Toronto film festival reflects on 1999 WTO riots in Seattle

AFP
September 12, 2007

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TORONTO — In a nod to activists, the Toronto film festival premiered on Sunday "Battle in Seattle," director Stuart Townsend's first film about rioting outside the 1999 World Trade Organization talks in the United States.

"The mainstream media covered it in a way that people didn't really get the content of the whole protest movement, which got marginalized," Townsend told reporters.

The violent clash between anti-globalization demonstrators and police quickly overshadowed what was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations "really struck me visually" and "set my imagination on fire," he said, explaining what inspired him to write his first script.

Indeed, the scale of the street protests outside the hotels and the Seattle Convention Center, estimated at 40,000 people, dwarfed any previous demonstrations against globalization in the United States.

"There's something really poetic about people standing up for what they believe in," commented Michelle Rodriguez, who plays a protestor in the film.

"Everybody understands what it feels like to feel helpless," she said.

"When you're in a situation when you cannot control what's going on, there's nothing more vulnerable than that feeling, and to have people stand up and fight together, unite by the hundreds, I think that that's beautiful."

Woody Harrelson, in his first role playing a policeman, added: "The world apparently is so dependent on all of these industries that rape Mother Earth on a daily basis and turn a profit doing that. This film really says something important (about that)."

Martin Henderson, another protestor, told reporters after consulting with real activists to prepare for the role: "I think (the character) wants to do more, but he can't and I think we all identify with that."

"When you look at the big picture, (people ask), 'Well, what can I do?' The answer is, whatever you can."

Townsend's partner Charlize Theron, Rade Sherbedzija, Andre Benjamin, and Ray Liotta also appear in the movie, which follows multiple fictional storylines about people affected by the crisis and uses documentary footage.

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