You Got To Move: Stories of Change in the South

Produced by Lucy Massie Phenix Directed and edited by Lucy Massie Phenix & Veronica Selver. With Myles Horton, Bernice Robinson, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Bill Saunders, Rebecca Simpson, Gail & Richard Story, May Justice, MaryLee & Russell Rogers, Becky Simpson, members of the Bumpass Cove community and the Cranks Creek Survival Center of Kentucky.

Milliarium Zero's release in celebration of the legendary Highlander Folk School, YOU GOT TO MOVE follows a group of individuals in the process of becoming involved in grassroots social change in the South. These people have been active in some of the most significant movements in the past fifty years, from Civil Rights and labor organizing to citizens' actions against toxic waste dumping and strip mining.

This powerful film recalls the courage of those who fought for Civil Rights from the quiet teaching of reading and writing so that African-Americans could pass the voter requirements in the South of the '50s and '60s, to the involvement of students and the organizing of hospital workers in demonstrations across the South. And it documents the strength of rural Tennessee and Kentucky housewives who overcame their fear of being uneducated and unimportant to challenge the environmental destruction in their communities.

Rich in the language and music of the South, YOU GOT TO MOVE is about people's discovery within themselves of the courage and ability to confront reality and change it.

It is a film that champions civil action and makes you want to move!

The filmmakers, Lucy Massie Phenix and Veronica Selver, have participated in some of the most important documentaries of the last thirty years including WINTER SOLDIER, WORD IS OUT, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ROSIE THE RIVETER, CANCER IN TWO VOICES, STRANGER WITH A CAMERA, KPFA ON THE AIR, ON COMPANY BUSINESS, BERKELEY IN THE SIXTIES, COMING OUT UNDER FIRE and REGRET TO INFORM.

Reviews

"This film brought me fact to face again with some of the people I most admire, those 'ordinary,' 'plainfolks" people who see the wrong that exists so clearly they can't rest without doing something about it. YOU GOT TO MOVE reveals the truth that one person (maybe you) can begin the action that will change the world. It is a film that refreshes eyes and ears as well as the spirit -- for it is full of beautiful, diverse American faces and speech -- and music. It beautifully captures the contagious joy of struggle." -- Alice Walker, THE COLOR PURPLE