La Commune (Paris, 1871)

March 1871. While a journalist from the Versailles television broadcasts soothing, distorted information, a communal television station emerges, an expression of the insurgent people of Paris. In a theatrical setting, more than 200 performers embody, before a mobile camera working in long takes, the characters of the Commune — particularly the residents of the Popincourt neighborhood in the 11th arrondissement — and give voice to their questions about social and political reforms. By focusing on the common people — street children, workers, artisans, small business owners, civil servants, soldiers, intellectuals, clergy, and bourgeois figures — in 1871 Paris, Peter Watkins' _La Commune_ reminds us that history is a living, ever-evolving material, and that at any moment, we can become lucid, conscious, and responsible protagonists within it.