You Got to Move

Director: Lucy Massie Phenix, Vernonica Selver

Institute History

  • 1986 Sundance Film Festival

Description

You Got To Move powerfully follows people from Southern communities in their process of becoming involved in social change. The central characters in the film have been active in some of the most significant movements in the South in the past 50 years, from civil rights and labor organizing to citizen’s action against toxic waste dumping and strip mining.

The film begins with the civil rights movement and Myles Horton’s founding of the highlander Folk School, which because of its mingling of black and white educational groups and mixed dancing, was labeled subversive and suspected of being communist. It continues to the present day issue of illegal toxic waste dumping in back hollows. The film informs and succeeds on many levels. Rather than focusing strictly on issues, You Got To Move deals with the process of social change and the emergence of leadership. It is as film about personal transformation, courage and commitment, about ordinary people, often uneducated, who decide to empower themselves and make a difference.

Screening Details

Credits

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