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(USA: 2000, 174 mins. 87 mins. per episode) |
Thursday March 20, 2008, 5:30pm and 7:30pm This documentary explores how popular movements have used weapons very different from guns and battles to fight against political regimes and military forces. Strikes, boycotts, petitions, parades, walkouts, civil disobedience, sit-ins, nonviolent sabotage and blockades have all been used to frustrate rulers' efforts to suppress the people. Entire societies have been transformed, either suddenly or gradually, by nonviolent action. Specific movements in the 20th century and the ideas underlying nonviolent action are the focus of this documentary production. |
Note: A Force More Powerful is made up of two episodes.
We will be showing one episode at 5:30 and the second episode at 7:30
The documentary begins in 1907 in India as it follows the evolution of Gandhi’s civil disobedience campaign. It then shows sit-ins and boycotts that desegregated Nashville, Tennessee; the nonviolent campaign against apartheid in South Africa; Danish resistance to the Nazis in World War II; the rise of Solidarity in Poland; and the momentous victory for democracy in Chile. A Force More Powerful introduces several extraordinary, but largely unknown individuals who drove these great events forward.
Few of those who relied on nonviolent sanctions in the 20th century did so because of a principled attachment to nonviolence. For some, weapons were unavailable. Others had seen a violent insurrection fail, at devastating cost to life and property. They had no desire to be passive - they wanted passionately to overturn the rulers or the laws that subjected them, and they found the means through nonviolent action.
One great misconception about conflict is that violence is the ultimate form of power. In conflict after conflict throughout the 20th century, people have proven otherwise. A Force More Powerful dramatizes how ordinary people throughout the world, working against all kinds of opponents, have taken up nonviolent weapons and prevailed.
A Force More Powerful explores one of the 20th century's most important but least-understood stories - how nonviolent power has overcome oppression and authoritarian rule all over the world. Narrated by Ben Kingsley, and nominated for an Emmy, it premiered on PBS in September 2000. Download free study guide available here.
Episode 1: Thursday March 20, 2008, 5:30pm Only
• 1960s Civil Rights in Nashville, Tennessee
• Gandhi and India in the 1930s
• South Africa in the 1980s
Episode 2: Thursday March 20, 2008, 7:30pm Only
• 1940s Danish Resistance to the Nazis
• 1980s Solidarity Movement in Poland
• 1983 Chilean Workers Resisting General Pinochet
Guest Speakers: Representatives from the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center will lead a discussion on non-violence after each screening.
Discussions to Follow Each Screening. Please join us.
Producer's Web Site: www.aForceMorePowerful.org