 Democratic National Convention and months after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the Chicago demonstration was supposed to be a peaceful protest. Instead, it turned into a violent clash involving the police and the National Guard.

At the order of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, protestors were met with extraordinary force. By the convention’s end, hundreds of protestors had been injured, 668 protestors had been arrested, and eight of the protest’s organizers – including activists Abbie Hoffman and Thomas Hayden - were indicted for violating the Rap Brown law and put on trial. They became known as the Chicago 8 -- and after a mistrial was declared for Bobby Seale -- the Chicago 7.

The movie is available now on Netflix and will air for free viewing on YouTube, Saturday, Feb. 20, which is the 51st anniversary of a verdict in the trial.