BA Everywhere at Sundance Film Festival
January 27, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
A team of revolutionaries, whose efforts are being funded by the Bob Avakian Institute, has been at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah with BA Everywhere—the campaign to raise big money to get the vision and works of Bob Avakian into every corner of society. Sundance was founded by actor and director Robert Redford to advance the “work of risk-taking storytellers worldwide.” Fruitvale Station, The Square, and Dirty Wars all premiered at Sundance last year. Among the over 100 films that are being screened this year, are films about domestic violence, racism on a college campus, the battle over gay marriage, and much more. This really is a special and unique opportunity to meet, dialogue, and raise money from filmmakers, actors, philanthropists, and others who are thinking about the world—from the biggest political questions to the most intimate social relations.
We have been going to the movies, Q&A’s, and panels to enter into the discussions and transform them with revolution. We have also been going straight out to the crowds in the street, distributing thousands of flyers. We have gotten out dozens of DVDs (BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! and Stepping into ihe Future) and hundreds of audio CDs with BA’s interview by Cornel West, his New Year’s “Call To REVOLUTION,” and All Played Out. And we’ve met a number of influential people to follow up with for the fundraising campaign.
The work we are doing inside the events is having an effect on the outside work, and vice versa. People are starting to recognize the revolutionaries, and revolution is starting to be in the air, with an increasing number of people beginning an engagement with BA. There has been a continual need to set, and re-set terms about what revolution really is, as opposed to notions of gradual change and individual lifestyle choices. We have had to struggle for people to see the magnitude and depth of the problem, and to consider BA’s re-envisioning of revolution and communism in relation to that. People have also asked us over and over again, what kind of revolution? And we’ve had to struggle over what the goal of communism is all about, as well as the liberating path from here to there. There has been a tremendous openness to the idea of moving beyond capitalism and overcoming the inequalities and injustices that characterize this society and world, but a number of people have raised concerns about what they understand communism to inevitably lead to—the stifling of creativity and innovation (a big part of what Sundance is all about). We have struggled with people to look at the actual conditions of the vast majority of humanity today, whose creative capacity and individual initiative counts for nothing. But we have also brought out to people BA’s new synthesis of communism, radically changing the world without turning out the lights on dissent, critical thinking, artistic and intellectual ferment, individuality flourishing in a collective context. We have struggled with people to see that it is not “human nature” for innovation and creativity to be tied to the profit-motive. When one musician raised this to us, one of the revolutionaries put it back to him, “what motivates you to do your art?” Not surprisingly, personal profit was not what was driving him. Overall at Sundance, we have encountered much openness to what we are putting forward.
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