Pursuits of Liberty:
Recent Activist Cinema
If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you." These words from the Gospel of Thomas were relegated to the obscurity of the apocryphal. Yet through every historical period there have been individuals and groups willing to listen to their conscience and courageous enough to act accordingly: willing to stand up against powerful elites in the hope of creating a better world. As the nation conducts new presidential and congressional elections and as we near the first anniversary of the World Trade Organization drama that rocked Seattle last fall, we present four new documentaries that herald efforts made by ordinary citizens to improve the world around them. The issues raised in these films are issues all civil societies must come to terms with: the effect of trade on the environment; issues of agriculture and deprivation, labor and human rights; and the future—always in jeopardy—of democracy around the world.