Richards’ camera documented and supported the peace movement in California during the 1960s when protests against nuclear testing and the escalating war in Vietnam were strong. Working with the founders of the organization (which included his wife, Alice Richards) he documented the founding of Women for Peace (Women for Peace). He filmed peace actions against nuclear testing and the early Vietnam war (Everyman, Hot Damn!) and against the draft in the period when the war escalated, (Decision in the Streets, No Greater Cause). As part of his interests in supporting the peace movement, Richards and his wife Alice made two films in the Soviet Union in 1961 focusing on women and children in a socialist society (Women of Russia, Far From Moscow).

Everyman
1962, 21 min., black/white, 16 mm.
Everyman is the name of a boat built in Sausalito by the Bay Area peace movement to sail into Pacific Ocean nuclear test zones to protest nuclear testing. The film covers Everyman's first and only voyage on May 27, l962 when it sailed out the Golden Gate only to be stopped twenty miles out by the U.S. Coast Guard who arrested the crew and impounded the boat. Protests included sit-in demonstrations at the U.S. Marshall's office where Joan Baez took part, singing "We Shall Overcome." The crew was eventually sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Women for Peace
1962, 24 min., black/white, 16 mm.
Women for Peace covers the founding of the organization and many of the early peace demonstrations that it sponsored. With narration by Frances Herring, a founder of Women for Peace, the film features the 1961 and 1962 anti-nuclear demonstrations in California and Nevada.

Hot Damn!
1965, 15 min., black/white, 16 mm.
Hot Damn! is a short film with unique footage of the Bay Area peace movement at a time when the Vietnam War was escalating rapidly. Segments include the Berkeley troop train demonstrations; peace marches from Berkeley to Oakland, ending in massive confrontation with local police; the Oakland Army Induction Center protests, draft card burnings, and the sit-ins of 1964-65.

Decision in the Streets
1965, 43 min., black/white, 16 mm.
Decision in the Streets shows the tumultuous beginnings of the Bay Area civil rights and peace movements from 1960 to 1965. Segments include 1960's anti-House Un-American Activities Committee(HUAC) demonstrations; Hands-off-Cuba demonstrations during the Bay of Pigs invasion and Cuban missile crisis in l962 & 1963; the 1963 march of 15,000 people protesting the Birmingham church bombings; mass arrests of protestors sitting in at the Sheraton Palace Hotel over racist hiring practices; the l964 anti-Goldwater Republican convention protests; the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, California, and more.

No Greater Cause
1968, 19 min., black/white, 16 mm.
No Greater Cause chronicles the height of the anti-Vietnam war movement in the Bay Area. Footage shows the massive confrontations between police and anti-draft protestors in l967; the rally of 100,000 against the war at Kezar Stadium in April, l967; and other events. Vietnam veteran David Duncan told Kezar demonstrators, "Protestors are the best friends the soldiers in Vietnam have."

Peace Movement Footage Not In Finished Film
The footage in this section (16mm, color) covers two demonstrations in San Francisco on November 15, 1969 and April 24, 1970 in which tens of thousands marched against the war in Vietnam.

Women of Russia
1962, 36 min., color, 16 mm.
Women of Russia resulted from a 1961 tour of the Soviet Union which focused upon the work, housing, education, child care and medical facilities available to women in a socialist society. This film, part one of two, covers Moscow.

Far from Moscow
1962, 33 min., color, 16 mm.
Far From Moscow shows the conditions of women and children in Soviet areas outside Moscow, with emphasis on the towns of Sochi on the Black Sea; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; and Irkutsk, Siberia. The film focuses on work, housing, education, child care and medical facilities for women and children.

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