Following their marriage in 1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged two bed-ins for peace in protest to the Vietnam War, one in Amsterdam and the other in Montreal. The Montreal bed-in was originally supposed to take place in New York City, but Lennon was not permitted to enter the country due to his 1968 conviction in England for possession of cannabis. The New York bed-in was then moved to the Bahamas, but after one night in the stifling heat Lennon and Ono moved the event to Montreal. The bed-in for peace was filmed and edited into the documentary Bed Peace, which Ono has now made available for viewing online for free until August 21 at midnight in response to the recent unrest in London. You can watch the film now embedded here below.

The film features Lennon and Ono in conversation with a variety of eclectic guests including satirist (and Lil’ Abner creator) Al Capp, comedians Dick Gregory and Tommy Smothers, Rabbi Abraham L. Feinberg, psychologists Timothy Leary & Rosemary Leary, filmmaker Jonas Mekas, quiltmaker Christine Kemp, and many more. Among the songs featured in Bed Peace are “Give Peace a Chance” and “Instant Karma” by the Plastic Ono Band, “Remember Love” and “Who Has Seen the Wind” by Ono, and Lennon’s acoustic version of the original Beatles tune “Because” (which was covered by Alice Cooper in the notorious 1978 film version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band -FACT).

Bed Peace has never been released on DVD, but did receive a VHS release back in 1991, which is now out of print. New and used copies of the videotape can still be purchased at Amazon.

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[Source: Imagine Peace via Boing Boing]