"MARQUETTE PARK II trains its central gaze on the official onlooker: the media [covering the event of a march by the Chicago-based Nazi Party].

"The film's opening structure gracefully orders its priorities, giving us a flag-waving antifascist crazy, followed by Nazi clubhouse antics, displaced in turn by an emblematic TV screen in the center of the frame - a sly comment on the media identity of this event. Later there's a silent shot picturing the arrival of the press corps on the scene .... At Marquette Park, Palazzolo and Rance provide us with priceless scenes of the on-the-spot reporters in the very act of recording their stream-of-consciousness impressions. The process reeks with such schizophrenia that the credibility of on-location truth-telling will never be the same. "The intercutting of the media's presence, the Nazi's activities, and the media reporting of the day unmistakably points up how seriously the press treated an eminently ludicrous display. The earnest, deadpan tone of the reporters and television newsmen granted an aura of historical importance to the Nazi's buffoonery. ... [The film's] high points (which are many) show the real value of documentary." - B. Ruby Rich, Chicago Reader


Note: MARQUETTE PARK and MARQUETTE PARK II may be rented together for the price of $150.