An Act of Conscience

For 20 years, I was invited each year to screen and speak about An Act Of Conscience to high school students from Hyde Park, New York.

They were in an advanced English class that studied Henry David Thoreau, in which they read his essay on civil disobedience, after which, they were assigned to watch An Act Of Conscience as a modern-day example of Thoreau’s principles in action.

Following the screening, the students would write questions, and then I would engage with them in an hour-long question-and-answer session.

It was an elegant event, as the students were bussed on a school field trip to Upstate Films, an independent cinema in the next-door town of Rhinebeck, New York, to watch the film on the big screen.

I greatly enjoyed this opportunity to engage with the students about An Act Of Conscience, as it always stimulated a vigorous discussion about our role as citizens in a democracy.

I always would ask the students, “What social or political issues do you feel most passionate about? What would you consider ‘an act of conscience’ for yourself?”

Having made this film over 25 years ago, in association with HBO/Cinemax, and re-releasing it now in a digitally remastered high definition version through New Day Films, it strikes me how deep this story is and what a long shelf life it has, as a very unique story about citizens standing up for their deepest beliefs and principles.

Randy Kehler, one of the main characters of An Act Of Conscience, has a close connection with another film in the New Day collection.

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, directed by Rick Goldsmith and Judith Ehrlich, chronicles the story of Daniel Ellsberg, America’s most famous whistleblower who released the Pentagon papers and helped to change the course of the Vietnam War.

In The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg recounts the story of how he was inspired to commit his act of civil disobedience by releasing the Pentagon Papers after he heard Randy Kehler, a young Vietnam War draft resister speak at a conference in 1969, and state his intention to risk going to jail by refusing to be drafted in the Vietnam War.

Please check out my other social issue documentaries that chronicle grassroots activism in the New Day Collection, The Peace Patriots and Power Struggle, as well as additional films at my website www.TurningTide.com.