The War at Home

This film is an exceptional archival document — a small manifesto of peaceful resistance, a lesson in radical democracy, and a testament to hope and solidarity across generations. The various people who speak to the camera seem to send us a message from the past: you are not alone; the history of resistance to war and imperialism is rich with the accumulated experiences of those moved by the same deep values of pacifism and justice.

Made shortly after the end of the Vietnam War, emotions were still running high and the ashes of insurrection still smoldering. The present moment echoes, almost anachronistically, the reality depicted in the film: the overwhelming power of propaganda, economic and financial interests concealed behind moral principles, the contemptuous paternalism of the powerful towards the will of the people, the violence of the state unleashed whenever true democracy tries to speak — reaffirming, time and again, the omnipotence of capitalism in our so-called “democratic” systems.

But what feels essential to hold on to today, while watching the gripping chronicle of a protest movement that set the United States ablaze and left a lasting mark on contemporary history, is this conviction: that active protest is necessary. We have a duty to fight in order to preserve a radical vision of democracy — a true sharing of power and resources in the public interest. The new configurations of the global order, now openly oligarchic, predatory, and criminal, dividing up the world to better destroy it, are now visible and unapologetic. Yet the power of the people remains the same, despite war technologies and dystopian surveillance systems. We must remind ourselves of this constantly, and that is precisely what these messages from our human comrades of the past are for.

Naomie Décarie-Daigneault
Tënk's Artistic Director