Unfinished Symphony: Democracy & Dissent is a remarkable document of civil disobedience in action. In May of 1971, Vietnam Veterans Against the War planned a protest march retracing the route, in reverse, of Paul Revere’s ride from Boston to Concord. Beginning in Concord, the demonstrators marched to Lexington and tried to camp overnight on Lexington Green. Local politicians, however, voted against accommodating the protestors, and over 400 people—including supporters from the town—were arrested.  Featuring footage of the protest and the war, the film is intercut with interviews with subjects such as historian Howard Zinn, and is set to the music of Henry Goreki’s “Symphony of Sorrowful Souls.” 

Boston-based filmmaker Bestor Cram documents the lives of veterans as they make the uneasy adjustment to civilian life after the war. The film and the soldiers reach an emotional crescendo at the long awaited dedication of the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D.C.