Activism is one of the most exciting human adventures. It takes you on an emotional rollercoaster, with a mix of love, action, humour, and the suspense found in the best detective stories. So, it’s not surprising that some of the best campaigns of our time have been put on screen. Documentaries are obviously the preferred format, but some feature films have also captured the dramatic power of social movements.
We have compiled this selection below, in an attempt to bring you exciting material that can inspire you and possibly start discussions among yourselves on how to advance your cause further.
We have only included social campaigns and kept out electoral campaigns. This is obviously a fascinating area to look into in a separate piece of work, well worth doing in the future.
On LGBTQI campaigning
PRIDE
The film depicts a group of lesbian and gay activists who raised money to help families affected by the British miners’ strike in 1984, at the outset of what would become the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners campaign. It is a fantastic depiction of grassroots activism, courage, alliance-building, and more. Every campaigner will be totally fascinated by this incredible journey.
The Normal Heart
“To win a war, you have to start one.” This adaptation of Larry Kramer’s play depicts the rise of the HIV/AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of the founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. It’s a fascinating account not just of how a global struggle began, but also offers deep insights into how strategies are built and what drives the choice of tactics (in this case, confrontational vs soft).
Milk
From the acclaimed director Gus Van Sant comes the powerful and inspiring story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be voted into major public office in America. While mainly the story of electoral campaigning, it focuses extensively on public communication, alliance shaping, and team building—all elements that are also essential for public campaigning.
When We Rise
ABC’s 2017 groundbreaking miniseries introduces us to activists’ lives, loves, and struggles covering a 40-year battle for LGBT equality.
120 BPM
120 Battements Par Minute is a passionately made ensemble movie about ACT UP in France in the late 80s, the confrontational direct-action movement which demanded immediate, large-scale research into Aids. The movie compellingly combines elegy, tragedy, urgency, and a defiant euphoria.
To campaigners, it provides a near documentary outline of a public campaign plan, including volunteer management, direct action, and media relations. Fascinating insights!
Dallas Buyers Club
Also on access to medicines, the Dallas Buyers Club takes on the true story of accidental AIDS activist Ron Woodruff, whose cross-border smuggling network brought much-needed treatments into the hands of HIV and AIDS patients neglected by the medical establishment. The film also talks about how communities form, resist, and survive.
Other campaigns
Bayard Rustin
Who knew that the architect of 1963’s momentous March on Washington, Bayard Rustin, was a gay man, as open as one could be these days. He was one of the greatest activists and organizers of his time. He challenged the structural racism of the USA, but also the homophobia inside his community. He made history, and in turn, he was forgotten. Rustin shines a long overdue spotlight on the extraordinary man who dared to imagine a different world, and inspired a movement in a march toward freedom.
In addition, this film features long sequences of how the March was organised. There are many great takeaways for any campaign organizer.
All the beauty and the bloodshed
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a 2022 American biographical documentary film about photographer, artist, and activist Nan Goldin. Interspersed throughout the film is Goldin’s most recent work, fighting the Sackler family for their role in causing the opioid epidemic. This film is about artivism and how to combat greenwashing in the arts scene. It is an ultimate masterclass in campaigning and a moving portrait of one of today’s greatest artists.
Miss Sloane
In the high-stakes world of political power-brokers, Elizabeth Sloane is the most sought-after and formidable lobbyist in D.C. But when taking on the most powerful opponent of her career, she finds winning may come at too high a price.
This action-packed and suspense-filled drama unravels the deep connections between lobbying and campaigning. A lot of strategic thinking going on.
NO!
Pablo Larraín’s Oscar-nominated movie dramatises Chile’s Berlin Wall moment in 1988. It tells the full A-Z story of the campaign led by a young advertising executive that ousted dictator Pinochet. It is not only a brilliant action and suspense-packed movie, but it is also a great pedagogical material to show how values-based messaging works, whereas “facts and figures”-based activism doesn’t. A must-see 101 course in campaign communication.
Selma
The 2014 movie tells the story of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. It sheds a powerful light on the power of non-violence as a resistance strategy.
Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom
Based on South African President Nelson Mandela’s autobiography of the same name, the film chronicles his early life, coming of age, education, and 27 years in prison before becoming president and working to rebuild the country’s once segregated society.
Gandhi
The film covers Gandhi’s life from a defining moment in 1893, as he is thrown off a South African train for being in a whites-only compartment, and concludes with his assassination and funeral in 1948. The film centres around the strategy of non-violent resistance.
Dear White People
This American film tells the story of escalating racial tensions at a fictitious, prestigious Ivy League college from the perspective of several black students. A great and fun insight into activism on campus, far enough from clichés.
Promised Land
Gus Van Sant continues exploring social struggles with this intimate and suspenseful depiction of how a community tries to organise its resistance against the interests of big business.
Battle in Seattle
The film depicts the protest in 1999, as thousands of activists arrive in Seattle, Washington, in masses to protest the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999. The movie takes an in-depth look at several fictional characters during those five days. Specifically, it portrays conflicts between the peaceful protesters and a minority committing property destruction, whose actions were widely covered by the media.
Thank you for smoking
This fierce satirical movie unravels the processes of ruthless marketing communication. A crash course in mastering propaganda.
Made in Dagenham
The story of the car manufacturer Ford’s sewing machinists’ strike of 1968 in Dagenham, England, which played a significant role in the passing of the Equal Pay Act 1970 in the UK.
Cry Freedom
The true story of Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness movement, killed during apartheid by the South African Police in 1972, and of Donald Woods, a supportive dissident journalist. A powerful film about protest, direct action, the power of the media, and many more aspects of campaigning, along with a very welcome history lesson!
The Lady
The Lady is the extraordinary story of Myanmar freedom fighter Aung San Suu Kyi and her husband, Michael Aris. It is also the epic story of the peaceful quest of the woman at the core of Myanmar’s democracy movement.
Suffragette
SUFFRAGETTE is the first ever feature film to tell the inspirational story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement who risked everything in the fight for equality. Courage and perseverance at their best!
Iron Jawed Angels
In a similar vein, this film focuses on the American women’s suffrage movement during the 1910s and follows women’s suffrage leaders Alice Paul and Lucy Burns as they use peaceful and effective nonviolent strategies, tactics, and dialogues to revolutionize the American feminist movement to grant women the right to vote.
Malcolm X
The Black Panther founder’s biopic includes powerful scenes of how public support played out in the fight against segregation.
Chi-Raq
Heated discussions are in sight over this modern-day adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago. A most unusual campaign tactic that sees women withhold sex from their husbands as punishment for fighting. Campaigning is about finding creative ways!
Hunger
Featuring an intense performance by Michael Fassbender, Hunger, about IRA member Bobby Sands’s 1981 prison hunger strike, is an unflinching, transcendent depiction of what a human being is willing to endure to be heard.
Even the rain/Tambien la lluvia
As a director and his crew shoot a controversial film about Christopher Columbus in Cochabamba, Bolivia, local people protest plans to privatize the water supply.
Bred and Roses
The fight for labor rights as lived and waged by Latino workers in the USA, as filmed by Ken Loach, a longtime champion of social struggles.
Margarita with a Straw
A young, wheelchair-bound woman with Cerebral Palsy moves from India to New York City to attend NYU. In the midst of this journey, she unexpectedly falls in love, but now must simultaneously navigate her desire to fit into the world around her.
And why not….
While not exactly on public campaigning, these films are great stories about resistance, courage, innovation, and a lot more that define campaigners. If your mood is down, invite some friends over for a movie night!
The Hunger Games
While leading to revolution, it is, in one sense, about being called into activism and rising to the challenge, and about overcoming injustice and corruption—all themes that resonate in many/most countries around the world. Plus, in Thailand, they explicitly picked up the three-finger salute for their protests, and it was banned in real life!
Erin Brockovich
An unemployed single mother becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brings down a California power company accused of polluting a city’s water supply. With the Oscar-winning performance of Julia Roberts, no less!
