MEDIA CONTACT:
Jackie Flaten
650-468-6252
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
North Dakota Native’s Documentary Offers Refresher Course on
Original
‘Zip to Zap’ as Organizers Prepare for 40th Anniversary
Fete May 16
Student
film ‘Zap Revisited’ explores origins of the 1969 ‘Zap-In’: a light-hearted
college picnic gone awry, drawing thousands of partiers, international
attention and ND Guardsmen
FREMONT, CA – MAY 13, 2009 -- Recent publicity
about the North Dakota “Zip to Zap” 40th anniversary might leave some,
particularly the younger generation, wondering what all the fuss is about. Zap Revisited, a documentary film by
North Dakota native Chris Breitling, offers a look at this unlikely event through
the perspective of those who experienced it first-hand. An anniversary
celebration will be held at the site of the original “Zip to Zap”,
also known as the “Zap-In”, Saturday, May 16.
“There are many sides and conflicting opinions
as to what really happened during the Zip to Zap,” said Breitling. “While my
film doesn’t tell the whole story, it does shed some light on this complicated
subject without oversimplifying it. What’s been most satisfying for me is
hearing people who were there in 1969 say they think I got it right.”
Early research led Breitling to several
individuals who had intimate knowledge of the Zip to Zap origins, among them
Charles Stroup, who was then North Dakota State University (NDSU) Student Body
President, and Kevin Carvell, editor of NDSU’s student newspaper, The Spectrum. Carvell wrote the
tongue-in-cheek article that promoted a spring break picnic in Zap as an
alternative to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The article, picked up by the national
press, unwittingly spurred a chain of events leading to prairie mayhem and N.D.
Guardsmen clashing with partying students.
A 1983 graduate of West Fargo (N.D.) High
School, Breitling was a graduate student in film at Chicago’s Columbia College
when he produced the documentary.
“I shot it with a borrowed camera during my
Christmas break in 1990, driving to Zap without much
of a plan, shooting scenery in sub-zero temperatures and lining up interviews
on the fly,” he said. “I was really just learning the process of documentary
filmmaking at the time and probably made a lot of mistakes. I was also lucky to
land some great interviews with colorful characters and finding choice snippets
of news footage.”
Producing Zap
Revisited was an early career milestone for Breitling, who is now the
Production Manager and Editor for InHealth, a San
Francisco Bay Area 24-hour cable health and wellness educational channel. The
documentary has been featured on Prairie Public Television, and in 1992
Breitling was invited to screen it at a conference on oral history held by the
State Historical Society in Bismarck. A copy of Zap Revisited is also on file in the State Archives.
Interest in the 40th anniversary of the Zip to
Zap spurred Breitling to dust off the old master tape and prepare a new DVD
version of the documentary, which is being sold by Zap residents during the
town’s anniversary festivities. Anyone interested in ordering a DVD of Zap Revisited can order one online at www.ZapRevisited.com, contact Breitling
directly at cbreitling@gmail.com or call 650-468-6252.
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