The television version of How to Start a Revolution (A 52minute cutdown) will be playing on Current TV in the US today and tomorrow Nov22/23rd. There are several screenings throughtout the day on Wednesday 23rd but check the schedule here for your timezone http://current.com/schedule/ Current TV can be found on most cable and satellite providers including Comcast. More info is available on their website http://current.com/

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Best wishes

Ruaridh

The film opens at San Francisco’s Roxie Cinema tonight Wednesday October 19 at 9.30pm and again on Sunday October 23 at 5pm as part of SF DocFest. It will also be at the Annenberg Auditorium at Stanford University on Friday October 28 at 6pm as part of the United Nations Film Festival.

Ruaridh will be speaking at TEDx in San Francisco on Tuesday October 25 talking about the power of nonviolent political change and the work of the Albert Einstein Institute with the organization’s Executive Director Jamila Raqib.

The film also bagged a Special Jury Award in Ottawa at the One World Film Festival last weekend.

Buy tickets to the SF Docfest Screenings here

Dan Siegel’s: Film Review – How to Start a Revolution (Huff Post)

Excerpt: The film demonstrates that nonviolent resistance is anything but passive, and when properly planned and deployed, it utilizes a strategic mix of political social, psychological and economic weapons to destabilize illegitimate regimes.

How to Start a Revolution tells often overlooked stories and case studies of successful civil disobedience over the past two decades.
Read the full article here.

Elizabeth Renzetti’s: To start a revolution, read Gene Sharp’s primer on peaceful protest (Globe and Mail)

Excerpt: “The reason more people don’t know about Gene Sharp is because both the right and left have rejected him,” says Ruaridh Arrow, the Scottish journalist and filmmaker who spent two years making How to Start a Revolution. “On the left, there’s a suspicion of the emphasis on goals and strategies.”

Mr. Arrow, keeping an eye on non-violent action around the world, says Dr. Sharp’s influence is quietly transmitted through protest movements from Lower Manhattan to the villages of Syria.
Read the full article here.

And we also were written up in RealScreen.  Read the full article here.

Raindance Film Festival is Europe’s leading independent film festival. Listed by Variety as one of the world’s top 50 ‘unmissable film festivals’.

Look here for a full list of winners.

We were very proud to accept the award.  Thank you to the judges and everyone for their support.  Next is SF DocFest!

How to Start a Revolution, from filmmaker Ruaridh Arrow, follows Gene Sharp, the author of a book about non-violent protests who gives his first interview on camera. Current acquired the film from TVF International.

It will be used to launch Current’s New Year, New Revolution season scheduled for January, with head of acquisitions Amy-Louise Norris on the look-out for more films on the subject.

She told C21: “It’s a UK premiere. It’s a doc that’s got a lot of buzz about it and about a topic that’s really relevant at the moment. It just fit our DNA and our spirit; it felt right for our channel.

“Revolution has been the dominant news story of the year, from Egypt to Syria to Libya. It seems like nations around the world are starting to believe in themselves, and that’s the sort of thing Current wants to get behind.”

How to Start a Revolution is due to air on Current on January 1.

Source: C21 Media

REALSCREEN (the world’s leading magazine dedicated to factual film-making) has selected us as one of their ‘must-see’ films of MIPCOM in Cannes next week.

The influential PROSPECT MAGAZINE covered the film today.

Reviews have appeared by Will Travers in WAGING NONVIOLENCE and Ali May at DFG.

Plus TIME OUT has picked the film as one of this week’s ‘Critics Choice’.

All this helps spread the word!

Many of the production team were also there including Ruaridh Arrow (in full Scottish kilt!), the editor Mike Crozier and the film’s producer Rick Shaw.

We had no idea what would happen or how the film would be received, it was the first time that it had been seen by anyone except the production team and our friends, families and work colleagues. But as the credits rolled the packed auditorium gave the film an amazing heart-stopping two minute standing ovation.

Ruaridh hosted a Q&A session with all three participants in the film and the entire audience stayed to listen to Gene, Bob and Jamila talk about the Albert Einstein Institution and the work they do.  It was amazing to see these three people who we have been looking at for so long in the edit suite come up on stage and talk about their work.

And at the end of the week the film walked away with Boston Film Festival’s prizes for BEST DOCUMENTARY 2011 and the 2011 MASS IMPACT AWARD.

More can be read on the Waging Non-Violence site here.

The World Premiere appropriately enough will be in Gene Sharp’s home town of Boston as part of the 2011 BOSTON FILM FESTIVAL.  The presentation will be on Sunday September 18 at 3pm at the Stuart Street Playhouse.  If you’re within reach of the Greater Boston area it would be great to see you, several members of the production team will be  there including director Ruaridh Arrow and editor Mike Crozier. Click here to buy tickets.

The film will have its European Premiere a few days later in London at RAINDANCE which runs from September 28 to October 9.  RAINDANCE is Europe’s leading independent film festival, described by The Guardian as “the indie-est festival this side of the Atlantic” and HOW TO START A REVOLUTION has been selected to play in competition.  There are two screenings one on Sunday October 2 at 7pm and a second on Monday October 3 at 2pm, both at the Apollo Cinema in Piccadilly Circus. Buy tickets here

After these two premieres the film heads off on a tour of festivals including OTTAWA, the UNITED NATIONS FILM FESTIVAL and to SAN FRANCISCO (dates to be announced) before finishing up at Florida’s FORT LAUDERDALE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL at the amazing Cinema Paradiso with a screening at 5.30pm on Wednesday November 9, 2011. And the television version of the film will be presented to international television buyers at Cannes’ MIPCom conference in early October by our awesome distribution colleagues at TVF International.

None of this would have been possible without our generous contributors - we’re so grateful for their support in helping to make all this happen.

Please keep an eye on this website  for more updates in the coming weeks.

We presented on a lively panel organised by Shooting People and Sheffield Doc/Fest talking with a number of other film makers and representatives from crowd funding sites.

At the start of the panel they played a short trail of the film in the Princess Anne Theatre on the big screen and it was the first time we’ve seen it on anything bigger than a regular TV – what a great experience! We even got a cheer at the end of the trail.

We couldn’t resist taking a snap Ruaridh with a big gold BAFTA mask.

For more information about the event go to the BAFTA listing.

In August we’ll be taking it through post-production, sound dubbing and colour correction in order to produce the finished versions. Also as a direct result of your incredible help we’ve been been able to commission new music from Emmy-award winning composer John Keltonic. Plus we’ve also been able to secure the rights to the archive material we need and to clear it for longer and wider than we originally anticipated.

The DVDs, T-shirts and all the other goodies we’ve promised will be produced in the Autumn and we’ll be mailing them when the film comes out later in the year.

The film has had an amazing amount of interest and enthusiasm from distributors both in the US and the UK and we’ll have more information on both festivals and the film’s distribution later in the summer.