We Are Many | |
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Directed by | Amir Amirani |
Written by | Amir Amirani |
Produced by | Amir Amirani |
Edited by | Adelina Bichis Martin Cooper |
Music by | Brian Eno Simon Russell Alex Baranowski |
Production company | Amirani Media |
Distributed by | We Are Many Productions |
Release dates |
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Running time | 110 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
This article needs to be updated.(October 2022) |
We Are Many is a documentary film about the February 2003 global day of protest against the Iraq War, directed by Amir Amirani. Social movement researchers have described the 15 February protest as "the largest protest event in human history." Tony Blair's ally Lord Falconer says the anti-war march did change things:
"If a million people come out on the streets in the future, then what government is going to say they are wrong now?" [1] [2]
The film's title is an allusion to a line in Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "The Masque of Anarchy". [3] The film features activists, politicians and celebrities who participated in the march, such as Medea Benjamin from Code Pink, Phyllis Bennis from Institute for Policy Studies, Tony Benn, Lindsey German, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Danny Glover, Damon Albarn, Brian Eno, among others. [4]
After a successful launch in the U.K. and Europe, the film is releasing in North America and globally, under COVID-19 pandemic, in virtual cinemas. The release date is September 21, 2020, International Day of Peace, in an event titled "100 Cities. One Night for Peace." Many of the communities and local organizers from the 2003 protest will partake in this special event.[ citation needed ]
Naomi A. Klein is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses, support of ecofeminism, organized labour, left-wing politics and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism, ecofascism and capitalism. As of 2021 she is Associate Professor, and Professor of Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia, co-directing a Centre for Climate Justice.
Susan Abigail Sarandon is an American actress and activist. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award, six Primetime Emmy Awards, and nine Golden Globe Awards. In 2002, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the film industry.
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Significant opposition to the Iraq War occurred worldwide, both before and during the initial 2003 invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition, and throughout the subsequent occupation. People and groups opposing the war include the governments of many nations which did not take part in the invasion, and significant sections of the populace in those that did.
Beginning in late 2002, and continuing after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, large-scale protests against the Iraq War were held in many cities worldwide, often coordinated to occur simultaneously around the world. After the biggest series of demonstrations, on February 15, 2003, New York Times writer Patrick Tyler claimed that they showed that there were two superpowers on the planet: the United States and worldwide public opinion.
Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), also known as International A.N.S.W.E.R. and the ANSWER Coalition, is a United States–based protest umbrella group consisting of many antiwar and civil rights organizations. Formed in the wake of the September 11th attacks, ANSWER has since helped to organize many of the largest anti-war demonstrations in the United States, including demonstrations of hundreds of thousands against the Iraq War. The group has also organized activities around a variety of other issues, ranging from the Israel/Palestine debate to immigrant rights to Social Security to the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles.
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Brian William Haw was an English protester and peace campaigner who lived for almost ten years in a peace camp in London's Parliament Square from 2001, in a protest against UK and US foreign policy. He began the Parliament Square Peace Campaign before the September 11 attacks, and became a symbol of the anti-war movement over the policies of both the United Kingdom and the United States in Afghanistan and later Iraq. At the 2007 Channel 4 Political Awards he was voted Most Inspiring Political Figure. Haw died of cancer in Berlin, where he had been receiving medical treatment.
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On 15 February 2003, a coordinated day of protests was held across the world in which people in more than 600 cities expressed opposition to the imminent Iraq War. It was part of a series of protests and political events that had begun in 2002 and continued as the invasion, war, and occupation took place. The day was described by social movement researchers as "the largest protest event in human history".
The proposed invasion of Afghanistan prompted protests with mass demonstrations in the days leading up to the official launch of the war on October 7, 2001. The continuation of the war in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021 lead to further protest and opposition to hostilities.
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. On his resignation he was appointed Special Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, a diplomatic post which he held until 2015. He has been the executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change since 2016. As prime minister, many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy. He is one of only two Labour leaders to form three majority governments, the other being Harold Wilson.
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An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts, or to anti-war books, paintings, and other works of art. Many activists distinguish between anti-war movements and peace movements. Anti-war activists work through protest and other grassroots means to attempt to pressure a government to put an end to a particular war or conflict or to prevent it in advance.
The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), informally known simply as Stop the War, is a British group established on 21 September 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, to campaign against what it believes are unjust wars.
Amir Amirani is an Iranian-born film director and producer.