Person
John Sinclair
Flint, Michigan, USA
As an emerging young poet in the mid-1960s, Sinclair took on the role of manager for the Detroit rock band MC5. The band's politically charged music and its Yippie core audience d…
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As an emerging young poet in the mid-1960s, Sinclair took on the role of manager for the Detroit rock band MC5. The band's politically charged music and its Yippie core audience dovetailed with Sinclair's own radical development. In 1968, while still working with the band, he conspicuously served as a founding member of the White Panther Party, a militantly anti-racist socialist group and counterpart of the Black Panther Party. Arrested for distribution of marijuana in 1969, Sinclair was given ten years in prison. The sentence was criticized by many as unduly harsh, and it galvanized a noisy protest movement led by prominent figures of the 1960s counterculture. He was freed on March 9, 1972, by the Michigan Supreme Court when the possession of marijuana law was declared unconstitutional.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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2025
One to One: John & Yoko
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2016
Gimme Danger
Movie
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2010
Requiem for Detroit?
Movie Beat Poet
- 2008
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2007
Off the Road
Movie
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2002
MC5: A True Testimonial
Movie Himself
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1999
MC5: Kick Out the Jams
Movie
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1989
Growing Up in America
Movie Self
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1985
John and Yoko: A Love Story
Movie George Martin
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1971
Ten for Two: The John Sinclair Freedom Rally
Movie Self
