Global justice activists, environmentalists, union members, farmers, students, anti-capitalist activists and countless others helped shut down the World Trade Organization in Seattle in November of 1999. It was a defining moment for the movement against corporate globalization. The historical Seattle protests have now been turned into an independent fictionalized film. Democracy Now! spoke to the film’s writer and director, Stuart Townsend, as well as David Solnit, one of the key organizers of the WTO protests and co-founder of the Seattle WTO People’s History project:
[via DemocracyNow.org]

STUART TOWNSEND: One thing that’s happened is, since Seattle, because of Seattle’s success, you know, it’s very hard now to actually protest, have real dissent, because there’s two-mile exclusion zones. The Navy is out there in Cancun stopping protesters. And every event, every G8 event, any World Trade Organization meeting, now has massive security. And at the RNC and the DNC, where I was there, as well, I mean, it was very hard to really have any form of real dissent. So I think that’s a problem that, you know, you guys have to deal with as activists.

AMY GOODMAN: What are your hopes for this film?

STUART TOWNSEND: My hope is to inspire people, particularly a young and new audience, who—you know, most people don’t remember this event. And I was shocked when I sort of found it—you know, like found it. I was like, this is an incredible, important event about so many important issues. You know, even look at the financial crisis of two days ago, that’s the same system that people were fighting against in ’99. And, you know, we’re now reaping those—you know, the whirlwind of that.”