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News Release

Last modified: Tuesday, February 10, 2009

IU ArtsWeek offers sneak preview of documentary film ‘The People Speak’

Conversation with directors, actor from the film to follow screening

What: Sneak preview of selections from The People Speak and conversation with directors Anthony Arnove, Chris Moore and actor Michael Ealy
When: Tuesday, Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave., Bloomington
Admission: This event is free and open to the public.

"We didn't want to hear the words of the people in the White House, we wanted to hear the words of people who were picketing the White House. Educators, the anti-war protesters, the socialists and anarchists...in other words, the people who gave us whatever liberty and democracy we have in this country."

-- author, social activist and director Howard Zinn

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 10, 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- At one of the signature events of Indiana University's ArtsWeek 2009, Bloomington audiences will have the opportunity to view scenes from a compelling, not-yet-released documentary film, The People Speak, Feb. 24, at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

The screening will be followed by a conversation with one of the film's actors, Michael Ealy (Miracle at St. Anna, Sleeper Cell), and two of the film's three directors: Anthony Arnove (author, Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal, and co-author, Voices of a People's History) and Chris Moore (producer, Good Will Hunting, Project Greenlight). Howard Zinn, whose books A People's History of the United States and Voices of a People's History inspired the documentary, is also a director of the film. The People Speak will be released in theaters this year.

The film shares the stories of rebels, dissenters and visionaries from throughout U.S. history -- from lesser-known activists to iconic personalities such as Sojourner Truth and Martin Luther King Jr. -- whose response to social injustice was to take action that improved life for people around them. The filmmakers hope viewers of the documentary will come away inspired by the power of ordinary people to enact momentous change in the world.

"Our hope is that by telling these stories so often excluded from our history books, we will give audiences a new sense of the importance of ordinary people in speaking up and making change -- not just in the past but today," said Arnove.

Appearing in the film, among others, are Allison Moorer, Benjamin Bratt, Chuck D, Danny Glover, Darryl McDaniels (DMC), Don Cheadle, Eddie Vedder, Jackson Browne, Jasmine Guy, John Legend, Josh Brolin, Kerry Washington, Lupe Fiasco, Marisa Tomei, Matt Damon, Pink, Q'orianka Kilcher, Rosario Dawson, Sandra Oh, Staceyann Chin and Viggo Mortensen. "These artists bring to life the poems, songs, letters, petitions and speeches from our nation's rich tradition of dissent," said Arnove.

Says Zinn in the film: "Democracy is in dissent. Democracy is in resistance. Democracy doesn't come from the top, it comes from the bottom."

View a trailer from The People Speak at https://www.thepeoplespeak.com/. For more information, see https://howardzinn.org/.

About ArtsWeek

Since its inception in 1984, ArtsWeek has grown into a significant annual showcase for the wealth of creative work at IU and in the city of Bloomington, with prestigious performers, artists and journalists from across the country taking part in ArtsWeek activites. Over its 25-year history, ArtsWeek has extended artistic expression in startling new directions, from graffiti to 3-D computer modeling, ballet to computer-enhanced dance performance, ice carvings to sound gardens, poetry to a pie-laden table sculpture in the middle of the street.

For more information and a complete schedule of events, see the ArtsWeek 2009 Web site at https://artsweek.indiana.edu For more general information on ArtsWeek, please contact ArtsWeek coordinator Sherry Knighton-Schwandt at sks@indiana.edu.

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