The System

In May of 1980, the city is locked down and phone lines are dead because of protests and struggles in demand of democracy.

What do you do if your friends, your neighbors, your loved ones are threatened? Killed? Held hostage? Mutilated? Do you hate the people who do these things, vowing to extract revenge? People often forget that the continent of North America has large massive nations. We share borders, people, concerns. And Humanity. This eight-year labor of love from the co-creator of "What The Bleep Do We Know?" explores the personal side of the headlines about crime in Mexico, and the very human responses to that violence, in all their choices. Sometimes the hardest choice is the best choice.

Gema is unemployed. Her daughter Zoe dreams of having wings. Gema wants to fly with her, to get out of this place that asphyxiates, that feeds the fear. Both imagine an identical house painted in red, far away from the noise and close to themselves.

A documentary introduction from musicologist Michael Nupen which places the Symphony and the life and work of Shostakovich in the context of its time. The performance of Symphony No.5 in D minor OP.47 played by The Russian Federation State Symphony Orchesta conducted by Yevgeni Svetlanov.