Freedom Riders review

Freedom Riders review

Freedom Riders is a film civil rights advocacy film written by Stanley Nelson. This film gives a documentary about the activities of a civil rights movement operating in the southern parts of the US. Stanley Nelson Jr., the writer, was born in June 1951 in New York City. He later became a documentary filmmaker and has over the years written several films. Having worked for different television outlets and film companies, Nelson developed an excellent taste for documentaries. Having noted the activities of the freedom writers in the south, Nelson featured the first Freedom Riders movement whose primary purpose was to fight for the equality of all the American people. The film, Freedom Riders, shows the struggle the movement went through to attain equality for all the Americans (IChing 2015). Through his documentary, Nelson advocated for the rights of all the Americans to sit where they want in trains and buses and to take their lunch in joints that serve all the races. This paper gives a review of the documentary by looking at its social movement theories.

Nelson used both suspense and drama to portray the real scenario during the movement’s activities. The documentary features commentators who range from civil rights leaders, historians, politicians, and the riders themselves, to show the difficulties the group experienced in achieving social equality. The film begins when during a Mother’s Day event when two Birmingham bound buses left Atlanta in 1961. The passengers in the first bus were burned down by a resident of Birmingham, a situation that the police department in the area ignored. Nelson then notes that the second bus of occupants continued their journey to the city without any suspicion. He, however, retaliates that even if there were cellphones during this time, this bus would still be determined to achieve their goals and purpose (IChing 2015). For this reason, Nelson gives his audience suspense by not showing them the events that occurred to the second bus.

Nelson shows the boldness in the riders whereby the students in the buses are said to have signed their wills before the journey. While Nelson’s documentary does not blame the citizens for their actions, the main emphasis is made on the different leaders who went silent during the evil acts. The riders’ role in the film is to move the action forward with the middleman between state authorities and the federal government, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and his assistant are shown as the few members who could have changed the situation but chose to remain silent. Nelson uses this film, not to blame societies, but to blame the state governments and the federal government’s non-involvement in resolving this matter.

Again, Nelson shows the involvement of Martin Luther King, who attempted to calm the situation by hosting the riders in a church, at a time a large mob of white inhabitants wanted to kill them. When Luther tried to address this white mob, he was faced with utter opposition with people throwing bricks at him (IChing 2015). This film can be used today by human rights’ advocates and persons to demand social justice for people who have been restricted on movements. Youth violence, immigrants’ rights, and issues affecting the environment can be tackled using Stanley’s film.

A social movement is used to describe the desire of a group of many people to meet a set goal. In this film, the freedom risers served as a social movement aimed at achieving equity among all the members of the US society. A movement is also defined as a group that resists or undoes social changes. Relating this definition to the documentary, the freedom fighters undid and resisted against the new policies restricting both movement and mingling among the whites and the blacks. A social movement is also defined as a group activity that involves organizations, individuals or both (IChing 2015). In this scenario, the freedom fighters movement involved both individuals and organizations by incorporating human rights’ groups and the individual efforts of the group members.

In the analysis of this film, several social movement theories are applicable. First, the collective behaviour theory is used by sociologist to define a movement as a group of individuals attempting to act upon an emotional situation that lies out of individual control. This implies that a movement is formed to tackle an issue facing not just one person, but affecting the livelihood of several people emotionally. In this documentary, the freedom fighters are directly affected by denial to visit some states, sitting in the same bus and trains (IChing 2015). One individual could not successfully raise this concern, so the movement had to be formed for collective action. Also, the relative deprivation theory defines the people’s need to act upon deprivation of essential needs. In this documentary, the movement was against the deprivation of human rights and equality.

In conclusion, the freedom fighter is a sociological documentary that is used to air the activities of the initial Freedom fighters movement. This film was based on different people; participants in the movement and those that were indirectly involved. Stanley wrote this film based on several sociological movement theories with the collective behaviour theory and the relative deprivation theory being the most evident theories. This film advocates for social justice and equality among all races.