How To Start A Revolution
- Posted: 30th Sep 2011
- Category: Reviews
- Tags: dr gene sharp, egyptian revolution, politics, peace, arab spring
by Ali May
How To Start A Revolution is an intelligent and extraordinarily timely documentary; a powerful portrait of one of the most influential political thinkers of our generation. Possibly the most important man you’ve never heard of - Dr Gene Sharp.
Independently made and for the most part completely self-financed journalist and filmmaker Ruaridh Arrow takes us on a fascinating journey from the lecture halls of Harvard to the jungles of Burma and through the current string of revolutions across the Middle East, tracing Gene’s work and influence to some of the most obscure parts of the globe.
Gene Sharp is the world’s foremost expert on nonviolent revolution and was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, although rather ironically he was beaten by President Barack Obama, whose track record with the nonviolent kind of revolution isn’t quite so hot.
This film is the remarkable untold story of his life’s work, and far from being a dry analysis of a man’s theories Arrow paints us an emotive portrait of an academic genius and his ongoing quest to bring justice to the world. The film takes us deep into Sharp’s Albert Einstein Institution, which far from being an evil CIA front as more than several dictators have claimed, is actually run on a shoestring budget out of a back room in his house by just Sharp himself and his Executive Director Jamila Raqib.
With films like this there is always a danger that they could descend into a monotonous mélange of talking heads and the obligatory grainy archive news footage. On the contrary however, How To Start A Revolution is beautifully shot and powerfully topical. Arrow mixes astonishingly human and intimate interviews with fascinating archive shots which are carefully crafted into a crescendo of liberation and celebration.
It is hard to believe that this elderly and decrepit academic is the man whose influence and work on non-violent revolution stretches from correspondence with Albert Einstein to being credited with the strategy behind the recent toppling of the Egyptian Government. Yet as his life draws to a close he fiercely fights on; his struggle is far from over. In this electronic age of freely available information, Gene’s work no longer has to be smuggled past secret police and is now more than ever inspiring a new generation of protesters living under authoritarian regimes to rise up and take back their freedom.
Released in extraordinary times How To Start A Revolution puts all this into the context of the revolutions happening around us today. It was perhaps luck (if you can call it that) that in the middle of making this film Ruaridh Arrow was caught up in the Egyptian revolution, and trapped for several nights in Tahrir Square while reporting as a freelance journalist. This is a documentary made by a man who has seen Gene Sharp’s teachings in action, with his own eyes.
More than anything though, this is a film about hope, less a step-by-step guide on how to bring down governments as the title suggests and more a lesson in the power and importance of nonviolent revolution in bringing down dictators and overthrowing oppressive regimes.
How To Start A Revolution is screening at the Raindance Film Festival on the 2nd and 3rd October. Find out more at howtostartarevolutionfilm.com