The People Speak – Extended Edition

2009 • 113 minutes

About this movie

The People Speak is a beautiful and moving documentary film inspired by Howard Zinn’s books A People’s History of the United States—one of the best-selling history books in the United States—and Voices of a People’s History of the United States, the primary-source companion to A People’s History of the United States, edited with Anthony Arnove. The film features the actual words (in letters, songs, poems, speeches, and manifestos) of rebels, dissenters, and visionaries from our past—and present—including Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Bob Dylan, Langston Hughes, Chief Joseph, Muhammad Ali, and unknown veterans, union workers, abolitionists, and many others never featured in high school textbooks. These dramatic moments from our history are brought to life by a group of remarkable musicians and actors. Like Howard Zinn’s work as a whole, The People Speak celebrates the extraordinary possibilities for creating social change that ordinary people have realized throughout the course of our nation’s rich but often ignored history of dissent and protest. The People Speak is produced by Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Chris Moore, Anthony Arnove, and Howard Zinn, co-directed by Moore, Arnove and Zinn, and features dramatic and musical performances by Allison Moorer, Benjamin Bratt, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Robinson, Christina Kirk, Danny Glover, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, David Strathairn, Don Cheadle, Eddie Vedder, Harris Yulin, Jasmine Guy, John Legend, Josh Brolin, Kathleen Chalfant, Kerry Washington, Lupe Fiasco, Marisa Tomei, Martín Espada, Matt Damon, Michael Ealy, Mike O'Malley, Morgan Freeman, P!nk, Q’orianka Kilcher, Reg E. Cathey, Rich Robinson, Rosario Dawson, Ry Cooder, Sandra Oh, Sean Penn, Staceyann Chin, Van Dyke Parks, and Viggo Mortensen. Narrated by Howard Zinn. Howard Zinn (1922–2010) was a historian, playwright, and activist. He wrote the classic A People’s History of the United States, which has sold more than 2.6 million copies.

Ratings and reviews

Beautifully done. Shares a message and lifts voices that need to be heard in these trying times.