Review of “The People Speak”
YES! Magazine, Fall 2010.
YES! Film Picks: The People Speak
by Robert Jensen
The People Speak (http://www.thepeoplespeak.com/)
Directed by Anthony Arnove and Chris Moore, 2009, 150 min.
History typically is taught through the “great man” approach—focusing on presidents, generals, and tycoons—wrapped in an ideology that asserts the nobility of all things American. Rarely do we hear from ordinary people who resisted those great (white) men.
No one has done more to challenge the standard account of U.S. history than the late Howard Zinn, whose book, A People’s History of the United States, is a perennial best-seller. The new documentary film, The People Speak, based on the original documents collected in the companion volume Voices of a People’s History of the United States, brings Zinn’s insights to the screen at a time they are needed more than ever.
Zinn and Anthony Arnove, co-editor of the Voices volume, assembled a first-rate cast with the help of Matt Damon, Zinn’s longtime friend. The actors’ readings of those original documents onstage at Boston’s Majestic Theatre bring to life the people and ideas that have animated struggles for social, political, and economic justice.
We recognize some of these historical voices. Kerry Washington provides a sassy reading of “Ain’t I a Woman,” capturing the anger, contempt, and sadness of Sojourner Truth’s challenge to racism and sexism.
Others are anonymous, such as the member of the Industrial Workers of the World, whose analysis of World War I, read by Viggo Mortensen, still rings true: “This war is a businessman’s war, and we don’t see why we should go out and get shot in order to save the lovely state of affairs which we now enjoy.”
The timing of this project—The People Speak was originally broadcast on the History Channel in December 2009—took a bit of the edge off the sad news of Zinn’s death a month later. It’s wonderful to watch him wrap up the performance by pointing to the evidence for hope in “small acts multiplied by the millions” that make social movements and create change.
-----------------------
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center in Austin. He is the author of All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice, (Soft Skull Press, 2009); Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (South End Press, 2007); The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege (City Lights, 2005); Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (City Lights, 2004); and Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream (Peter Lang, 2002). Jensen is also co-producer of the documentary film “Abe Osheroff: One Foot in the Grave, the Other Still Dancing,” which chronicles the life and philosophy of the longtime radical activist. Information about the film, distributed by the Media Education Foundation, and an extended interview Jensen conducted with Osheroff are online at http://thirdcoastactivist.org/osheroff.html.
Jensen can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu and his articles can be found online at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/index.html. To join an email list to receive articles by Jensen, go to http://www.thirdcoastactivist.org/jensenupdates-info.html.