Yoko Ono has extended the time in which John Lennon fans can watch the movie Bed Peace online for free. The film is a newly-minted together 70 minute documentary, footage of her and Lennon's famous bed-in for peace at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Canada in 1969.
Bed Peace is available for viewing at imaginepeace.com and will be until August 21, 2011. Initially the viewing was for the August 12-14 weekend only but on the website she says there was a clamor for a longer viewing period and she decided to extend the viewing period. She hasn't said when the film will be made available commercially or what she plans to do with it.
"I have had so many of you contact me and ask if we can keep Bed Peace playing for longer, so I have decided to extend the deadline for another week – until midnight on 21st August – so everyone can get a chance to see it," Ono wrote on her website.
Bed-in for Peace in Montreal
Lennon and Ono were married in March 1969 and staged a peace bed-in at that time in Amsterdam, where they went to honeymoon after marrying in Gibraltar. It was the height of the Vietnam War and the two decided staging another bed-in for peace in America, in New York, would be their next move. However in May of '69 John Lennon was denied entry to the U.S. because of a marijuana conviction from the year before.
They tried a peace bed-in in the Bahamas but the heat was too much and after a day flew to Montreal and began their bed-in for peace there on May 26. They believed that with the help of media covering the event that something positive could be accomplished. "In 1969, John and I were so naïve to think that doing the Bed-In would help change the world," the now-78-year-old Yoko Ono said on imaginepeace.com.
"Well, it might have. But at the time, we didn’t know. It was good that we filmed it, though. The film is powerful now. What we said then could have been said now. In fact, there are things that we said then in the film, which may give some encouragement and inspiration to the activists of today."
Give Peace a Chance
The cameras are on the couple right from landing at the airport in Montreal and their checking through Canadian immigration They are followed into the hotel and what follows is John Lennon and Yoko Ono being the center of a media frenzy that saw them grant dozens of interviews with world media.
Dressed in white, the two stayed in bed there seven days - they recorded the now iconic 'Give Peace a Chance' in bed - and were visited not just by media but by fans and by the likes of Petula Clark, Dr. Timothy Leary and Tommy Smothers, who played guitar when they recorded their ode to peace.
"Good luck to us all. Let’s remember that 'war is over, if we want it'," Ono writes. "It’s up to us, and nobody else. John would have wanted to say that."
References in Story:
- Guardian U.K.; Yoko Ono gives Bed Peace a chance; Aug. 15, 2011.
- Imaginepeace.com website.
Join the Conversation