The FBI was an unaccountable and untouchable government institution until 1971, when a group of ordinary citizens uncovered a range of illegal domestic spying programs being run by the bureau.  On March 8, 1971, a group of people calling themselves The Citizen’s Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into a small FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, took every document on file there and then shared them with the American public.  This breach of security exposed COINTELPRO, the FBI’s illegal surveillance program that involved the intimidation of law-abiding American citizens and led to the country’s first Congressional investigation of U.S. intelligence agencies.  The group was never caught, but 43 years later these everyday Americans – parents, teachers, citizens – publicly reveal themselves for the first time and share their story in the documentary 1971.