http://realbattleinseattle.org/

“Have you seen Battle in Seattle? I watch it on the flight. I thought about so many of your stories while watching it!”

Were the words my gorgeous sister Elisha said after got off the plane from Ireland.

I had mixed reactions about Seattle’99 being ”hollywoodized”. As David Solnit put it in that great publication “yes!”:

“What would a multimillion-dollar Hollywood-star-studded film tell Americans about the sometimes life-or-death struggle against trade policies that threatened to wreck local economies and dismantle environmental protections the world over? Would it tell about the extraordinary power of 50,000 ordinary people in Seattle and their millions of counterparts around the world to demand a just and democratic world—or repeat media myths about riots and violence that activists had fought so long to change?”

It’s yet to come out in Australia but you can ask to get a screening of it in your city here.

The “Take a tour” feature on the official website was really interesting for me after hearing many stories and then being able to see the street map. It has some great stories of creative resistance. Like a bloke from France who’s cheese was illegal to bring into the country because of laws in favour of big corporations, so in response, he had a picnic of illegal cheese in front of MacDonald’s. Ha! :)

For a non-hollywoodize look check out this short film “SHUT EM DOWN”. Makes for interesting viewing considering our current financial crisis (and the larger ecological crisis).