Summary
This documentary is important like every other documentary that discusses social change — it’s wonderfully put together.
Netflix documentary We Are One was released on the platform on July 14, 2020.
A festering mentality that is growing in some areas of the world is that activism is some form of extremism that is equal to the alt-right. It’s extremely frustrating that these comparisons exist — when you have Black Lives Matter being heckled as political or even terrorism, you can almost sniff the desperation of those who cannot accept change for the better.
And that’s why documentaries like We Are One is refreshing — it skims away the bullsh*t generated in our culture wars and show movements for what they are — bettering ourselves for a better society: “When we all move, we become a movement”. There’s plenty of stories to behold in this Netflix documentary, ranging from abuse against women to races getting discriminated against.
We Are One offers hope and considers that our upcoming generations are truly working to create a better world. In a sense, you’d hope that by the time they are in their 40s, they will not have to continue fighting for the issues that are raised in this documentary — or maybe they will, which is a sad state of affairs when the ultimate dream is to give birth to children in fair environments.
We Are One follows activists around the world — some are trying to become better activists while others are at the top of their game. Their passion for driving social change is admired and the documentary’s ultimate goal is to witness these activists participate in a music video called “Solidarité”. The documentary remains unstructured for the main, allowing different subject matters to breath and collectively come together — it’s directed with care and honor for the activists and consequently, the causes they are fighting for.
But you also leave We Are One with this underlying sadness that we have to keep doing this and as much as efforts are admired, we have to keep dreaming of a world that removes itself from culture wars, fights over laws and global environment where everyone can live comfortably. This documentary is important like every other documentary that discusses social change — it’s wonderfully put together.
