TRANSMISSIONS // "broadcasting the past in future sense."

Co-presented by Amoeba Music. Hosted by programmer Jake Isgar.

An unforgettable masterpiece of late-’60s counterculture, Robert Downey Sr.’s PUTNEY SWOPE remains a vital provocation on race, pop culture and America.

Putney Swope, the only African-American exec at his firm, is unexpectedly elected its president and turns the industry on its ear through a series of outrageous, taboo-busting TV commercials (strewn throughout the film like comedic landmines.) As Swope becomes the Generalissimo of Madison Avenue, Downey takes no prisoners and skewers the entire political spectrum. Essential viewing. (American Genre Film Archive)

Directed by Robert Downey Sr. (A Prince). United States. 1969. 84 minutes. DCP courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive.

PUTNEY SWOPE was restored by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.