Movies: Activism

In light of jailed activist Umar Khalid withdrawing his petition from the Supreme Court amid repeated adjournments, journalist Ravish Kumar captures the contours of Delhi in a video letter addressed to him. What comes out is a critical piece reflecti...

A young Venezuelan freedom fighter seeks asylum in the United States, but his heart remains in the fight back home....

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has established himself as the most impactful world leader of this millennium. To mark his 25th anniversary of being in power, this two-hour CBC News original documentary looks back at his life, from the Cold War to the...

This BBC documentary chronicles the life of folk/soft-rock singer John Denver through his rise with The Chad Mitchell Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, his subsequent stardom, his popularity decline, and his tragic death at age 53....

A countercultural icon, Hoffman is remembered as one of the greatest radicals of the civil rights and anti-war movements of the sixties. In this film, which documents the first interview he gave in 1980 when he decided to reveal his identity after sp...

The Real Story of Fake Democracy. Filmed over three years in five countries, FREEDOM FOR THE WOLF is an epic investigation into the new regime of illiberal democracy. From the young students of Hong Kong, to a rapper in post-Arab Spring Tunisia and...

...

This documentary addresses the legacy of the military dictatorship in Chile by sharing the story of young fighters killed by the Pinochet regime as a backdrop to the history of the military dictatorship and the ongoing social conflict in that area. T...

A film about climate activism in the suburbs....

The activist group Empty Cages (Tomma Burar) practices civil disobedience. They carry out well-planed actions against industrial animal husbandry and release a few individuals to bring attention to a problem. Follow a group of activists in behind clo...

An initiative discusses a videotape in which a group of activists portrays themselves and their work against the "nuclear power mafia." After argumentatively and polemically confronting the economic and political power of the energy industry, the act...

Megg Rayara overcame obstacles that should not exist to get where she is. Get a Doctorate Degree is a very important victory not only for her, but also for the transvestite community. For the first time in Brazil, a black transvestite wins a Doctorat...

Three animal rights activists find themselves involved in a horrendous scheme of morals set up by a psychopath known only as The Vet....

Mère-Bi is a 2008 documentary film about Annette Mbaye d'Erneville by her son, director Ousmane William Mbaye. The first Senegalese female journalist, she was deeply involved in the development of her country. Both an activist and a non-conformist, s...

...

Director Steve James returns to his home town of Hampton, Virginia to tell the story of how the trial of a young basketball star left a city divided....

In the 1970's, filmmakers Tom Burger, Bill McKiggan and Chuck Lapp began documenting the history and current struggles of inshore fishermen in Atlantic Canada to form a union. Until 1979 it was illegal for fishermen to form a union in Nova Scotia. Th...

...

Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were both on the leading edge of protest in the 1960’s. Rubin became an entrepreneur and the chief spokesman for the Baby Boom generation. Hoffman remained active in environmental issues and grass roots politics, maintai...

Emmett Till was brutally killed in the summer of 1955. At his funeral, his mother forced the world to reckon with the brutality of American racism. This short documentary was commissioned by "Time" magazine for their series "100 Photos" about the mo...