14th November 2014
We Are Many: film screening and Q&A with Director Amir Amirani
Amir Amirani's We Are Many was the first of three termly screenings of films with a governance and human rights theme. The film played to a full house in Keynes Hall, King's College, and was followed by a stimulating Q&A.
About the film
We Are Many is the never-before-told story of the largest demonstration in human history, and how the movement created by a small band of activists changed the world.
On February 15 2003, up to 30 million people, many of whom had never demonstrated before, came out in nearly 800 cities around the world to protest against the impending Iraq War. The New York Times called this movement the 'Second Superpower'.
How did this day come about? Who organised it? And was it, as many people claimed, a total failure?
This fearless documentary is the remarkable inside story behind this first global demonstration, and its unreported legacy. The film features testimony from a unique cast of direct participants, including organisers, activists, high-profile figures, and of course the public, filmed in seven countries - Italy, Spain, Egypt, Sweden, Australia, UK, and USA.
Contributors include Danny Glover in the US, actor Mark Rylance in the UK, film director Ken Loach, Prof. Noam Chomsky, musicians Brian Eno and Damon Albarn, writer and Vietnam Vet Ron Kovic (author of Born on the 4th of July), Rev. Jesse Jackson, Richard Branson and Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff Col. Lawrence Wilkerson.
Amir Amirani charts the birth and growth of the new people power movement, now sweeping the world, taking us up to the Arab Spring and Syria, a little over 10 years after that historic day.
Amir Amirani - Director
Over the past 15 years, Amir Amirani has made films for some of British television’s most prestigious series, including Arena (And The Winner is), Timewatch (Concorde – A Love Story), Picture This (Hallelujah Hendrix), Correspondent (Letter to America and Addicted to Arms) and Newsnight. Two of his documentaries have been nominated for an Amnesty International Award and One World Broadcasting Trust Award respectively.
Amirani joined the BBC in 1992 as a Graduate Production Trainee and, two years later, set up Amirani Media with his brother Taghi. Amir has produced and presented programmes for BBC Radio 4, including In Business, From Our Own Correspondent, The Today Programme, and documentaries on Iranian comedy and poetry. He has written for The Guardian, New Statesman, New Scientist, Business Traveller Asia, and the Economist Intelligence Unit. We Are Many is his first feature film.
Download the.
Read the .