Scroll left and right to see all the columns!
| Title | year | director(s) | country portrayed | topic | mins. | type | language | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voices of the Protest (Голоси протесту) | 2014 | Vitalii Atanasov | Ukraine | a left-wing perspective on the Maidan protests and their violent aftermath | 35 | doc | Ukrainian and Russian, with English subtitles | |
| 1971 | 2014 | Johanna Hamilton | USA | the Citizens' Committee to Investigate the FBI revealing government surveillance | 79 | doc | English | |
| Babylon '13 | 2013 | various | Ukraine | nonviolent protest and violent conflict in Ukraine since 2013 | clips | doc | Ukrainian and Russian, with English subtitles | |
| The Term (Срок) | 2014 | Pavel Kostomarov/Alexander Rastorguev/Alexei Pivovarov | Russia | the 2011-13 protest movement and state repression | 83 | doc | Russian | (rough edits of many scenes put online in 2012-13) |
| Where Are You Bucharest? (Bucureşti unde eşti?) | 2014 | Vlad Petri | Romania | the Romanian protests of 2012 | 80 | doc | Romanian, with English subtitles | |
| The Square (الميدان) | 2013 | Jehane Noujaim | Egypt | the 2011 revolution and its aftermath | 108 | doc | Arabic and English with English subtitles | |
| 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film | 2013 | 100 filmmakers | USA | the Occupy Wall Street movement | 97 | doc | English | |
| Before the Spring After the Fall | 2013 | Jed Rothstein | Egypt | the Cairo heavy metal scene before and during the 2011 revolution | 72 | doc | Arabic and English with English subtitles | |
| Egypt Project | 2013 | Steve York/Miriam Zimmerman | Egypt | the decade of democratic activism leading up to the 2011 revolution | ? | doc | ||
| The Targeted Village (標的の村) | 2012 | Mikami Chie | Japan | residents of an Okinawan village against the construction of a U.S. military helipad | 91 | doc | Japanese, English | |
| A Whisper to a Roar | 2012 | Ben Moses | Egypt, Malaysia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Zimbabwe | democracy movements across the world | 106 | doc | various languages, with subtitles in various languages | |
| No | 2012 | Pablo Larraín | Chile | the 1988 plebiscite on Pinochet's presidency | 118 | feature | Spanish | |
| The Protest-Makers (Die Protestmacher) | 2012 | Dieter Rucht | Germany | anti-nuclear and other social activists | 80 | doc | German | |
| Winter, Go Away! (Зима, уходи!) | 2012 | Elena Khoreva/Denis Klebeev/Askold Kurov/Dmitry Kubasov/Nadezhda Leonteva/Anna Moiseenko/Madina Mustafina/Sofia Rodkevich/Anton Seregin/Alexey Zhiriakov | Russia | the protest movement against Putin and for fair elections | 79 | doc | Russian (there is also a version with English subtitles) | |
| Come to Me: Experiences of Nonviolent Activism in Lebanon | 2012 | Manuel Sakmani/Daisy Mohr | Lebanon | nonviolent activism since 1975 | 50 | doc | Arabic with English subtitles | |
| My Neighbourhood | 2012 | Julia Bacha/Rebekah Wingert-Jabi | Palestine/Israel | peaceful protests against evictions | 25 | doc | ||
| One Punch Homicide | 2012 | Steve Kokette | United States, Canada, Australia | one-punch homicides and their prevention | 87 | doc | English | |
| 5 Broken Cameras (خمس كاميرات محطمة, חמש מצלמות שבורות) | 2011 | Emad Burnat/Guy Davidi | Palestine/Israel | protests in Bil'in | 90 | doc | Arabic/Hebrew | |
| Everyone to the Larzac (Tous au Larzac) | 2011 | Christian Rouaud | France | the successful 1971-81 rural movement against extending the military base on the Larzac plateau | 118 | doc. | French with subtitles in 11 languages | |
| The Interrupters | 2011 | Steve James | United States | CeaseFire, an initiative for violence prevention | 125 | doc | English | |
| How to Start a Revolution | 2011 | Ruaridh Arrow | Gene Sharp | 85 | doc | |||
| Home Front: Portraits from Sheikh Jarrah | 2011 | Julia Bacha | Palestine/Israel | a neighborhood against Israeli settlements | 31 | doc | ||
| Budrus | 2009 | Julia Bacha | Palestine/Israel | the Israeli-Palestinian conflict | 82 | doc | ||
| Hunger | 2008 | Steve McQueen | UK (Northern Ireland) | Bobby Sands’s 1981 hunger strike in prison | 96 | feature | ||
| Burma VJ | 2008 | Anders Østergaard | Burma | the 2007 monks' protests: based on smuggled footage | 85 | doc | ||
| Janadesh 2007: For a Fistful of Land | 2008 | Sébastien Saugues | India | land rights struggles in 2007 | 54 | doc | Hindi with English or French subtitles | |
| The March of the Despised: The Liberating Force of Non-Violence | 2008 | Louis Campana/François Verlet | India | land rights struggles in 2007 | 52 | doc | ||
| Nonviolent Action | 2008 | Hans-Jürg Pfaff | India | land rights struggles in 2007 | 33 | doc | ||
| Citizen Nawi (נאווי האזרח) | 2007 | Nissim Mossek | Israel | portrait of a gay Israeli peace activist | 80 | doc | ||
| Strike | 2007 | Volker Schlöndorff | Poland | Anna Walentynowicz and the emergence of Solidarność | 104 | feature | ||
| Battle in Seattle | 2007 | Stuart Townsend | USA | anti-WTO protests in 1999 | 111 | feature | ||
| The Singing Revolution | 2007 | James Tusty/Maureen Castle Tusty | Estonia | singing as a revolutionary tactic between 1986 and 1991 | 94 | doc | ||
| A Little Bit of So Much Truth | 2007 | Jill Friedberg | Mexico | the 2006 appropriation of corporate media by grassroots activists in Oaxaca | 93 | doc | ||
| Orange Revolution | 2007 | Steve York | Ukraine | the 2004 presidential election | 92 | doc | ||
| Colour Me Free | 2007 | Areta Lloyd | Ukraine/Belarus/Russia | effects of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution on activists in Belarus | 48 | doc | ||
| Encounter Point | 2006 | Julia Bacha/Ronit Avni | Palestine/Israel | the Israeli/Palestinian conflict | 85 | doc | ||
| The Shape of Water | 2006 | Kum-Kum Bhavnani | Brazil/India/Israel/Palestine/Senegal | women’s activism on issues such as collaborative farming/rainforest preservation/female genital mutilation | 70 | doc | ||
| A Lesson of Belarusian (Lekcja białoruskiego) | 2006 | Miroslaw Dembinski | Belarus | the 2006 presidential election | 53 | doc | Belarusian and Russian with English subtitles | |
| How to Plan a Revolution | 2006 | Ivan O'Mahoney | Azerbaijan | the democracy movement | 49 | doc | ||
| Iron-Jawed Angels | 2004 | Katja von Garnier | United States | women’s hunger strikes in the suffragist struggle in 1918 | 123 | feature | English | |
| Revolution of Pigs (Sigade revolutsioon) | 2004 | René Reinumägi/Jaak Kilmi | Estonia | upheaval in a summer camp in 1986 | 98 | feature | ||
| The Take | 2004 | Avi Lewis/Naomi Klein | Argentina | occupation of abandoned factories in the country’s 2001 economic collapse | 87 | doc | English/Spanish | |
| Thirst | 2004 | Alan Snitow/Deborah Kaufman | United States/Bolivia/India | struggles against the privatization of water rights | 62 | doc | ||
| February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four | 2003 | Tom Vickersand/Daniel Blake Smith | United States | the lunch counter sit-ins in 1960 North Carolina | 61 | doc | English | |
| Bringing Down a Dictator by Steve York | 2002 | Steve York | Serbia | Otpor and the fall of Milošević | 56 | doc | ||
| Bloody Sunday | 2002 | Paul Greengrass | UK (Northern Ireland) | the 1972 shootings in Derry | 105 | docudrama | English | |
| A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict | 2000 | Steve York | India/South Africa/USA/Poland/Chile | nonviolent struggle in the 20th century | 174 | doc | ||
| Thirty Frames a Second | 2000 | Rustin Thompson | United States | the WTO protests in Seattle | 73 | doc | English | |
| This Is What Democracy Looks Like | 2000 | Jill Friedberg/Rick Rowley | United States | using footage from 100 amateur camera operators during the 1999 Seattle protest | 72 | doc | English | |
| April Captains (Capitães de Abril) | 1997 | Maria de Medeiros | Portugal | the role of two army captains in Portugal’s democratic revolution | 123 | feature | ||
| Some Mother’s Son | 1996 | Terry George | UK (Northern Ireland) | Bobby Sands’s 1981 hunger strike in prison | 112 | feature | ||
| The Gate of Heavenly Peace | 1995 | Richard Gordon/Carma Hinton | China | the suppression of the Tiananmen protests in 1989 | 180 | doc | ||
| The Fall of the Wall (Der Fall der Mauer) | 1994 | Stefan Aust/Katrin Klocke | Germany (East) | democratization in East Germany | 65 | doc | ||
| In the Name of the Father | 1993 | Jim Sheridan | UK (Northern Ireland) | the Guildford Four and the dynamics of violence and nonviolence | 133 | feature | ||
| In Women’s Hands | 1992 | Rachel Field/Juan Mandelbaum | Chile | women's political activism under Allende and Pinochet | 59 | doc | ||
| Berkeley in the Sixties | 1990 | Mark Kitchell | United States | nonviolent student protests at UC Berkeley | 117 | doc | English | |
| Eyes on the Prize | 1987-90 | Henry Hampton | United States | the civil rights movement, 1952-1965 | 360 | doc | English | |
| The Mission | 1986 | Roland Joffé | Paraguay | 18th-century Spanish Jesuits trying to protect a remote South American Indian tribe in danger of falling under the rule of pro-slavery Portugal | 125 | feature | ||
| Chile: Hasta Cuando? | 1986 | David Bradbury | Chile | the democracy movement and its repression | 74 | doc | ||
| Gandhi | 1982 | Richard Attenborough | India/South Africa | Mahatma Gandhi biopic | 191 | feature | ||
| Man of Iron (Człowiek z żelaza) | 1981 | Andrzej Wajda | Poland | Solidarity | 153 | feature | Polish with subtitles in numerous languages | |
| Scenes from the Class Struggle in Portugal | 1977 | Robert Kramer and Philip Spinelli | Portugal | democratic transition in Portugal | 85 | doc | ||
| Setúbal ville rouge | 1976 | Daniel Edinger | Portugal | democratic transition in Portugal | 93 | doc | Portuguese with English subtitles | |
| Carnations of April (Cravos de Abril) | 1976 | Ricardo Costa | Portugal | the democratic transition in Portugal | 30 | feature | Portuguese | |
| Women on the Frontline | 2013 | Hossein Martin Fazeli | Iran | women's movement | ? | doc | ||
| The Yes Men Are Revolting | 2013 | Andy Bichlbaum/Mike Bonanno | United States/global | humorous anti-corporate activism | ? | doc | English | |
| Tomorrow (Zavtra) | 2012 | Andrei Gryazev | Russia | the Voina performance art collective | 90 | doc | Russian with English subtitles | |
| Resistance: Legacy of Nonviolent Movements in Iran 1978-1979 | 2011 | Hossein Martin Fazeli | Iran | 1978-79 revolution and 2009 Green Movement | 50 | doc | English and Persian with English subtitles | |
| Irena Sendler: In the Name of Their Mothers | 2011 | Mary Skinner | Poland | rescue of Jewish children from Warsaw ghetto | 60 | doc | ||
| Freedom Riders | 2011 | Stanley Nelson | United States | desegregation | 112 | doc | English | |
| The Green Wave | 2010 | Ali Samadi Ahadi | Iran | 2009 Green Movement | 80 | doc | ||
| The Yes Men Fix the World | 2009 | Andy Bichlbaum/Mike Bonanno/Kurt Engfehr | United States/global | humorous anti-corporate activism | 87 | doc | English with English or Arabic subtitles | |
| Pray the Devil Back to Hell | 2008 | Abigail E. Disney/Gini Reticker | Liberia | women against the civil war | 72 | doc | ||
| Offside | 2006 | Jafar Panahi | Iran | women and the right to enter soccer (football) stadiums | 93 | doc | Persian with English subtitles | |
| Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (Sophie Scholl: Die letzten Tage) | 2005 | Marc Rothemund | Germany | White Rose resistance group | 120 | feature | ||
| The Yes Men | 2003 | Dan Ollman/Sarah Price/Chris Smith | United States/global | humorous anti-corporate activism | 83 | doc | English | |
| The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers' Struggle | 1997 | Rick Tejada-Flores/Ray Telles | United States | unionization of farm workers | 120 | doc | ||
| Beyond Rangoon | 1995 | John Boorman | Burma | democracy movement in Burma | 100 | feature | English | |
| The Long Walk Home | 1990 | Richard Pearce | United States | the Montgomery bus boycott | 97 | feature | ||
| Romero | 1989 | John Duigan | El Slavador | Archibishop Oscar Romero against dictatorship | 102 | feature | ||
| Weapons of the Spirit (Les armes de l'esprit) | 1987 | Pierre Sauvage | France | the rescue of Jews in Le Chambon | 90 | doc |
I initially compiled a list of films about nonviolent resistance in preparation for a workshop about the history, theory, and practice of nonviolence that I organized as part of the Berlin Colloquia on Contemporary History in February 2012. Later I incorporated suggestions collected by Beate Sissenich via the amsoc mailing list and by Stellan Vinthagen via the Nonviolent Research Network as well as a number of other films I came across. I have watched most but not all of the films mentioned. Inclusion in the list does not constitute endorsement (some of these films are outstanding, while others are terrible), nor is it based on very strict criteria of what constitutes nonviolent struggle. Corrections, additions and suggestions for improvement are welcome. For the Russian version of this list, click on “Русский” in the left sidebar.
If the film was not originally released in English, the title in the original language is indicated in brackets.
For the time being I am only providing links to publicly available full versions (viewing some of them requires registration or payment of a small fee); links to trailers and descriptions will be added later. (PLEASE NOTE THAT LINKS ARE CURRENTLY DISABLED AS I HAVE MIGRATED THE LIST TO A NEW PLUGIN.)
I know of five particularly relevant film festivals. The Non Violence International Film Festival specializes in films about nonviolence. The Tromsø International Film Festival awards an annual Norwegian Peace Film Award. The Peace on Earth Film Festival lists nonviolence as one of its major topics, whereas the Monaco International Film Festival assembles films that do not depict violence. In Mumbai, the 7 Islands International Film Festival for World Peace invites films on various aspects of violence and non-violence. The 40 or so festivals joined together in the Human Rights Film Network are also worth a look.
Laika Verlag, based in Hamburg, Germany, publishes an ongoing Library of Resistance that includes DVDs with (mostly documentary) films about various kinds of left-wing resistance movements. See this page for trailers, and the series catalog for descriptions of individual films. The annual lineups of documentaries shown at the Association for the Study of Nationalities convention in New York are also worth a look, even though only some of them specifically touch upon nonviolence: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. And here is a brief list of feature films related to nonviolence that I have yet to integrate with mine.
Scroll left and right to see all the columns!
| Title | year | director(s) | country portrayed | topic | mins. | type | language | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voices of the Protest (Голоси протесту) | 2014 | Vitalii Atanasov | Ukraine | a left-wing perspective on the Maidan protests and their violent aftermath | 35 | doc | Ukrainian and Russian, with English subtitles | |
| 1971 | 2014 | Johanna Hamilton | USA | the Citizens' Committee to Investigate the FBI revealing government surveillance | 79 | doc | English | |
| Babylon '13 | 2013 | various | Ukraine | nonviolent protest and violent conflict in Ukraine since 2013 | clips | doc | Ukrainian and Russian, with English subtitles | |
| The Term (Срок) | 2014 | Pavel Kostomarov/Alexander Rastorguev/Alexei Pivovarov | Russia | the 2011-13 protest movement and state repression | 83 | doc | Russian | (rough edits of many scenes put online in 2012-13) |
| Where Are You Bucharest? (Bucureşti unde eşti?) | 2014 | Vlad Petri | Romania | the Romanian protests of 2012 | 80 | doc | Romanian, with English subtitles | |
| The Square (الميدان) | 2013 | Jehane Noujaim | Egypt | the 2011 revolution and its aftermath | 108 | doc | Arabic and English with English subtitles | |
| 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film | 2013 | 100 filmmakers | USA | the Occupy Wall Street movement | 97 | doc | English | |
| Before the Spring After the Fall | 2013 | Jed Rothstein | Egypt | the Cairo heavy metal scene before and during the 2011 revolution | 72 | doc | Arabic and English with English subtitles | |
| Egypt Project | 2013 | Steve York/Miriam Zimmerman | Egypt | the decade of democratic activism leading up to the 2011 revolution | ? | doc | ||
| The Targeted Village (標的の村) | 2012 | Mikami Chie | Japan | residents of an Okinawan village against the construction of a U.S. military helipad | 91 | doc | Japanese, English | |
| A Whisper to a Roar | 2012 | Ben Moses | Egypt, Malaysia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Zimbabwe | democracy movements across the world | 106 | doc | various languages, with subtitles in various languages | |
| No | 2012 | Pablo Larraín | Chile | the 1988 plebiscite on Pinochet's presidency | 118 | feature | Spanish | |
| The Protest-Makers (Die Protestmacher) | 2012 | Dieter Rucht | Germany | anti-nuclear and other social activists | 80 | doc | German | |
| Winter, Go Away! (Зима, уходи!) | 2012 | Elena Khoreva/Denis Klebeev/Askold Kurov/Dmitry Kubasov/Nadezhda Leonteva/Anna Moiseenko/Madina Mustafina/Sofia Rodkevich/Anton Seregin/Alexey Zhiriakov | Russia | the protest movement against Putin and for fair elections | 79 | doc | Russian (there is also a version with English subtitles) | |
| Come to Me: Experiences of Nonviolent Activism in Lebanon | 2012 | Manuel Sakmani/Daisy Mohr | Lebanon | nonviolent activism since 1975 | 50 | doc | Arabic with English subtitles | |
| My Neighbourhood | 2012 | Julia Bacha/Rebekah Wingert-Jabi | Palestine/Israel | peaceful protests against evictions | 25 | doc | ||
| One Punch Homicide | 2012 | Steve Kokette | United States, Canada, Australia | one-punch homicides and their prevention | 87 | doc | English | |
| 5 Broken Cameras (خمس كاميرات محطمة, חמש מצלמות שבורות) | 2011 | Emad Burnat/Guy Davidi | Palestine/Israel | protests in Bil'in | 90 | doc | Arabic/Hebrew | |
| Everyone to the Larzac (Tous au Larzac) | 2011 | Christian Rouaud | France | the successful 1971-81 rural movement against extending the military base on the Larzac plateau | 118 | doc. | French with subtitles in 11 languages | |
| The Interrupters | 2011 | Steve James | United States | CeaseFire, an initiative for violence prevention | 125 | doc | English | |
| How to Start a Revolution | 2011 | Ruaridh Arrow | Gene Sharp | 85 | doc | |||
| Home Front: Portraits from Sheikh Jarrah | 2011 | Julia Bacha | Palestine/Israel | a neighborhood against Israeli settlements | 31 | doc | ||
| Budrus | 2009 | Julia Bacha | Palestine/Israel | the Israeli-Palestinian conflict | 82 | doc | ||
| Hunger | 2008 | Steve McQueen | UK (Northern Ireland) | Bobby Sands’s 1981 hunger strike in prison | 96 | feature | ||
| Burma VJ | 2008 | Anders Østergaard | Burma | the 2007 monks' protests: based on smuggled footage | 85 | doc | ||
| Janadesh 2007: For a Fistful of Land | 2008 | Sébastien Saugues | India | land rights struggles in 2007 | 54 | doc | Hindi with English or French subtitles | |
| The March of the Despised: The Liberating Force of Non-Violence | 2008 | Louis Campana/François Verlet | India | land rights struggles in 2007 | 52 | doc | ||
| Nonviolent Action | 2008 | Hans-Jürg Pfaff | India | land rights struggles in 2007 | 33 | doc | ||
| Citizen Nawi (נאווי האזרח) | 2007 | Nissim Mossek | Israel | portrait of a gay Israeli peace activist | 80 | doc | ||
| Strike | 2007 | Volker Schlöndorff | Poland | Anna Walentynowicz and the emergence of Solidarność | 104 | feature | ||
| Battle in Seattle | 2007 | Stuart Townsend | USA | anti-WTO protests in 1999 | 111 | feature | ||
| The Singing Revolution | 2007 | James Tusty/Maureen Castle Tusty | Estonia | singing as a revolutionary tactic between 1986 and 1991 | 94 | doc | ||
| A Little Bit of So Much Truth | 2007 | Jill Friedberg | Mexico | the 2006 appropriation of corporate media by grassroots activists in Oaxaca | 93 | doc | ||
| Orange Revolution | 2007 | Steve York | Ukraine | the 2004 presidential election | 92 | doc | ||
| Colour Me Free | 2007 | Areta Lloyd | Ukraine/Belarus/Russia | effects of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution on activists in Belarus | 48 | doc | ||
| Encounter Point | 2006 | Julia Bacha/Ronit Avni | Palestine/Israel | the Israeli/Palestinian conflict | 85 | doc | ||
| The Shape of Water | 2006 | Kum-Kum Bhavnani | Brazil/India/Israel/Palestine/Senegal | women’s activism on issues such as collaborative farming/rainforest preservation/female genital mutilation | 70 | doc | ||
| A Lesson of Belarusian (Lekcja białoruskiego) | 2006 | Miroslaw Dembinski | Belarus | the 2006 presidential election | 53 | doc | Belarusian and Russian with English subtitles | |
| How to Plan a Revolution | 2006 | Ivan O'Mahoney | Azerbaijan | the democracy movement | 49 | doc | ||
| Iron-Jawed Angels | 2004 | Katja von Garnier | United States | women’s hunger strikes in the suffragist struggle in 1918 | 123 | feature | English | |
| Revolution of Pigs (Sigade revolutsioon) | 2004 | René Reinumägi/Jaak Kilmi | Estonia | upheaval in a summer camp in 1986 | 98 | feature | ||
| The Take | 2004 | Avi Lewis/Naomi Klein | Argentina | occupation of abandoned factories in the country’s 2001 economic collapse | 87 | doc | English/Spanish | |
| Thirst | 2004 | Alan Snitow/Deborah Kaufman | United States/Bolivia/India | struggles against the privatization of water rights | 62 | doc | ||
| February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four | 2003 | Tom Vickersand/Daniel Blake Smith | United States | the lunch counter sit-ins in 1960 North Carolina | 61 | doc | English | |
| Bringing Down a Dictator by Steve York | 2002 | Steve York | Serbia | Otpor and the fall of Milošević | 56 | doc | ||
| Bloody Sunday | 2002 | Paul Greengrass | UK (Northern Ireland) | the 1972 shootings in Derry | 105 | docudrama | English | |
| A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict | 2000 | Steve York | India/South Africa/USA/Poland/Chile | nonviolent struggle in the 20th century | 174 | doc | ||
| Thirty Frames a Second | 2000 | Rustin Thompson | United States | the WTO protests in Seattle | 73 | doc | English | |
| This Is What Democracy Looks Like | 2000 | Jill Friedberg/Rick Rowley | United States | using footage from 100 amateur camera operators during the 1999 Seattle protest | 72 | doc | English | |
| April Captains (Capitães de Abril) | 1997 | Maria de Medeiros | Portugal | the role of two army captains in Portugal’s democratic revolution | 123 | feature | ||
| Some Mother’s Son | 1996 | Terry George | UK (Northern Ireland) | Bobby Sands’s 1981 hunger strike in prison | 112 | feature | ||
| The Gate of Heavenly Peace | 1995 | Richard Gordon/Carma Hinton | China | the suppression of the Tiananmen protests in 1989 | 180 | doc | ||
| The Fall of the Wall (Der Fall der Mauer) | 1994 | Stefan Aust/Katrin Klocke | Germany (East) | democratization in East Germany | 65 | doc | ||
| In the Name of the Father | 1993 | Jim Sheridan | UK (Northern Ireland) | the Guildford Four and the dynamics of violence and nonviolence | 133 | feature | ||
| In Women’s Hands | 1992 | Rachel Field/Juan Mandelbaum | Chile | women's political activism under Allende and Pinochet | 59 | doc | ||
| Berkeley in the Sixties | 1990 | Mark Kitchell | United States | nonviolent student protests at UC Berkeley | 117 | doc | English | |
| Eyes on the Prize | 1987-90 | Henry Hampton | United States | the civil rights movement, 1952-1965 | 360 | doc | English | |
| The Mission | 1986 | Roland Joffé | Paraguay | 18th-century Spanish Jesuits trying to protect a remote South American Indian tribe in danger of falling under the rule of pro-slavery Portugal | 125 | feature | ||
| Chile: Hasta Cuando? | 1986 | David Bradbury | Chile | the democracy movement and its repression | 74 | doc | ||
| Gandhi | 1982 | Richard Attenborough | India/South Africa | Mahatma Gandhi biopic | 191 | feature | ||
| Man of Iron (Człowiek z żelaza) | 1981 | Andrzej Wajda | Poland | Solidarity | 153 | feature | Polish with subtitles in numerous languages | |
| Scenes from the Class Struggle in Portugal | 1977 | Robert Kramer and Philip Spinelli | Portugal | democratic transition in Portugal | 85 | doc | ||
| Setúbal ville rouge | 1976 | Daniel Edinger | Portugal | democratic transition in Portugal | 93 | doc | Portuguese with English subtitles | |
| Carnations of April (Cravos de Abril) | 1976 | Ricardo Costa | Portugal | the democratic transition in Portugal | 30 | feature | Portuguese | |
| Women on the Frontline | 2013 | Hossein Martin Fazeli | Iran | women's movement | ? | doc | ||
| The Yes Men Are Revolting | 2013 | Andy Bichlbaum/Mike Bonanno | United States/global | humorous anti-corporate activism | ? | doc | English | |
| Tomorrow (Zavtra) | 2012 | Andrei Gryazev | Russia | the Voina performance art collective | 90 | doc | Russian with English subtitles | |
| Resistance: Legacy of Nonviolent Movements in Iran 1978-1979 | 2011 | Hossein Martin Fazeli | Iran | 1978-79 revolution and 2009 Green Movement | 50 | doc | English and Persian with English subtitles | |
| Irena Sendler: In the Name of Their Mothers | 2011 | Mary Skinner | Poland | rescue of Jewish children from Warsaw ghetto | 60 | doc | ||
| Freedom Riders | 2011 | Stanley Nelson | United States | desegregation | 112 | doc | English | |
| The Green Wave | 2010 | Ali Samadi Ahadi | Iran | 2009 Green Movement | 80 | doc | ||
| The Yes Men Fix the World | 2009 | Andy Bichlbaum/Mike Bonanno/Kurt Engfehr | United States/global | humorous anti-corporate activism | 87 | doc | English with English or Arabic subtitles | |
| Pray the Devil Back to Hell | 2008 | Abigail E. Disney/Gini Reticker | Liberia | women against the civil war | 72 | doc | ||
| Offside | 2006 | Jafar Panahi | Iran | women and the right to enter soccer (football) stadiums | 93 | doc | Persian with English subtitles | |
| Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (Sophie Scholl: Die letzten Tage) | 2005 | Marc Rothemund | Germany | White Rose resistance group | 120 | feature | ||
| The Yes Men | 2003 | Dan Ollman/Sarah Price/Chris Smith | United States/global | humorous anti-corporate activism | 83 | doc | English | |
| The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers' Struggle | 1997 | Rick Tejada-Flores/Ray Telles | United States | unionization of farm workers | 120 | doc | ||
| Beyond Rangoon | 1995 | John Boorman | Burma | democracy movement in Burma | 100 | feature | English | |
| The Long Walk Home | 1990 | Richard Pearce | United States | the Montgomery bus boycott | 97 | feature | ||
| Romero | 1989 | John Duigan | El Slavador | Archibishop Oscar Romero against dictatorship | 102 | feature | ||
| Weapons of the Spirit (Les armes de l'esprit) | 1987 | Pierre Sauvage | France | the rescue of Jews in Le Chambon | 90 | doc |
I initially compiled a list of films about nonviolent resistance in preparation for a workshop about the history, theory, and practice of nonviolence that I organized as part of the Berlin Colloquia on Contemporary History in February 2012. Later I incorporated suggestions collected by Beate Sissenich via the amsoc mailing list and by Stellan Vinthagen via the Nonviolent Research Network as well as a number of other films I came across. I have watched most but not all of the films mentioned. Inclusion in the list does not constitute endorsement (some of these films are outstanding, while others are terrible), nor is it based on very strict criteria of what constitutes nonviolent struggle. Corrections, additions and suggestions for improvement are welcome. For the Russian version of this list, click “Русский” in the left sidebar.
If the film was not originally released in English, the title in the original language is indicated in brackets.
For the time being I am only providing links to publicly available full versions (viewing some of them requires registration or payment of a small fee); links to trailers and descriptions will be added later. (PLEASE NOTE THAT LINKS ARE CURRENTLY DISABLED AS I HAVE MIGRATED THE LIST TO A NEW PLUGIN.) I know of five particularly relevant film festivals. The Non Violence International Film Festival specializes in films about nonviolence. The Tromsø International Film Festival awards an annual Norwegian Peace Film Award. The Peace on Earth Film Festival lists nonviolence as one of its major topics, whereas the Monaco International Film Festival assembles films that do not depict violence. In Mumbai, the 7 Islands International Film Festival for World Peace invites films on various aspects of violence and non-violence. The 40 or so festivals joined together in the Human Rights Film Network are also worth a look.
Laika Verlag, based in Hamburg, Germany, publishes an ongoing Library of Resistance that includes DVDs with (mostly documentary) films about various kinds of left-wing resistance movements. See this page for trailers, and the series catalog for descriptions of individual films. The annual lineups of documentaries shown at the Association for the Study of Nationalities convention in New York are also worth a look, even though only some of them specifically touch upon nonviolence: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. And here is a brief list of feature films related to nonviolence that I have yet to integrate with mine.