The truly great documentary How to Start a Revolution screens again this weekend at SFIndie’s Docfest. This isn’t some abstract exploration of modern life; it’s an example of revolutions get made in places like Egypt. Give a damn about American politics, economic justice, Occupy Wall Street? I suggest you track this film down, or see it at Docfest if you can, and/or read Sharp’s classic text on non-violent revolution, From Dictatorship to Democracy.

(The film screens at the Roxie in San Francisco next Saturday, October 22 and Wednesday, October 26, both at 7:15pm.)

Here’s my review, from SFAppeal:

How to Start a Revolution

at SFIndie‘s San Francisco 10th Annual Documentary Film Festival (Docfest)

reviewed by Thomas S. Roche for SFAppeal:

How to Start a Revolution (Dir: Ruaridh Arrow, 2011) explores the world of Gene Sharp, an American Nobel Peace Prize nominee and author of the influential book From Dictatorship to Democracy, which helped guide the leaders of revolutions in spots as far-flung as Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Burma, Thailand, Bosnia, Indonesia, Zimbabwe and Venezuela. Sharp’s seminal book is considered contraband anywhere that violent dictators quake in terror at the power of nonviolent protestors. Sharp has been called the “godfather” of nonviolent revolution, and many leaders of nonviolent movements have traveled to visit him.

Read the rest at SFAppeal.com.