''A Force More Powerful'' is a 1999 feature-length documentary film and a 2000

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

series written and directed by Steve York about

nonviolent Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

resistance movements around the world. Executive producers were Dalton Delan and

Jack DuVall Jack DuVall has a background in universities, television, federal United States administration and politics, and the United States Air Force. He was Executive Producer of Steve York's 1999 film '' A Force More Powerful'' together with Dalton De ...

Peter Ackerman Peter Ackerman (November 6, 1946 – April 26, 2022) was an American businessman, the founder and former chairman of Americans Elect, and the founding chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. Ackerman was the managing director o ...

was the series editor and principal content advisor. Institutional support for the film included funding from the

United States Institute of Peace The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is an American federal institution tasked with promoting conflict resolution and prevention worldwide. It provides research, analysis, and training to individuals in diplomacy, mediation, and other pea ...

and the

Albert Einstein Institution The Albert Einstein Institution (AEI) is a non-profit organization specializing in the study of the methods of nonviolent resistance in conflict. It was founded by scholar Gene Sharp in 1983, and named after Albert Einstein. Until 2000, the i ...

. The film played in festivals worldwide and was broadcast nationally on

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

television network

in September 2000. It was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Program. The series explores six successful nonviolent movements in the 20th century, including Mohandas Gandhi's leadership of the

Indian Independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

, the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

, the boycotts in the Eastern Cape Province as part of the Anti-

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

movement in South Africa, the

Danish resistance The Danish resistance movements ( da, Den danske modstandsbevægelse) were an underground insurgency to resist the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. Due to the initially lenient arrangements, in which the Nazi occupation autho ...

Nazi Occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 ...

, the Polish

Solidarity Movement Solidarity ( pl, „Solidarność”, ), full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" (, abbreviated ''NSZZ „Solidarność”'' ), is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subseq ...

, and the Chilean democracy movement to oust

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...

. ''A Force More Powerful'' is also the name of the companion book to the PBS series, authored by DuVall and

,. In the Acknowledgments section of the book, the authors name Steve York as their most-cited source. The book was published with

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains off ...

and has been recognized as an important resource for

peace education Peace education is the process of acquiring values, knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors to live in harmony with oneself, others, and the natural environment. There are numerous United Nations declarations and resolutions on the importance ...

. In 2006, the team behind the film, TV series and book released a nonviolent video game developed by Breakaway Games with the same title. The video game was designed to teach the waging of conflict using nonviolent methods.

Ivan Marović Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was Bulgari ...

, one of the leaders of the Serbian student movement called

Otpor! Otpor ( sr-Cyrl, Отпор!, en, Resistance!, stylized as Otpor!) was a political organization in Serbia (then part of FR Yugoslavia) from 1998 until 2004. In its initial period from 1998 to 2000, Otpor began as a civic protest group, eventual ...

, was one of the designers. A turn-based strategy game, it consists of ten pre-built scenarios and an editing system that will allow players to create scenarios of their own. The game's budget was $3 million.

References

External links

The Film's homepage

The Game's homepageEmmy Award Nominees for the Year 2000
*
Review of ''A Force More Powerful'' on Gamasutra

Information about AFMP game on Games For Change
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Force More Powerful 1999 films American documentary films Government simulation video games Nonviolent resistance movements Films directed by Steve York 2000s American documentary television series PBS original programming Civil rights movement in television 1990s English-language films 1990s American films

See also

References

External links