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How to Fight Back!

How to Fight Back!

For the elections, we did DEMOCRACY AND ITS DISCONTENTS, for the inauguration we did EAT THE RICH. And now, in this era of the lawless Trump-Musk power grab and their brazenly cruel and incompetent actions, we ask: how far can civilian resistance and revolt go? These films look at the long game fight against oligarchy and increasingly autocratic governments, and for the protection (or restoration) of democracy across the globe.

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How to Fight Back!
  • Us Kids

    Directed by Kim A Snyder • Documentary • 2020 • 86 minutes

    From Kim A. Snyder, director of the Peabody Award-winning documentary Newtown, comes an insightful, rousing coming-of-age story of a generation of youth leaders determined to take the reins and fight for justice at a most critical time i...

  • You Got to Move: Stories of Change in the South

    Directed by Lucy Massie Phenix and Veronica Selver • Documentary • With Myles Horton, May Justice, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Bernice Robinson • 1985 • 85 minutes

    Lucy Massie Phenix's You Got to Move: Stories of Change in the South is about individuals who have dared to change the world for the be...

  • Before Stonewall: Restored Edition

    Directed by Directed by Greta Schiller; Co-Directed by Robert Rosenberg • Documentary • With Rita Mae Brown, Ann Bannon, Martin Duberman, Allen Ginsberg, Dr. Evelyn Hooker, Audre Lorde, Harry Hay • 1984 • 87 minutes

    In 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenw...

  • I Am Somebody

    Directed by Madeline Anderson • Documentary • 1970 • 30 minutes

    In 1969, black female hospital workers in Charleston, South Carolina went on strike for union recognition and a wage increase, only to find themselves in a confrontation with the state government and the National Guard. Featuring An...

  • She's Beautiful When She's Angry

    Directed by Mary Dore • Documentary • With Chude Pamela Allen, Judith Arcana, Nona Willis Aronowitz • 2014 • 92 minutes

    A provocative, rousing and often humorous account of the birth of the modern women’s liberation movement in the late 1960s through to its contemporary manifestations in the new...

  • Sir! No Sir!

    Directed by David Zeiger • Documentary • 2006 • 84 minutes

    In the 1960's an anti-war movement emerged that altered the course of history. This movement didn't take place on college campuses, but in barracks and on aircraft carriers. It flourished in army stockades, navy brigs and in the dingy to...

  • The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It

    Directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Tejada-Flores • Documentary • With Ed Asner • 2002 • 57 minutes

    Millions of people from Allied countries fought to liberate Europe from Hitler’s grip during World War II . Yet 40,000 Americans refused to shoulder weapons in “the good war.” 

    Narrated by Ed Asn...

  • Last Summer Won't Happen

    Directed by Peter Gessner & Tom Hurwitz • Documentary • With Abbie Hoffman, Paul Krassner, Tom Osha Neuman, Phil Ochs • 2002 • 58 minutes

    Shot in 1968, one year after the Summer of Love, LAST SUMMER WON'T HAPPEN is a critical yet sympathetic examination of the anti-war movement in New York City....

  • Integration Report 1

    Directed by Madeline Anderson • Documentary • 1960 • 20 minutes

    INTEGRATION REPORT 1 examines the struggle for black equality in Alabama, Brooklyn and Washington, D.C., incorporating footage by documentary legends Albert Maysles and Ricky Leacock, protest songs by Maya Angelou, and a speech by M...

  • Reconstruction of Occupation

    Directed by Jan Šikl • Documentary • 2021 • 99 minutes

    For 30 years, director Jan Šikl has collected amateur films from families in his community. Then one day, he is brought archival materials - stock shot by Czech military cameramen, which remained hidden for over half a century. Jan accomplis...

  • The First Year

    Directed by Patricio Guzmán • Documentary • 2023 • 96 minutes

    THE FIRST YEAR is a jubilant record of the 12 months following the election of Chile’s first socialist president, Salvador Allende. Director Patricio Guzmán travels the country, meeting workers who no longer have to answer to the capr...

  • The Battle of Chile (Part 1)

    Directed by Patricio Guzman • Documentary • 1975 • 96 minutes

    On September 11, 1973, President Salvador Allende's democratically elected Chilean government was overthrown in a bloody coup by General Augusto Pinochet's army.

    Patricio Guzmán and five colleagues had been filming the political dev...

  • '63 Boycott

    Directed by Gordon Quinn • Documentary • 2017 • 30 minutes

    On October 22, 1963, more than 250,000 students boycotted the Chicago Public Schools to protest racial segregation. Many marched through the city calling for the resignation of School Superintendent Benjamin Willis, who placed trailers, ...

  • We Are The Radical Monarchs

    Directed by Linda Goldstein Knowlton • Documentary • 2018 • 86 minutes

    Set in Oakland, a city with a deep history of social justice movements, WE ARE THE RADICAL MONARCHS documents the Radical Monarchs - an alternative to the Scout movement for girls of color, aged 8-13. Its members earn badges ...

  • Boom Boom

    Directed by Laurie Lassalle • Documentary • 2022 • 110 minutes

    "I meet Pierrot in the fall of 2018. We protest together in the heart of the "Gilets jaunes" movement. The earth trembles and so do our hearts. Our bodies mingle with thousands of others who express their anger in the street every Sa...

  • The Case of the Grinning Cat

    Directed by Chris Marker • Documentary • 2004 • 58 minutes

    In his newest film, French documentarian and cinema-essayist Chris Marker reflects on French and international politics, art and culture at the start of the new millennium. In November 2001, the filmmaker became intrigued, as did many ot...

  • Class of Struggle

    Directed by The Medvedkin Group • Documentary • 1969 • 37 minutes

    In 1967, Chris Marker and Mario Marret (under the aegis of SLON) produced A BIENTOT J'ESPERE , which documented a strike and factory occupation-the first in France since 1936-by textile workers at the Rhodiaceta textile plant in B...

  • Be Seeing You

    Directed by Mario Marret, Chris Marker • Documentary • 1968 • 39 minutes

    From 1967 to 1976 Chris Marker was a member of SLON (the 'Company for the Launching of New Works'), a group based on the idea that cinema should not be thought of solely in terms of commerce. 1967 was also the year an impor...

  • Dykes, Camera, Action!

    Directed by Caroline Berler • Documentary • 2019 • 61 minutes

    Lesbians didn't always get to see themselves on screen. But between Stonewall, the feminist movement, and the experimental cinema of the 1970s, they built visibility and transformed the social imagination about queerness. Filmmakers B...

  • And She Could Be Next: Part One - Building the Movement

    Directed by Grace Lee, Marjan Safinia • Documentary • With Stacey Abrams, Rashida Tlaib • 2020 • 111 minutes

    “Episode One: Building The Movement” opens with the powerful reminder that “women of color have been the backbone of our communities forever.” An energetic montage of modern American civi...

  • Stories of A

    Directed by Charles Belmont and Marielle Issartel • Documentary • 1973 • 89 minutes

    Shot in Paris in 1973, this feminist film on the fight for abortion rights was banned as soon it was released. A large-scale game of hide-and-seek ensued, as activists created an underground distribution network,...

  • Taking Back the Legislature

    Directed by Hong Kong Documentary Filmmakers • Documentary • 2021 • 46 minutes

    TAKING BACK THE LEGISLATURE unspools over the course of a single day – one that marked a critical moment in the 2019 Hong Kong protests against the new extradition law.

    On July 1, Hong Kong marked the 22nd anniversar...

  • Inside the Red Brick Wall

    Directed by Hong Kong Documentary Filmmakers • Documentary • 2021 • 88 minutes

    In 2019, the world was captivated by pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Demonstrators, many with colorful umbrellas, faced teargas and rubber bullets for calling to an end to increasing Chinese control of Hong Kong....

  • Myanmar Diaries

    Directed by Myanmar Film Collective • Documentary • 2023 • 70 minutes

    MYANMAR DIARIES is comprised of short films by ten young anonymous Burmese filmmakers, combined with emotionally harrowing citizen journalism documenting the junta’s brutality, as well as courageous resistance to it.

    The film...