Future History: 1968 - Season 1

Popstar Eartha Kitt attends a luncheon at the White House. She has no idea that the day will end in a massive scandal, and she will have to risk her career and become the first symbol of protest in 1968.

First cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin dreams of the Moon, just like the twelfth American astronaut Neil Armstrong. By 1968, space race between USSR and the USA reaches its height, but no one is 100% ready to reach the Moon orbit.

Martin Luther King Jr., a minister and notable civil rights leader, is having a crisis of faith. He's devoted his life to peaceful protest, but young people turn a deaf ear to his appeal and resort to violence. And, on top of that, someone keeps making death threats against King and eventually moves from words to action.

Iconic French film director François Truffaut is making a romance movie and does not care about politics - not until the government removes his friend and mentor Henri Langlois from the post of the Cinémathèque Française director. Truffaut is furious. Suddenly, he finds himself in the thick of a protest.

It has been three years since the Vietnam War broke out, and the U.S. is confident that victory is just around the corner. However, in early 1968 a surprise attack by the Viet Cong raises concern about the U.S. Army achievements. A distant confrontation between General Võ Nguyên Giáp and prospective Secretary of Defence Clark Clifford will decide the outcome of the war, although in quite a paradoxical way.

All over the world, young people are protesting. In Germany, Rudi Dutschke is calling for anti-war demonstrations and buying dynamite. In the U.S., Mark Rudd takes over Columbia University. Meanwhile, in France, Daniel Cohn-Bendit is advocating free access to female dormitories, and he can't even imagine the scale of the crisis those demands are about to spark.

France is on fire. Students and workers take to the streets across the country. May 1968 fascinates the well-know French film director Jean-Luc Godard; he founds himself at ground zero of the events in Paris — and even starts his own war against the Cannes Film Festival.

Muhammad Ali, a world boxing champion, refuses to join the U.S. army and fight in Vietnam — and now he is an enemy of the state. He is stripped of his boxing license and sentenced to five years in prison. In 1968 Ali is going to make a fresh start and join this uphill battle.

The American people fail to understand the goal of the Vietnam war. Famous journalist Walter Cronkite sets off to Saigon in order to be his own eyewitness. His opinion matters. Even the future of the 1968 presidential election depends on it.

The United States is about to face a presidential election. Young senator Robert Kennedy, brother of the assassinated President John Kennedy, is also running for office. He presents a progressive program and suddenly becomes a frontrunner — and a target for his haters.

In May 1968, it seems like everyone in France took to the streets. Millions of students and workers are protesting, calling for changes — and for the resignation of Charles de Gaulle. The general strike takes him by surprise. While the legendary general is planning his next move, the political crisis reaches its critical point.

Andy Warhol is the trendiest artist in the U.S. Valerie Solanas is an aspiring writer and a radical feminist. Valerie dreams of becoming famous, while Warhol believes that everyone deserves their 15 minutes of fame. Their casual encounter will result in a tragedy — and make it to the contemporary art history.

Andrei Sakharov is the designer of the most destructive weapon on Earth — the hydrogen bomb. He devoted his life to science and did not pay much attention to what's going on around him. But in 1968, the most notable physicist of the Soviet Union suddenly decides to become a dissident.

In 1958, the Manchester United football team died in an airplane crash. 10 years later, Manchester United made it to the final of the European Cup. Team leaders Bobby Charlton and George Best have to do everything they can to win — despite haunting memories, drinking problems and the pressure of fame. 1968 is a truly groundbreaking year for world football.

The world is going crazy about the Beatles, but the musicians are already tired. They decide to leave for India to devote themselves to a new trendy hobby — meditation. American actress Mia Farrow, who has just broken up with her husband Frank Sinatra, joins them. The young people are searching for enlightenment, but instead they discover something they never expected.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is the first popular Soviet author who writes about Gulags. Lately, it hasn't been easy for him to work. His private records have been taken away. The publication of his new books has been postponed — again. KGB is planning an entire operation to undermine the author's credibility. And they have no idea what it may lead to.

Argentinian revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara tried to spark a rebellion in Bolivia, but later was captured and killed. In 1968, Che becomes a symbol of the protest movement, but very soon his image turns into a brand which has very little to do with reality.

Alexander Dubček, the new leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, is implementing democratic reforms. The people support him on this path, but the USSR authorities don't. The Prague Spring has come — but winter follows.

Young activists in the USA and the USSR have different problems, but they use same tactics. Jerry Rubin nominates a pig for president of the United States and demands that the Vietnam War be stopped. On the other side of the world, Natalya Gorbanevskaya and her friends set up a demonstration at the Red Square to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Everyone loves Fidel. The leader of the Cuban revolution is very popular among leftist intellectuals all over the world. In 1968, the year of rebellious spirit, a lot is expected of Fidel Castro by high-profile people around the world: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jean Paul Sartre, Julio Cortazar, Parisian students and Czechoslovak politicians. But Castro has problems of his own. He has to make a hard choice: whether to support revolutionary ideas or become another Latin American dictator.

The sexual revolution has swept the United States and Europe. A few years in, liberation in cinema, music and fashion becomes the norm — though it still faces stigma in proper society. In 1968, Pope Paul VI confronts sexual liberation, while a young student Linda LeClair stands up for her right to love.

James Brown is the "Godfather of Soul" and the most popular black singer in the U.S. He is the idol of thousands of African-Americans. In 1968, when silence is no longer an option, Brown throws himself into politics. Brown sets up a concert during the summer in the midst of the Vietnam war.  Meanwhile, a young Michael Jackson grows up emulating Brown and goes on an audition at Motown Records.

Italian reporter Oriana Fallaci goes to Mexico to cover student protests right before the Opening Ceremony of the Mexico Olympics. What she doesn't know is that in only a few hours, she will be shot by policemen and left to die in a street full of dead bodies.

Yves Saint-Laurent is the main French couturier. His collections are extremely popular and similarly expensive. But the young designer is getting tired of high fashion. He is looking for another source of inspiration — and suddenly discovers it in the May 1968 events in Paris.

It's the height of the Cold War between the USSR and the U.S. But even under these heavy circumstances, there's still room for high-flying relations — in the air. In 1968, the Soviet airline Aeroflot launches its first direct flight from Moscow to New York. This straight line connects the lives of the citizens in both countries, including cosmonaut Alexei Leonov and actress Elizabeth Taylor.

American feminists are fighting for their rights, but they have different approaches. Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Helen Brown calls for her readers to be beautiful and independent and to enjoy their lives. Journalist Robin Morgan believes that women have to get involved in politics. Together with her friends, Morgan organizes a protest against the Miss America beauty pageant and the values supported by Brown.

Young independent director George Romero is shooting his first movie. He's trying to create a masterpiece on zero budget. It will be a story of a zombie apocalypse that will become a cult movie, create a new genre and reflect the problems that the American society faces in 1968.

In 1968, the US Department of Defense initiated the development of a dependable computer network - the first prototype of the Internet. At the same time, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore launch the Intel Corporation that would grow to make a computer revolution. Inventor Douglas Engelbart will hold the first presentation of a computer mouse, a Skype prototype and graphic windows. These three phenomena will create the modern media world as we know it.