Howard Zinn- Friend and Badass
Well, if you are reading this, you have found your way to ThePeopleSpeak.com website. I hope you have seen the movie. It is worth the time. My name is Chris Moore and, if you clicked on my blog, I am hoping you know who I am, but just in case I will introduce myself here. I am one of the Executive Producers, along with Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Anthony Arnove, and Howard Zinn, of The People Speak. I am also one of the directors of the movie with Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove. I have spent the bulk of my career happily in Hollywood producing movies. You are online, so you can look me up, but my highlights are Project Greenlight, Good Will Hunting, and American Pie. Not necessarily political or cultural or artistic pursuits. I really thought I was going to live out my days entertaining people through movies and TV. However, I met Howard Zinn while we were promoting Good Will Hunting. He was an old friend of Matt Damon's and he was a badass.
We had a scene about his book A People's History of the United States in Good Will Hunting, and after the film came out Matt, Ben Affleck and I decided to try and get some sort of video/film version of the book on a screen near you. I had read his book in high school and pretended to read it again in college. I am not much of a book reader, sadly. I did remember digging the opposite or different point of view of historical events and it did open my eyes to the idea that any moment in history can be seen from multiple perspectives.
Having grown up with 60's lefty parents and knowing some about the African American battles in this country I was not unaware of some of the stuff he included in his book but I really had not thought about it in any detail until we started having scripts written based on the first person accounts in his book. I realized we are all making history now as we live and function in this world today. I realized that there are struggles that are universal in this world. Rich versus poor, boss versus worker, the people in power (mostly white men) versus any other group that is threatening that power, these struggles are timeless and evolving.
America is the great experiment to see if humans can live without killing, enslaving, raping, or stealing from each other. Capitalism is the driving force which is influenced greatly by prejudice. We need to keep pure Capitalism in check. Getting rid of the prejudice is one mission Howard and his work took on, but he also tried to rid the world of war and greed. Howard lived up to his ideals in how he functioned in the world. He was not greedy or selfish. He truly believed in the long term and the greater good. He put his money and his actions right square in these struggles. This way of living was a subtle never spoken challenge to those who came in contact with him. Are you really living for the better tomorrow or are you giving it face time or money but not really sacrificing for the ideal?
I hope you'll check out the website and think about buying a DVD and sharing The People Speak with your community. We're working hard to share the message of the film - please join us. Together we can have some fun and make some positive change.
By Chris Moore
