Summaries

Synopsis

"Filmmakers Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky have documented protests for more than 30 years. "Working in Protest" collects footage they've captured over those decades, offering a largely chronological compilation of protests from both the right and the left: Klan and white-power rallies; anti-racism and anti-war protests; Occupy Wall Street, Tea Party, and Black Lives Matter events; pro- and anti-Trump gatherings. The film features widely varying opinions and a diverse chorus of voices, all presented without significant judgment. Beginning with a recent event - a KKK rally in celebration of Trump's victory that draws counter-protesters who successfully shut it down - "Working in Protest" then moves back to 1987, to a white-power rally that observers who are interviewed see as an artifact of a different time, a last gasp of the Confederacy. Contemporary events, of course, make their hopeful observations seem sadly naive and the events documented newly relevant." - St. Louis Film Festival

The film also includes scenes from a Klan Rally in 1987, The RNC in Philadelphia in 2000, a short about the Iraq war shot in Times Square in 2004, The RNC in NYC in 2004, The DNC in 2016, and many other political events. By compiling a short personal history of protest in the US over the past 30 years the filmmakers hoped to gain some insight into the impacts of protest. As they lived in NY and North Carolina the film focuses most on the North East and North Carolina. In addition to several Klan events the film includes pieces about the Moral Monday movement as well as a 4 day protest against the North Carolina General Assembly that took place in December 2016. Protesters felt that the legislature was meeting illegally in order to take powers away from the incoming governor. Despite mass arrests the legislature passed the bills that they called themselves into session to pass.