The March of Freedom

The March of Freedom

2017, Society  -   3 Comments
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Ratings: 8.77/10 from 13 users.

What does it mean to be free? Academy award-winning actor Morgan Freeman leads viewers on a journey worldwide as he listens to the moving stories of five extraordinary individuals who fought hard to gain freedom in one form or another. It is a study of what freedom is, both as a concept and a human condition.

The first two he meets show that freedom is a state of mind. Shin was born inside a North Korean slave labor camp and, after escaping to America, is now starting a family. Despite gaining physical freedom, he was still a mental prisoner, struggling with PTSD, adjusting to a new world. He had to learn how to be free and make choices he never imagined was possible.

Albert Woodfox spent almost 44 years in a solitary confinement prison cell in Louisiana and was released at 71 years old. The years without any physical freedom gave him an unbreakable sense of inner freedom. His mind was free, which helped him survive his ordeal.

Freeman highlights the importance of freedom fighters that fight for injustice and tyranny today, just like the founding fathers of the United States did back in 1776.

He examines the Declaration of Independence, which officially states that a government must fight for its citizens' "unalienable" rights. However, Thomas Jefferson's original version said that freedom was an "intrinsic" right, meaning something every man is born with. Today we can only look back at the sinister implications of that one-word swap to the history of women and black Americans.

He visits Guatemalan activist Rigoberta MenchĂș, an ethnic Maya Indian who lost her entire family to government forces that unleashed abuse and brutality to indigenous ethnic tribes, killing thousands. Even while living in exile for 14 years, she dedicated her life to fighting for the Mayas, and she won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful yet effective methods.

In New York, he chats with Nadia Tolokonnikova, founder of the Russian feminist protest punk rock movement Pussy Riot. She was arrested for a 2012 flash concert at a church, held in protest against President Putin's continued suppression of people's freedom in collaboration with the Russian Orthodox church. While in prison, she fought for women's rights in jail, leading to reforms in the prison system.

Finally, many continue to fight for the freedom to express who they are inside. Victoria Khan was seven in civil-war-torn 1990s Afghanistan when she ended up in a youth suicide bomber training camp, after Taliban had slaughtered her parents. She refused to separate from her younger sister, protecting her from predators and even donning a burka to do so. And even if both ended up safe, living free lives in Europe and America, Victoria realized that she needed to fully accept, embrace and transform who she was to truly deserve her freedom.

Freedom is an intrinsic right of every human being, yet today the world still has to go a long way to fully attaining it. There are still people enslaved, living with socio-political and economic inequality and those who want the freedom to be who they are inside. One day, hopefully, these rights will apply to all.

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QQQWWW
QQQWWW
1 year ago

Comments are incredibly dumb. No one is saying that because black lives matter white lives don't matter. Why is it impossible to say that both of these lives matter? Why are people so in such an us vs them kind of mindset that if one race is seen as equal, suddenly people think all kinds of other issues are seen as unimportant.

I guess to critics, if we help a charity in one country, then the same charity in another country doesn't matter. Ehem, we're a planet full of 7 billion people? Clearly humanity can focus on more than one group or population of people at once. There's no logic in people who say that everything in the world has to be for one person.

Also, racism doesn't erase white poverty, and white poverty doesn't erase racism. Why can't poor whites and black people recognize that the real enemy is the 1% rich class who are trying to get the lower classes to fight each other so no one can go against them? It's not a race war. It's a class war. You're just getting fooled off trying to get barely any cents from poor black people, when the money you're looking for is in the hands of rich billionaires of every race and gender who don't give a f*** about taking advantage of you whatever race you are.

Jean-Pierre Tardif
Jean-Pierre Tardif
2 years ago

Morgan Freeman ... in the March to Freedom. Nice joke.

Andrew Blackadder
Andrew Blackadder
3 years ago

I guess the European men, and women, that have been imprisoned,suppressed,exploited, enslaved, dont matter these days because they are after all "privileged" Caucasians and we dont matter to the world most self righteous "anti racist" crowd... Ever heard of the Irish, the Scots, being enlsaved... NAW!!!! cant have any of that narrative getting out there.
None are more enslaved than those who believe they are free.. Goethe...