Movies: Activist

Since her debut at the age of 18, musician, civil rights campaigner and activist Joan Baez has been on stage for over 60 years. For the now 82-year-old, the personal has always been political, and her friendship with Martin Luther King and her pacifi...

A group of highly motivated activists work for years with the goal of exposing the true face of the Nordic fur industry. They sneak into hundreds of fur farms. When their images are publicized it causes media feasts and public outrage, year after yea...

A silver haired woman, Mildred Norman, calling herself "Peace Pilgrim," walked more than 25,000 miles, from 1953 to 1981, on a personal pilgrimage for peace. She vowed to "remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until gi...

Indonesian activist Soe Hok Gie experiences a political awakening during the tumultuous regimes of Soeharto and Soekarno....

This short film reveals the inspiration, motivation and political challenges at San Francisco City Hall during the frantic days leading up to the first government-sanctioned same-sex marriage....

The real dream of the American pastor Martin Luther King was never limited to civil rights. He hoped for a just America, where poverty would no longer have a place. Social equality was for him the only guarantee of a true emancipation. During the las...

Letter from Tokyo is a documentary film that looks at art, culture and politics in Tokyo, Japan. Shot over three months during the summer of 2018, and with a particular focus on grass roots arts initiatives, the use of public space, and queer politic...

The San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Awards presents Jordan Simmons, artistic director of the East Bay Center for Performing Arts, with the Helen Crocker Russell Award for building a better future for young adults through music and cultu...

Following folk musician Joan Baez on her extensive 2008-2009 tour, this film commemorates her career, which has spanned five decades. It includes concert and archival footage as well as interviews with such disparate colleagues, friends and admirers ...

Discovering that sharks are being hunted to extinction, and with them the destruction of our life support system - activist and filmmaker Rob Stewart embarks on a dangerous quest to stop the slaughter. Following the sharks - and the money - into the ...

Depicts Hamka's childhood in Maninjau, West Sumatra, where he showed a great interest in tradition and literature, despite neglecting his education at the pesantren and often clashing with his father. After his mother divorced his father, Hamka went ...

We follow the timid Theo, whose mother stands to lose her disability benefits. Help comes from the effortlessly flamboyant trans woman Kleopatra, a militant animal-identified posthumanist (a.k.a. Rabbit), and their fearless comrades. Together they re...

The story of Dame Whina Cooper, the beloved Māori matriarch who worked tirelessly to improve the rights of her people, especially women. Flawed yet resilient, Whina tells the story of a woman formed by tradition, compelled by innovation, and guided b...

The story of Myo Myint, a political prisoner, who made the transformation from being a soldier in Burma's junta to a pro-democracy activist....

The San Francisco Foundation 2013 Community Leadership Awards presents Nancy Hom with the Helen Crocker Russell Award, made to an under-recognized, mature artist who has made a significant and ongoing contribution in the Bay Area. Nancy Hom, has used...

Writer, journalist, explorer, filmmaker, communist militant, freedom fighter. Truths and lies. A plot twist. Politician. General De Gaulle's shadow. Overwhelmed by the weight of power. The numerous exploits of André Malraux (1901-1976)....

Two young Hong Kong activists reflect on their resistance against China, are forced to decide between long-term imprisonment and refugee camps for a life in exile, while their movement inspires mass protests in the city they love....

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Power of the People is a touching film that gives voice to poet Laura Eklund Nhaga, who is searching for the right way for her to have an impact. The possibilities and impossibilities of activism are countless, and none are indisputably more effectiv...

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