We Are Many

Anti-war movement documentary We Are Many
Striking a fine balance between hope and anger, filmmaker Amir Amirani's anti-war documentary We Are Many tells the story of the single largest mobilisation of people in the history of humanity. February 2003 saw two million people walking the streets in the in the anti Iraq March London in protest, joined by around 30 million people in almost 800 locations around the world. The film mixes archive news footage with contemporary interviews, asking how governments were able to ultimately ignore such an enormous expression of public indignation.
Amir Amirani: We Are Many
It took director Amir Amirani seven years and three re-mortgages to finally bring his ambitious project to the screen, and the result is a compelling documentary about Iraq war protest. The diverse range of public figures bring life to the somewhat conventional format, with interviewees including the late Tony Benn, Richard Branson, Ken Loach and Damon Albarn, as well as those responsible for the decision to go to war.
Raising timely questions about the role of the public voice in global decision making, the film is at its best when making a case for the long term implications of the protests. It links the movement convincingly to the Egyptian revolution almost a decade later, as well as the prevention of invasion in Syria, ultimately ending on a note of cautious optimism. While governments around the world may have been able to effectively dismiss the outcry of 2003, Amirani leaves us hopeful for a future in which the public cannot be ignored.