Voices of the People

In December, HISTORY in the U.S. premieres The People Speak, based on the work of historian Dr. Howard Zinn. TV Real caught up co-director Chris Moore and AETN International’s Sean Cohan about the innovative new project.

Some documentary films strive to uncover injustice or wrongdoings; others attempt to give a voice to the disenfranchised or reveal truths. The People Speak achieves all this, but it’s more than a mere film, it’s a labor of love.

To view a clip from The People Speak, please click here.

The People Speak is based on the work of Dr. Howard Zinn, the eminent historian who turned the conventional study of history on its head. Rather than tell history from the point of view of generals and presidents, which Zinn argues gives a “distorted view of the past,” he espouses history from “the ground up,” as he did in his groundbreaking book, A People’s History of the United States, published in 1980. Zinn recounts pivotal moments in history from the point of view of people—often oppressed or victims—seeking change.

In 2004, Zinn joined Dr. Anthony Arnove to publish Voices of a People’s History of the United States, a collection of primary-source documents that range across the length of American history and feature letters, petitions, poems, speeches and songs from women and slaves, soldiers and students and others who have spoken out against injustice.

EMOTIONAL IMPACT
While working on the book, Zinn and Arnove began organizing public performances of some of the selections, and these highly emotional readings inspired the latest incarnation of Zinn’s work—The People Speak. The film weaves archival footage, music, interviews and narrations from Ben Affleck and Zinn, with performances by actors and artists such as Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Danny Glover, Bruce Springsteen, Marisa Tomei and many more, to re-create the emotional impact of these moments in history. The goal of the filmmakers is to present remarkable people from the past to inspire a new generation to act, by illustrating what makes democracy come alive and why civil disobedience needs to be a defining characteristic of Americans.

The People Speak airs on HISTORY in the U.S. in December. Chris Moore, producer of the Academy Award-winning Good Will Hunting, serves as co-director of The People Speak and as executive producer, along with Damon, Brolin, Zinn and Arnove.

Moore explains that teaming up with AETN provided a great boost to the project. “The important thing for us is that the documentary is not meant to be all encompassing. It’s a two-hour experience and we are not going to cover every moment that people shared in the history of America, particularly when we start with Columbus. We wanted to have a partnership with a company that would allow people who were inspired to dig deeper, to learn more, to see full versions of readings and learn more about them,” explains Moore. “So for us, HISTORY was a natural partnership. And Nancy Dubuc and other executives across the company all realized that there is a natural synergy.”

Sean Cohan, the senior VP of international for AETN, has seen brisk interest internationally for both the finished version of The People Speak and for the format. “The outspoken everyday person, folks who aren’t in leadership positions but speak out, these are very universal themes. And it doesn’t hurt that there is some really established Hollywood talent on the production side attached to the project—that sparks interest at the outset.”

Moore acknowledges the timeliness of the project, especially in light of the election of Barack Obama as first African-American president, when many Americans are reflecting how far the U.S. has come as a nation. “I do think that it’s pertinent because people are trying to define what kind of people they are and what kind of country America might be,” says Moore, who doesn’t believe this process of reflection is only happening in the U.S. “People are trying to figure out what does it mean to be German, what does it mean to be Japanese. If you are a woman in Iran right now, what are you doing? And if we can be part of that conversation, if we can remind viewers that everyday people deciding to act has actually [led to] change, that is amazing. The filmmakers on this project are not arrogant to think that the American story is somehow unique or better or more representative of the world at large.”

“There is a sense of timeliness,” agrees AETN’s Cohan. “This moment in time, with key historical anniversaries, such as German reunification, the bicentennials in Mexico and Chile in 2010, the birth of Rome, all drive introspection on the part of communities and people thinking about what it all means.”

That sense of introspection resonated with HISTORY in the U.K. which will be producing a British version of The People Speak and actor Colin Firth has already signed up to be part of it. He, too, was drawn to the passion and emotion that is pervasive throughout The People Speak, and that have made the film such a labor of love.