Big Rattle in Seattle

My first film, and the first of three I made with Leon and the Guerillavision collective.

Twenty three minutes of in­cite­ment and in­spi­ra­tion from the Novem­ber 30, 1999 up­ris­ing against the World Trade Or­gan­i­sa­tion. An an­gry tide of dis­sent fi­nal­ly draws a line in the sand – the time has come to over­throw the dic­ta­tor­ship of the econ­o­my and get on build­ing a so­ci­ety based on re­al free­dom.

We set out to make a film that injected a bit of passion and humour into the often dour and navel gazing world of activist filmmaking. We followed this with Capitals Ill and Crowd Bites Wolf – both shot in 2000 –  inflaming (if not informing) the ‘is breaking windows violence’ debate.

We offered the film to Channel 4 who responded by sending us a copy of the ITC codes of conduct regarding incitement to criminality and said they couldn’t show it unless we cut most of it out. (In a not entirely unconnected twist of fate myself and Leon were interviewed in the midst of the demonstration by Rob Newman for a film he was shooting for Channel 4 news, so we kinda got our two pence worth on UK national TV anyway).

This film was broadcast in the US by FreeSpeech TV and in Australia by SKA TV and was selected and screened by numerous film festivals worldwide including Hong Kong, Buenos Aires and as the opener to the San Francisco film festival 2000.

Released January 2000. Extracts of this film appeared in Marshall Curry 2012 Oscar nominated film ‘If a Tree Falls…’ about the Earth Liberation Movement.