Resistance Is Fertile

They came carrying signs and babies. Eighty-year-olds in sweat suits and 28-year-olds in business suits, staging die-ins and blowing tubas and, sometimes, weeping. On March 20, 2003, thousands of Bay Area residents marched peacefully through San Francisco’s Financial District, protesting America’s invasion of Iraq and bringing traffic to a grinding halt. One of the march’s main organizers was Direct Action to Stop the War, which was founded in October of 2002 and unraveled slowly afterward. In a new documentary, Shutdown: The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the War, Direct Action looks back at what worked and what failed in the spring of 2003, re-creating the fervor of the era through archival footage, photos, newspaper articles, and interviews with activists. With the protests’ recent five-year anniversary and the reinvigoration of Direct Action — not to mention the fact that the Iraq War is still going — Shutdown may inspire some to take to the streets again.
Fri., Aug. 22, 8 p.m., 2008