Then, out of nowhere, a little-known independent documentary entitled Waco: Rules of Engagement hit the theaters. The film ripped the lid off of the government’s case and took it apart piece by piece, indeed so effectively that it was nominated for an Academy Award. As Roger Ebert put it at the time, “Whatever happened at Waco, these facts remain: It is not against the law to hold irregular religious beliefs. It is not illegal to hold and trade firearms. It is legal to defend your own home against armed assault, if that assault is illegal. It is impossible to see this film without reflecting that the federal government, from the top down, treated the Branch Davidians as if those rights did not apply.”

NSA agent Remy tells it like it is in “Tap It: The NSA Slow Jam.” [3 min]

Topics: Search & Seizure

“I Belong to Me,” could easily be the musical theme to self-ownership. An inspiring song from the German musical Elisabeth, with artists Andre Rieu, Mirusia Louwerse. [4 min]

Topics: Individualism

Ron Paul and musician Michael Gregory make an impassioned plea to end the War on Drugs–in “The War on Drugs is a Failure.” [3 min]

Topics: Legalize Drugs

Kacey Musgraves recommends you ignore those trying to control you, and “Follow Your Arrow.” [3 min]

Topics: Individualism

“Serfdom USA” explains, in music, the essentials of Hayek’s Road to Serfdom. A fun libertarian music video from The Future of Freedom Foundation. [3 min]

Topics: Anti-Socialism

Musician Dorian Electra sings “I’m in Love with Friedrich Hayek.” This clip, produced by her when she was studying Hayek in high school, launched her internet singing career. [3 min]

Topics: Libertarian Heroes

A song to go bankrupt by, “Raise the Debt Ceiling Rap,” by Remy. [2 min]

Topics: Econ 101 | Incompetent Government

“No Knock Raid,” by Lindy, is a powerful indictment of the War on Drugs, but not recommended for everyone, because…WARNING: GRAPHIC VIOLENCE–INCLUDES DEA SHOOTING OF MAN AND DOG. [5 min]

Topics: Search & Seizure | Legalize Drugs

Musician Frank Turner wows the crowd in “Sons of Liberty,” an energetic call to defend freedom. [5 min]

Topics: Resistance to Tyranny

In “Liberty,” singer Jordan Page reminds libertarians…you are not alone. [5 min]

Topics: Resistance to Tyranny

Libertarian Music Links

More music videos by Dorian Electra
More music videos by Jordan Page
More music videos by Remy
Libertarian musicals in film

The top 10 are listed here in alphabetical order. This list will evolve as additional libertarian movies are noted and reviewed. Here are the best of the best…

1. Citizenfour

Up until a few years ago, you might have thought your guilty late-night searches for Justin Bieber/Selena Gomez pics were between you and Google; but now, thanks to Edward Snowden, we all know we are being watched, constantly watched, “for our own good.” As much thriller as documentary, Citizenfour tells the story of how Edward Snowden revealed for the first time bombshell proof that the U.S. government is routinely and secretly engaged in domestic spying. This is one of the very few films on this website to earn this site’s highest score in both libertarian content and production quality. This film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

“Riveting, as well as the most indispensable documentary of the year.”
–BBC

More About This Film… | Topics: Search & Seizure

2. Dallas Buyers Club

Having your medications controlled by an all-powerful regulatory agency is great, because you can never be too careful. Oh wait you can be too careful, like when you are *dying* and the agency won’t allow you have access to experimental meds because…safety first. That was the situation in 1988, when thousands of AIDs victims were being eaten alive by a hellish virus and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) denied them access to life-saving medications. Fortunately, the world has heroes; in this case, the hero was AIDs patient Ron Woodruf, an ordinary man turned outlaw angel, who defied the FDA to smuggle unapproved pharmaceutical drugs into the U.S. in order to treat fellow victims of HIV. This film won three Academy Awards and was nominated as well for Best Picture.

“Dallas Buyers Club is a terrific movie with a strong libertarian message about self-help, entrepreneurship, overbearing and even lethal regulation, and social tolerance.”
–David Boaz, Cato Institute

More About This Film… | Topics: Anti-Regulation | Legalize Drugs

3. Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree

Libertarian activist Derrick J. Freeman chronicles his arrest and incarceration for five “crimes” — videoing police, dancing in a public place, smoking cannabis, wearing a hat in court, and riding a bike — in a civil disobedience spree that demonstrates just how petty and dangerous is our ever-expanding body of law. Although not a major studio production, this film gets points for its gutsy young star who demonstrates unequivocally that government is force…and who paid with months in prison to bring that point to film. This is one of the most popular libertarian movies for students on this list.

“You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll be outraged at the people who made a ‘criminal’ out of one of the most peaceful people you would ever meet.”
–Free Press Publications

More About This Film… | Topics: Law & Liberty | Libertarianism 101

4. Do Not Resist

In this film the viewer gets an extended first-hand look at the working lives of ordinary police. What gradually becomes apparent in this cinematic ride-along is that the strong-arm methods they are being trained in, the military-grade equipment they are being given, the high-tech tools they use to get past individual privacy, and even the SWAT outfits they wear, are in many cases creating a culture and a capacity for potential abuse of power. Demonstrating that point is the greatest strength of Do Not Resist. You see the humanity and ordinariness of both the people behind the badge and the people they harry and arrest. Indeed, it’s the very ordinariness and best of intentions that makes what is witnessed so worrisome. No one seems to think anything is wrong with blitzkrieg-style tactics being used in the name of minor offenses, nor is anyone concerned about what that means for the Citizen-State relationship.

“When it was over, I had to force myself to exhale. What makes this movie so powerful is its terrifying portrayal of the mundanities of modern policing.”
–Washington Post

More About This Film… | Topics: Law & Liberty

5. Good Bye Lenin

So what do you do when your mother — a committed socialist — sees the liberation of Berlin, has a stroke, and the doctors warn you that in her now very fragile state the slightest shock – including news of the fall of socialism — could kill her. Well, of course you hide news of recent events, recreate East Germany in her convalescent room, and keep it going for as long as you can. The lengths her son goes to in order to provide her now abandoned inferior socialist consumer goods, fake communist-style news casts for her to watch on video, and to persuade others to join in the charade, is the core of the film’s comedy; and because he is doing all this out of love — also its heart. This thoroughly enjoyable film is also a sweet and honest one, that works in every respect (it won a slew of European film awards).

“The cockamamie way foreign language films are chosen for Oscar consideration is evident in the fact that Good Bye, Lenin wasn’t even nominated. I don’t claim to have seen every entry from around the world, but it’s hard to imagine five better than this deliciously offbeat comedy, as wildly inventive as anything Billy Wilder ever conceived.”
–SFGate

More About This Film… | Topics: Anti-Socialism

6. Indoctrinate U

Pity the college-bound young people of today. They face not just the usual challenges of college life–being away from home for the first time, learning independence, and long hours of rigorous coursework. No, this generation must also endure a politically one-sided and aggressively-PC university system that demands from its young charges intellectual conformity, and backs those demands with threats of social and physical intimidation, “psychological counseling,” and ultimately career-shattering dismissal. It can’t be that bad, you say? Watch Indoctrinate U.

“Few know little about the rot on many college campuses. Indoctrinate U is a recently released documentary, written and directed by Evan Coyne Maloney, that captures the tip of a disgusting iceberg.”
–Human Events

More About This Film… | Topics: Freedom of Speech, Propaganda

7. Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron

Projected here is a future “Progressive” America, in which all exceptional human intelligence and achievement has been fully stamped out in order to eliminate the destructive consequences of envy. For a cinematic attack on enforced equality, you could hardly do better than this wonderful film. It fully articulates the price of enforced equality, in terms of both lost liberty and of those accomplishments that inequitably great people make possible. Based on a Kurt Vonnegut story, it has an imaginative and thought-provoking quality. This is a moving and stimulating experience, and one of the most dead-on libertarian films ever made.

“Harrison Bergeron is a real gem.”
–Sci-Fi Movie Page

More About This Film… | Topics: Equality & Envy | Individualism

8. Mao’s Great Famine

You know that cool Mao t-shirt your friend bought at the bookstore? You might want to tell him to return it. Fearless Leader was responsible for the single biggest holocaust in human history (a death toll of 45 million), also known as “Mao’s Great Famine,” which happens to be the title of this French-made documentary on the subject. By the way, the same thing goes for that Fidel Castro t-shirt.

“The three-year famine is one of the major human tragedies during the reign of Mao. This film not only provides a real historical picture, it also brings a wider lens to the period of time until 1976, the end of the Cultural Revolution. The film is recommended to be used as a supplemental teaching material for college history and political science classes.”
–Educational Media Reviews Online

“Between 1958 and 1962, economic policy advocated by Mao resulted in the death of some 50 million people. Archive pictures and testimonials in support, this documentary unveils this dark episode in the history of modern China.”
–France5

More About This Film… | Topics: Democide | Anti-Socialism

9. Miss Virginia

So what does a Mom do if her son’s public high school is a crap institution that can’t even keep him safe let alone teach anything? Well, if she’s Virginia Walden Ford she kicks bureaucratic ass. Miss Virginia tells the true story of a Mom who fought a pitched, ultimately victorious, battle with educational authorities to create the District of Columbia voucher program — and save her son.

“A heartfelt ode to an important historical figure.”
–Film Threat

“Miss Virginia gives a voice to the voiceless children who would otherwise remain a part of the system. Five-star film.”
–Black Girl Nerds

More About This Film… | Topics: Government Schools

10. No Safe Spaces

Freedom of speech is under siege on college campuses, and threats to First Amendment rights are spreading — as demonstrated in this provocative documentary. No Safe Spaces was the #1 political documentary of 2019 in terms of box office sales, despite repeated threats including thugs entering theaters and intimidating moviegoers. Some people really did not want others to see this film. It won the Grand Prize at the Anthem Film Festival.

“Should [free speech] be banned? A lot of us — most of us — would say no. So why are our campuses, which are supposed to be about the free exchange of ideas, saying yes? No Safe Spaces is a smart, vital, urgent, and provocative exploration of that question.”
–Variety

More About This Film… | Topics: Freedom of Speech

11. Sons of Liberty

American’s founders were old rich guys with powdered wigs, right? No, not at all. At the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Alexander Hamilton was just 21. James Madison was 25. John Paul Jones was 28. Most were under 40. And far from being dry intellectuals, they were the cool crowd of their time, men of intellect and action. In that sense, this is actually a truer picture than you get from more staid accounts. Sons of Liberty breathes new life into the story of the Revolution, by dramatizing it in terms not just accessible but engaging, even one might say sexy. Who knew Sam Adams was a daring heartthrob? This is just good storytelling; you feel for the rebels, you understand what they are fighting for, and you admire them for the heroes they were. The ending scene of the film, when the Founders are signing the Declaration of Independence, and full-on war finally breaks out, is particularly touching. Cinematography is also superior, at times even artistic.

“Sons of Liberty rips the powdered wigs off America’s founding fathers. In a good way.”
–New York Daily News

More About This Film… | Topics: Libertarian Heroes

12. Sweden: Lessons for America

College socialists love to point to the “Nordic model” as a working example of the socialist ideal. Yes, socialism failed in Russia, China, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania, Afghanistan, Angola, Benin, the Congo, Ethiopia, Grenada, Kampuchea, Mongolia, Mozambique, Somalia, Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, Cuba, Venezuela, and so on (of course, that wasn’t real socialism), but it has succeeded in Scandinavia. And if it has even that one win, then it’s clearly a go! But what if Sweden isn’t an argument for socialism – but an argument for capitalism? That’s the question Swedish economist Johan Norberg asks in this persuasive documentary.

“Debunks outdated myths about the Scandinavian nation.”
–Reason

More About This Film… | Topics: Pro-Capitalism

Past Winners

The following were previously on the Top 10 list of movies for students but were displaced by newly-discovered films that better represented the objectives of this list. These are nonetheless top notch films worthy of libertarian attention.

The Cartel
Reporter Bob Bowdon investigates corruption, waste, and intimidation in U.S. public schools…and finds plenty. Topics: Government Schools | Incompetent Government

The Castle
When an airport attempts to “compulsorily acquire” a home in its vicinity through the use of eminent domain, the homeowner it intends to evict fights back. Topics: Eminent Domain

Free to Choose
In this landmark Free to Choose series, Nobel-Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman guides the viewer through eleven documentaries on the workings of the market and its relation to human liberty. Topics: Econ 101 | Libertarian Heroes

More Information on Libertarian Movies for Students

–Top 10 Libertarian Music Videos
–Top 25 Libertarian Movies & Films
–Top 25 Libertarian Documentaries

–Libertarian Film Facebook Group
–Anthem (Libertarian) Film Festival
–Links on filmmaking, libertarian awards, internships and festivals
–Libertarian Films on Netflix (either streaming or DVD)
–Libertarian Film Shorts

The top 25 are listed here in reverse-chronological order. This list will evolve as additional libertarian documentaries are noted and reviewed. Here are the best of the best…

1. How Jack Became Black (2018)

A father forced by the public school system to categorize his multiracial children by “primary race” explores the silliness of racial identity. [ How Jack Became Black credits: Dir: Eli Steele/ 96 min/ Documentary] Topics: Equality & Law | Individualism

“There is a growing group in this country who feel that they cannot be simply placed into one racial category. Yet, what if that is exactly what society is trying to make them do? This is a battle we see taking place in the new documentary How Jack Became Black.”
–The Black Geeks

2. Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (2017)

A little-known titanic intellectual and political battle took place in NYC in the 1950s, a battle that would decide how most of us would live. It was between Robert Moses — the city’s “master planner,” who envisioned bulldozing NYC’s old neighborhood’s and erecting in their place miles and miles of skyskraper public housing — and on the other hand a minor journalist, Jane Jacobs, who had made some keen, and soon to be ground breaking Hayekian observations on spontaneous order in city development, observations that shook urban planning to the core and affected city design all over the world. This delightful documentary is a tribute to Jacobs and her “battle for the city.” Topics: Eminent Domain

“The movie invites you to sink into Jacobs’ challengingly supple and vibrant analysis of why cities, which we mostly take for granted, are in fact rather magical places.”
–Variety

3. Citizenfour (2014)

As much thriller as documentary, Citizenfour tells the story of how Edward Snowden revealed for the first time bombshell proof that the U.S. government is routinely and secretly engaged in domestic spying. This is one of the very few on this list to earn this site’s highest score in both libertarian content and production quality. Topics: Search & Seizure

“Riveting, as well as the most indispensable documentary of the year.”
–BBC

4. The Internet’s Own Boy (2014)

Aaron Swartz—an internet wunderkind and “open access” advocate—is threatened with 35 years in federal prison for the crime of downloading a large number of copyrighted documents, and commits suicide. Topics: Law & Liberty

“…the most emotionally devastating movie ever made about hacking and freedom of information.”
–Variety

5. Margaret: Death of a Revolutionary (2013)

This film focuses on Margaret Thatcher’s battle to reduce the size and scope of the British state, her personal dream of giving hope to the poor through free markets, and her final undoing by establishment cronies within her own party. It’s an inspiring documentary that will give you new respect for this under-appreciated hero who, though not a full-on libertarian, did more to roll back state power than any other major politician of the twentieth century. Topics: Anti-Socialism

“Though it presented its thesis as radical and counterintuitive — that Margaret Thatcher was no conservative but a working-class revolutionary — I’d say it made more sense than all the other Maggie tributes I’ve read put together.”
–The Spectator

6. Dog Days (2013)

The uphill battle of one immigrant entrepreneur to create a new business is chronicled in this much-lauded documentary, which gives particular focus to the maddeningly hostile regulatory environment such struggling business-people must overcome to get anything done. Topics: Anti-Regulation | Creator-as-Hero | Pro-Immigration

“[Dog Days]…tells the classic American tale of entrepreneurs struggling to get their businesses off the ground in the face of endless bureaucratic rules and regulations—which shouldn’t be a part of their story at all.”
–Institute for Justice

7. Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree (2012)

Libertarian activist Derrick J. Freeman chronicles his arrest and incarceration for five “crimes” — videoing police, dancing in a public place, smoking cannabis, wearing a hat in court, and riding a bike — in a civil disobedience spree that demonstrates just how petty and dangerous is our ever-expanding body of law. Although not a major studio production, this film gets points for its gutsy young star who demonstrates unequivocally that government is force…and who paid with months in prison to bring that point to film. Topics: Anti-Regulation | Government Enforced Morality | Law & Liberty | Libertarianism 101

“You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll be outraged at the people who made a ‘criminal’ out of one of the most peaceful people you would ever meet.”
–Free Press Publications

8. The House I Live In (2012)

The full spectrum of people involved in the War on Drugs–law enforcement authorities, convicts, journalists, academics and doctors–are interviewed here to rip the lid off a prison-industrial complex that is destroying the lives of millions. Many documentaries have been made about the effect of drug laws; this highly-acclaimed film is one of the best. Topics: Legalize Drugs

“It’s a film as profoundly sad as it is enraging and potentially galvanizing, and it’s one of the most important pieces of nonfiction to hit the screen in years.”
–Los Angeles Times

9. Battle for Brooklyn (2011)

When influential politicians and powerful business interests use eminent domain to seize part of Brooklyn for a city-approved development scheme, local residents fight back. Topics: Eminent Domain

“The movie…has heart, soul and chutzpah…Feisty but fairly reported…The time line that drives ‘Battle for Brooklyn’ makes it as urgent as any Hollywood thriller.”
–New York Daily News

10. The Cartel (2009)

Reporter Bob Bowdon investigates corruption, waste, and intimidation in U.S. public schools…and finds plenty. Topics: Government Schools | Incompetent Government | Unions & Monopolies

“Brisk, incisive and mind-boggling…”
–Los Angeles Times

11. The Soviet Story (2008)

The untold story of Soviet mass murder is documented through rare archival photographic footage and interviews with survivors. The extermination of tens of millions of Soviet citizens at the hands of their own government is one of the biggest under-reported crimes of the twentieth century, under-reported because left-leaning intellectuals are uncomfortable with the parallels it obviously implies between the Soviet and Nazi systems. Those parallels get laid out cold here. Topics: Democide | Anti-Socialism

“…gripping, audacious and uncompromising.”
–The Economist

12. Indoctrinate U (2007)

Humorous and hard-hitting examination of politically correct campus speech codes and the ‘thought police’ who enforce them. Topics: Freedom of Speech | Propaganda

“The average taxpayer and parents who foot the bill know little about the rot on many college campuses. ‘Indoctrinate U’…captures the tip of a disgusting iceberg.”
–Human Events

13. Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism (2005)

Socialism once promised to deliver “Heaven on Earth;” it not only failed to do so but in many cases delivered a state-sponsored hell instead. This documentary chronicles its rise and fall, and tells much of the untold story of how socialism all began. Topics: Anti-Socialism

“A remarkably comprehensive and entertaining telling of the history of socialism, full of little-known details and compelling character sketches of historical key players. It is no dry exposition, but a story of human drama touching every corner of the globe, and intelligently structured to give a clear step-by-step sense of the order of events.”
–MissLiberty.com

14. Innocents Betrayed (2003)

An examination of the global history of gun control laws reveals their dark side, how they have been commonly used to disarm target groups in advance of organized genocide, and to victimize women and minorities. Topics: Democide | Second Amendment

“All the gun-control geeks who mindlessly applauded Michael Moore’s dishonest Bowling for Columbine should be duct-taped to metal folding chairs and forced to watch Innocents Betrayed…In 58 minutes, [it] shows how, in the last century, civilian disarmament led to the slaughter of more than 100 million people at the hands of their own governments.”
–LewRockwell.com

15. Grass (1999)

So how did U.S. government policy with respect to marijuana get to be so absurd? You get the full answer to that question here in this well-researched and entertaining documentary. Although this film is serious in its implications, the telling is light, even comic at times, as the main focus is on mocking U.S government marijuana policy and those who would defend it. In this regard, good use is made of early (now laughable) propaganda films on pot, like High on the Range and Reefer Madness, as well as videotaped speeches and interviews by drug warriors. This is an enjoyable film, and the comic aspect of it also makes it a good pick to share with non-libertarian friends, as it communicates its very libertarian message in a relatively palatable form. Topics: Legalize Drugs | Propaganda

“Although Grass is serious in its implications, the telling is light, even comic at times, as the main focus is on mocking U.S government marijuana policy and those who would defend it.”
–MissLiberty.com

16. Sex, Drugs & Consenting Adults (1998)

This provocative film by John Stossel examines virtually the entire panoply of criminalized victimless behavior, including: pornography, prostitution, gambling, drug use, ticket “scalping,” sodomy, adultery, use of non-FDA approved medical treatments, and euthanasia. Taking each in turn, Stossel offers both critics and defenders of laws prohibiting these activities a chance to speak, himself acting as devil’s advocate against all sides. These interactions are wonderfully useful at showing just how shallow the arguments for such laws really are, and give a rare forum for the arguments against. This is a fantastic film from a libertarian perspective and is recommended for outreach material. Topics: Government Enforced Morality | Social Tolerance | Libertarianism 101 | John Stossel

17. Greed (1998)

This bold documentary makes the case that greed actually is good. Documentarian John Stossel makes his points in an evenhanded manner and with crystal clarity, employing a variety of colorful examples. Even more importantly, he does so without pulling any punches, at one point favorably comparing the good done by junk bond king Michael Milken to that done by Mother Theresa! This provocative film challenges the idea that force should be used to bring about equality, and will appeal to Ayn Rand fans in particular. Topics: Equality & Envy | Econ 101 | Pro-Capitalism | John Stossel

18. Liberty! The American Revolution (1997)

This PBS production is one of the best documentary tellings of the story of the American Revolution ever made. Its net effect is to turn history, which appeals to few, into historic drama, which has a much wider appeal. This six-part series is not just informative; it’s often touching, exciting, inspiring, and full of wonderful details about individuals. Above all it gives a sense of the greatness of the people involved in the Revolution. As told here, the American Revolution, which over time has revolutionized the world, was a very fluid series of events. But for the courage, intelligence, and dedication of a handful of people, it would never have gone where it did. This enjoyable series will leave you much better informed about this pivotal moment, not just in American history, but in human history. Topics: American Revolution | Right to Secede

19. Waco: Rules of Engagement (1997)

If you’ve ever wondered what actually happened in the 1993 Waco Masscare, why and how the government was able to kill dozens of people who had never been convicted of anything, watch this film. Step by step the government’s version of the story is unraveled, and in its place is left a holocaust that can only be attributed to an incredible abuse of state power. The high quality of this film, and its consequent Academy Award nomination, has given it credibility with all corners of the political spectrum. If you’re looking for a film to demonstrate to skeptical friends that yes, it can happen here—this is the one. Topics: Democide | Propaganda

“Whatever happened at Waco, these facts remain: It is not against the law to hold irregular religious beliefs. It is not illegal to hold and trade firearms. It is legal to defend your own home against armed assault, if that assault is illegal. It is impossible to see this film without reflecting that the federal government, from the top down, treated the Branch Davidians as if those rights did not apply.”
–Roger Ebert

20. Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (1997)

Despite Ayn Rand’s rejection of the libertarian movement, she remains one of its strongest influences. This Academy-Award-nominated biography should appeal to her many libertarian fans. Given that Rand’s novels have sold by the hundreds of thousands and that American readers have rated her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, as the second most influential book in their lives after the Bible, this film is way overdue. Yes, it’s hero worship. But what better tribute for a hero-worshipper? Topics: Ayn Rand

“…an enriching historical perspective of the life and times of best-selling author Ayn Rand.”
–Pro Box Office

21. George Washington: The Man Who Wouldn’t Be King (1992)

George Washington is probably the only leader in human history to have turned down the offer of supreme power over a continent; and not only did he turn down the opportunity to become king, he deliberately handed that power over to a democratic process, thus launching the first major democracy since ancient Greece. This informative and at times touching documentary will instill new admiration for this essential man, without whom the U.S. might have remained a British colony, or worse, become a monarchy or military dictatorship. Topics: American Revolution

22. Improper Conduct (1984)

Cuban refugees detail Castro’s persecution of “undesirables.” This is probably the most effective documentary ever made about socialist repression of personal liberty. The particular genius here is that it is the testimony of actual Cuban refugees, dozens of them, that gradually builds a damning and irrefutable picture of what it’s like to live in a “worker’s paradise.” The stories they relate of the labor camps to which they were sent are consistent, shocking, and very credible. This documentary was awarded the Grand Prix at the Twelfth International Human Rights Festival and is one of the very few on this site to earn the highest score in both libertarian content and production quality. Topics: Social Tolerance | Sexual Liberty | Anti-Socialism

“The movie’s tone is civilized, but the testimony is as savage as it’s convincing.”
–New York Times

23. Free to Choose (1980)

In this series, Milton Friedman guides the viewer through ten documentary-style lectures on the workings of the market and its relation to human liberty. This is a persuasive and entertaining exposition of libertarian ideas, and it’s a pleasure to see them presented with such clarity and charm. It’s a testament to the power of Friedman’s “radical” proposals—and perhaps this series itself—that some have already been implemented and others have become common subjects for discussion. Nonetheless, most viewers will not find the series excessively dated. The underlying theme of liberty versus state control is everlasting. Topics: Econ 101, Libertarianism 101, Pro-Capitalism, Milton Friedman

24. Karl Hess: Toward Liberty (1980)

Pro-liberty documentaries rarely win an Academy Award, but this one did, for Best Documentary Short. It examines the intellectual treck that took former Goldwater speechwriter Karl Hess first from the Republican Party to involvement in left-wing circles such as the Students for a Democratic Society, and finally to joining the then-budding libertarian movement. Hess’s transformation is emblematic of the early history of libertarianism, when small government advocates on the Right found common ground with anti-draft pro-personal-liberty advocates on the Left and melded into a new pro-liberty intellectual and political force. Topics: Libertarianism 101

25. The Incredible Bread Machine (1975)

A basic introduction to the ideas of liberty, emphasizing the relationship between personal and economic freedom. In the very early days of libertarianism, before the word “libertarian” had even gained common currency, let alone before the ideas it represented had blossomed into political significance, this short film was like rain on an intellectual desert. It’s now dated but still serviceable and is additionally interesting in its own right as a window into the early libertarian movement. Topics: Libertarianism 101 | Econ 101

Past Winners

The following were on the Top 25 list previously but were displaced by newly-discovered films that better represented the objectives of this list. These are nonetheless top notch films worthy of libertarian attention.

Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case (2013)
A documentary examination of trumped-up charges brought against artist Ai Weiwei by the communist Chinese government, and of his heroic defiance. Topics: Freedom of Speech | Resistance to Tyranny

The Lottery (2010)
Five NYC students enter a lottery for acceptance to a local charter school, their only hope of escaping a government school system otherwise fully in the self-serving grip of the teachers union…but not all will win their ticket out of the education-industrial complex. Topics: Government Schools | Incompetent Government

Additional Libertarian Documentaries

More such libertarian documentaries can be found in the documentary section of Miss Liberty’s Film & Documentary World.

The top 25 are listed here in reverse-chronological order. This list will evolve as additional libertarian movies are noted and reviewed. Here are the best of the best…

1. Loving (2016)

A married interracial couple’s determination to reside in their home state of Virginia, in violation of Virginia laws against interracial marriage, leads to the legal overturning of all such laws in sixteen states. Based on a true story. [ Loving credits: Dir: Jeff Nichols/ Ruth Negga, Joel Edgerton, Will Dalton/ 123 min/ Drama, Romance/ Government as Bigot, Sexual Liberty, Social Tolerance]. Topics: Government as Bigot | Sexual Liberty | Social Tolerance

“Loving captures at once the tension of man’s morally principled stand against the state, love’s intimacy and the immeasurable toll government control exacts upon the best people…It’s a hard, moving and elegiac movie and it ranks with Black or White and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner high among Hollywood’s greatest interracial-themed films.”
–Scott Holleran

2. Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

The true story of AIDS patient Ron Woodroof, an ordinary man turned hero, who defied the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to smuggle unapproved pharmaceutical drugs into the U.S. in order to treat fellow victims of HIV. Topics: Anti-Regulation | Legalize Drugs

“Dallas Buyers Club is a terrific movie with a strong libertarian message about self-help, entrepreneurship, overbearing and even lethal regulation, and social tolerance.”
–David Boaz, Cato Institute

3. Still Mine (2012)

When a rural farmer builds a new home as a kindness to his ailing wife, a government bureaucrat threatens to tear it down for building code violations. Based on a true story. Topics: Anti-Regulation

“Still Mine is one of the best libertarian-themed movies I’ve ever seen…It’s a gripping tale of one fiercely independent man facing a soulless bureaucracy. It is more than a political story. It’s about families, about aging, about love, about responsibility…”
–Sharon Harris, Advocates for Self-Government

“In the slender plot, Craig proceeds to build his dream house by hand, unaware, until a hard-nosed government inspector (Jonathan Potts) comes calling, that he is flouting the local building code by not submitting plans and specifications for approval. After a stop work order is imposed, and numerous building code violations are cited, Craig eloquently argues his case. But there is no fighting the rigid, unsympathetic bureaucracy…”
–New York Times

4. Amazing Grace (2006)

The relentless determination of one man, William Wilberforce, turns the tide of history to spark the beginning of the end of the global slave trade. Topics: Anti-Slavery | Law & Liberty

“This is one of the greatest stories in history. And now it is the subject of an impressive new movie…the story reminds us that humanity has made great progress toward freedom, that each battle for freedom can be long and seemingly futile, but that the goal is worth time and money and effort.”
–The Guardian

5. Das Experiment (2001)

A psychological experiment in which test subjects are divided into “prisoners” and “guards” spins out of control when the “guards” take their authority a little too seriously. Topics: Power Corrupts

“German audiences and film critics alike have lavished Das Experiment with praise, both for its provocative story and for a fine performance by German cinema idol Moritz Bleibtreu in the leading role. It’s not exactly uplifting; but it is a bit wise, because it illustrates a profound truth the world could benefit by knowing better–that unconstrained power, even in the hands of the most ordinary people, is one of the keys to the gates of Hell.”
–MissLiberty.com

“As a debut work it’s nothing short of astonishing, a director completely in control of the film and the viewer. This is cinema not for the faint hearted, where you have to go into the dark places first before you can see the light.”
–Eye for Film

6. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999)

In the name of saving the children from obscene language, the parents of the South Park kids go to all extremes—including censorship, mind-controlling implants, executions, and finally war on Canada. Topics: Freedom of Speech | Individualism

“While censorship is the filmmakers’ main target, Parker and Stone also poo-poo Hollywood elitism, jingoism, racism, homophobia, Winona Ryder, Bill Gates and Conan O’Brien. Their favorite monster is the Motion Picture Association of America, self-appointed guardians of the nation’s chastity. It’s all in good dirty fun and in service of their pro-tolerance theme.”
–Washington Post

7. The Castle (1997)

When an airport attempts to “compulsorily acquire” a home in its vicinity through the use of eminent domain, the homeowner it intends to evict fights back. Topics: Eminent Domain

“The Castle reminds us of the value of small gestures, assuming the best in people, picking your fights and being fiercely loyal to those you love. When offered a tidy packet to sell his home, Darryl responds with a line that distills the film’s emotional essence: ‘You can’t buy what I’ve got.’”
–The Guardian

“A nice defense of private property, and very funny to boot.”
–David Boaz, Cato Institute

8. Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron (1995)

In a future America, all exceptional human intelligence and achievement is stamped out in order to eliminate the destructive consequences of envy. Topics: Equality & Envy | Individualism

“‘Teacher: “What is the first article of the new American Constitution?’ Student: ‘That all men are not created equal. It’s the responsibility of the government to render them so.’ Based on that law, the population here is subjected to a variety of dumbing-down measures, including: electronic implants, brain surgery, and even boring television. Few would defend such a projected world, and that is what makes this film so useful. It shows in the extreme the undesirability of what is currently being done on a smaller scale…For a cinematic attack on enforced equality, you could hardly do better than this wonderful film. It fully articulates the price of enforced equality, in terms of both lost liberty and of those accomplishments that inequitably great people make possible. Based on a Kurt Vonnegut story, it has an imaginative and thought-provoking quality. This is a moving and stimulating experience, and one of the most dead-on libertarian films ever made.”
–MissLiberty.com

“Harrison Bergeron is a real gem.”
–Sci-Fi Movie Page

9. Strictly Ballroom (1992)

When a talented renegade defies the authority of the Australian Dance Federation by dancing to his own steps, there’s only one thing it can do—stop him! Topics: Individualism

“We toured the play version in Czechoslovakia at the time Communism was still very much around, and the Czechs would climb up on the stage going ‘Bravo!’ For them, the all-powerful Federation had nothing to do with ballroom dancing. To me, the film is not about ballroom dancing. It’s about overcoming oppression, whatever nature that oppression takes.”
–New York Times

10. An American Story (1992)

A small group of World War II veterans challenge their corrupt town government. Story inspired by actual events. Topics: Power Corrupts | Corrupt Government

“‘We didn’t take this kind of bull from the Nazis. I don’t know why we have to come home and take it from [the mayor].’ So says an angry veteran who returns home from the battlefields of World War II Europe to find his small business paying protection money to City Hall. Worse yet, the mayor has just rigged the election. Fresh from restoring democracy abroad, these veterans aren’t about to see it destroyed at home so they defend the ballot box — just the way Uncle Sam taught them to. This is just a B-picture, but unusual for demonstrating (through, as it happens, a true story) why we have the Second Amendment.”
–MissLiberty.com

11. The Palermo Connection (1990)

A New York City politician who campaigns on a platform of drug decriminalization encounters deadly opposition from the Mafia. Topics: Legalize Drugs

“In a moment of uncharacteristic integrity, a cynical politician attempts to live up to his own campaign promise ‘to make a difference.’ Realizing that the public could just as easily be manipulated to do what’s right—i.e., decriminalize drugs—he runs on such a platform. Friends and family begin cautioning that his platform may place him in danger. Organized crime makes too much money on the illegal trade to allow such a change. He ignores these warnings and the next thing you know, the Mafia threatens him with death if he doesn’t abandon his decriminalization platform. Will he give in or will he resist? Even he isn’t sure of the answer to that question until the very end…This is an unusually intelligent film, which benefits from an insightful screenplay coauthored by Gore Vidal. It’s also an effective thriller that conveys with some originality the subtle danger surrounding the politician. Much of this Franco-Italian production is shot in Palermo, Sicily, so it has an interesting Old World feel.”
–MissLiberty.com

12. Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)

The Big Three automakers use government influence to crush a competitor. Based on a true story. Topics: Pro-Capitalism | Unions & Monopolies | Corrupt Government

“Preston Tucker produced just fifty cars before his company was shut down by the federal government on the basis of trumped-up SEC violations. Although he was subsequently vindicated, the legal battle cost him his savings, and he died several years later. The destruction of Tucker’s company is especially unfortunate because his revolutionary automobile design stressed (then unusual) safety features, including—seatbelts, pop-out safety glass, and a padded dashboard…Tucker’s story, told here in a sympathetic light, is a good example of the creator-as-hero theme. It’s also a compelling illustration of the tendency for big government to operate on behalf of entrenched companies to the disadvantage of new entrants. The film’s energetic 1940s theme music is catchy, and there are some good performances. Martin Landau is outstanding as the crotchety finance man, and Jeff Bridges makes a likable Tucker.”
–MissLiberty.com

13. Orwell’s 1984 (1984)

A very effective adaptation of the George Orwell novel, which depicts a future totalitarian society—bleak in every aspect, thoroughly controlled, and impossible to escape. Topics: Anti-Socialism | Propaganda

“What Orwell feared, when he wrote his novel in 1948, was that Hitlerism, Stalinism, centralism, and conformity would catch hold and turn the world into a totalitarian prison camp. It is hard, looking around the globe, to say that he was altogether wrong.”
–Roger Ebert

14. Night Crossing (1982)

A heroic and ingenious father organizes an escape for his family from East Germany to the West via a homemade hot air balloon. Based on a true story. Topics: Escape from Socialism | Creator as Hero

“Incredible as it may seem, four adults and four children actually did float across the heavily guarded East German border in a balloon stitched together from pieces of sheet and nylon in 1979. That might seem a desperate measure, but by this time escape by land had been made nearly impossible. Miles of barbed wire, watchtowers, mines, and self-firing weapons blocked every opening to the free world. The film portrays the details of this amazing flight as well as the unhappy and dangerous existence under socialism that made it necessary…This entertaining and upbeat Disney film has a lot going for it. The story is inspiring. Music and timing of events are used effectively to build suspense. And John Hurt is particularly good in the leading role. This film would be a terrific introduction for kids to the concept of emigration controls.”
–MissLiberty.com

15. 1776 (1972)

The Founding Fathers declare American independence from Britain. Topics: American Revolution | Libertarian Heroes | Right to Secede

“This film is a good reminder of the intellectual battles and personal sacrifices that went into founding this country. Watching it would be a great way to celebrate the Fourth of July. My favorite quote from the film: ‘I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace, that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a Congress!’”
–MissLiberty.com

16. Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

In a future time when books are banned, a secret underground preserves the world’s literature. Topics: Freedom of Speech

“‘We’ve all got to be alike. The only way to be happy is for everyone to be made equal. So, we must burn the books.’ Thus is explained the government’s antibook rationale. That is: exposure to the ideas found in books makes people different; differences create social friction; therefore books must be destroyed…This is a wonderful Ray Bradbury story, and its antiauthoritarian content will make it of very strong interest to libertarians. Truffaut’s telling of this story is Hitchcockian at times, and seems all the more so supported, as it is, by an excellent Bernard Hermann musical score. In the end, one is left with the disturbing impression that such a society could actually be brought about.”
–MissLiberty.com

17. America, America (1963)

A young, oppressed Greek gives up everything to earn passage to America. Based on a true story. Topics: Pro-Immigration | Democide

“Elia Kazan not only directed but also wrote the script for this moving account of his immigrant uncle’s turn-of-the-century journey to the land of the free. The story is of epic proportions. It follows the experiences of Kazan’s uncle, then a young ethnic Greek, from his early conflicts with the oppressive ruling Turks in his hometown, through a series of disasters and setbacks that he must overcome to complete his nearly impossible journey to America…This is an outstanding, inspiring, landmark docudrama that serves as an important reminder of the beacon of freedom and hope America once represented, and to some degree still does.”
–MissLiberty.com

18. Victim (1961)

When a young gay man in 1960s Britain commits suicide rather than face an inquiry regarding (then illegal) homosexual activity, a closeted bisexual barrister avenges his death and fights the law responsible for it. Topics: Government as Bigot | Sexual Liberty | Social Tolerance

“Released at a time when any homosexual act between men was illegal, Victim has often been cited as the catalyst for the liberating Wolfenden Report and the subsequent legalisation of homosexual activities. Revolutionary and aware of its own importance, Victim successfully treads the precarious tightrope, being both a gripping drama and a taboo-smashing landmark.”
–Eye for Film

“Shot in high-contrast black-and-white, edged with the darkness of a sitting-room at night but trapped in a fierce spotlight, Bogarde is mesmerising. Crisply suited, dry-voiced and on the edge of tears, he painfully stifles the emotion threatening to destroy him. With the camera locked in close-up, he lifts his chin ever so slightly in defiance, his eyes widening into a glare of triumph that costs him everything.”
–The Independent

19. The Man in the White Suit (1951)

Note: The Man in the White Suit is this reviewer’s favorite of all the libertarian movies on this site.

A research scientist invents a fabric both indestructible and stainproof, but manufacturing interests and unions try to prevent its production. Topics: Creator as Hero

“‘Don’t you realize what [the invention of this fabric] means? Millions of people all over the world are living lives of drudgery, fighting an endless losing battle against shabbiness and dirt. You’ve won that battle for them. You’ve set them free. The whole world’s going to bless you.’ So says the inventor-hero’s girlfriend, in an early, optimistic view of the situation. But as Ayn Rand once said, the man who invented fire was probably burned at the stake, and that is pretty much what happens here.”
–MissLiberty.com

“Mischievous, impudent and droll.”
–New York Times

“It is interesting to note how even-handed it was in satirising both boardroom idiocy and trade union intransigence. Arguably Mackendrick’s most trenchant comedy.”
–The Telegraph

20. Green Grow the Rushes (1951)

The citizens of a small town in England outwit meddling officials from the Ministry of Agriculture. Topics: Anti-Regulation | Anti-Taxation

“’Unfortunately, Fitchwick, these marsh people refuse to recognize any authority. They claim to have some ridiculous charter from some old king granting them independence.’ So complains an officious Ministry of Agriculture bureaucrat about the people living in a remote English village. The central government no longer respects their independence, but the people themselves haven’t forgotten it. So, when bureaucrats from the Ministry of Agriculture arrive to ‘advise’ the local farmers on how to improve their ‘disgraceful’ level of productivity, they find a shocking degree of resentment and uncooperativeness. What a delightful story! This wonderful British comedy is full of interesting characters, many played with great style. Honor Blackman, in particular, is charming as a headstrong, fearless reporter opposite her beau, a young Richard Burton. It’s a terrifically amusing film and a gratifying example of what widespread civil disobedience can achieve.”
–MissLiberty.com

21. Harvey (1950)

A woman tries to have her eccentric brother institutionalized. Topics: Psychiatric Coercion | Social Tolerance

“Elwood P. Dowd is a gentle, harmless person. He’s kind to all he meets and sees the good in everyone and everything. But his peculiar belief that he is being accompanied through life by a giant invisible rabbit named Harvey is making life difficult for his live-in sister. So she decides to have him put away. That is, she tries to have him put away. That’s the main source of comedy here—somehow the innocent Dowd keeps evading capture, and meanwhile the sanity of others comes into question. This theme of social tolerance, of accepting benign differences in others, will appeal to libertarians. And it’s expressed here through one of the most charming comedies of confusion ever filmed.”
–MissLiberty.com

“Based on the Pulitzer-prize-winning play by Mary Chase, the film retains many theatrical devices…The writing is consistently witty, making full use of a splendid array of secondary characters.”
–Eye for Film

22. We the Living (1942)

It’s a fitting tribute to the universally antiauthoritarian nature of Ayn Rand’s ideas that this film — first produced in fascist Italy as an attack on communism — was then banned at the angry insistence of the Nazis, who considered it antifascist. Like the Rand novel on which it’s based, it is, of course, an attack on totalitarianism of all stripes. Considered by some film critics in Italy as their equivalent of Gone With the Wind, this engaging film has a touch of greatness. Topics: Anti-Socialism | Ayn Rand | Individualism

“An amazing piece of cinema…I loved every minute of it…Alida Valli has the same kind of quality on-screen as Garbo—just magical—what a performance! I think you will also fall under the spell of this film.”
—Michael Medved/Sneak Previews

“This is certainly the best film version of an Ayn Rand novel.”
–The Atlasphere

23. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

An ordinary American appointed to the Senate is nearly destroyed by a corrupt political machine, but triumphs in the end. Topics: Corrupt Government | Power Corrupts

“A stirring and even inspiring testament to liberty and freedom, to simplicity and honesty and to the innate dignity of just the average man.”
–New York Times

“Stewart’s character represents the powerful forces of American freedom, democracy and morality over oppression and evil in his emotional portrait of a naive, idealist, patriotic young politician who, after being sent to Washington (a symbol of liberty and democracy) as a junior senator from an un-named state, matures in wisdom, fights political corruption within his state’s political machine, and guards American values as a moral hero.”
–Filmsite’s 100 Greatest Films

24. Storm in a Teacup (1937)

An old woman’s refusal to pay for a dog license sets in motion a chain of events that humbles her local government. Topics: Free Press as Hero | Abuse of Power

“At the center of this story is a poor old woman and her mongrel dog. The old woman refused to pay for a dog license, and so has been fined five pounds. However, she can’t pay the fine. So the town mayor, a law-and-order man in the midst of a campaign for higher office, orders that the dog be seized and executed…It all ends in a hilarious climactic trial. What an enjoyable film! The script, based on a stage play, is tremendously witty, the acting talent (including a young Vivien Leigh) is some of the finest of its time, and the direction makes the most of both. For fans of British humor in particular, this is a real gem.”
–MissLiberty.com

“The comedy [is] delightfully played, scampers along like a pup under the joint direction of Victor Saville and Ian Dalrymple and has as flavorsome dialogue…In a word, Storm in a Teacup is a splendid comic brew.”
–New York Times

25. The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)

Posing as a useless dandy, an English gentleman secretly risks all to save innocent lives from the guillotine of the French Revolution. Topics: Democide | Escape from Socialism

“‘I sent them to the guillotine for the future happiness of the human race.’ So says Citizen Robespierre, expressing in a sentence the collectivist reasoning that was destined to leave in its path a worldwide series of genocides. This film dramatizes France’s early experience with revolutionary collectivism, focusing on the ‘Reign of Terror’ during which the French government tortured and put to death tens of thousands, mostly its upper and educated classes. Amidst this carnage enters our hero, snatching the innocent from the blood-soaked jaws of the state, as Wallenberg, Schindler, and unsung others would later do in real life…The 1934 recording looks its age, but in a way the oldness of the production actually gives it an additional historic quality. It’s not as slick as the more modern versions of this tale, but it’s my personal favorite.”
–MissLiberty.com

Past Winners

The following were on the Top 25 list previously but were displaced by newly-discovered films that better represented the objectives of this list. These are nonetheless top notch films worthy of libertarian attention.

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
A young Pakistani immigrant and his English boyfriend overcome all obstacles to launch a fabulous laundromat. Topics: Pro-Capitalism | Individualism

Additional Libertarian Movies & Films

More such libertarian movies can be found in the film section of Miss Liberty’s Film & Documentary World.

A more general US calendar for all upcoming films may be found here. More filmmaking resources for libertarians are here.

January | 2025

1-11 | Aaron Schwartz RIP, Died 1/11/13
The Internet’s Own Boy

1-22 | John Hurt Birthday
John Hurt: Libertarian Film Hero

1->> | Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
MLK/FBI
Martin Luther King Day, From Red House Furniture
YouTube Bans MLK Quoting Video As Racist
Social Tolerance

1->> | International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Democide

Check upcoming deadlines for libertarian filmmakers (1,2)
List most popular stories for year

February | 2025

2-1 | National Freedom Day (celebrating 13th Amendment, abolition of slavery)
Anti-Slavery

2-1 | World Hijab Day
Iranian Women: Defying The Clerics And Winning Freedom

2-2 | Ayn Rand’s Birthday
Ayn Rand Creator-as-Hero Pro-Capitalism

2-10 | Michael Apted’s Birthday
Michael Apted: Libertarian Film Hero

2-10 | 1918: Power’s War

2-14 | Valentine’s Day
Libertarian Date Night: Eight Romantic Films
Romance

2-22 | George Washington’s Birthday
George Washington: The Man Who Wouldn’t Be King
American Revolution

2->> | Academy Awards
Oscar Bait: Academy Award-Winning Trailer

Check upcoming deadlines for libertarian filmmakers (1,2)

March | 2025

3/17 | St. Patrick’s Day
James O’Keefe: Lucky Charms is Offensive

3/19 | Bruce Willis Birthday
Bruce Willis: Libertarian Film Hero

3/31 | Walter Williams Birthday
Walter Williams: Suffer No Fools

3->> | International Women’s Day
Ayn Rand in Film

3->> | Daylight Savings Time begins
Libertarian Video Shorts: Daylight Saving

Check upcoming deadlines for libertarian filmmakers (1,2)
Oscars?
–Oscar Bait
–Hollywood Hates You

April | 2025

4-2 | On This Date: Surfer Arrested During COVID Lockdown

4-3 | Leslie Howard Birthday
Leslie Howard: Libertarian Film Hero

4-13 | Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday
Thomas Jefferson
American Revolution

4-15 | US Taxes Due Day
Happy Tax Season: 14 Films To Help Get Through It

4-19 | On This Date, Waco Siege, 1993

4-19 | On This Date, Mae West Hides Contempt for Court

4-22 | Happy Earth Day /Sarc

4-24 | Tax Freedom Day
Anti-Taxation
Happy Tax Freedom Day

4-28 | Oskar Schindler’s Birthday
Schindler’s List
Democide

4->> | Alcohol Awareness Month
My Name is Bill W.
A Film For Alcohol Awareness Month

Check upcoming deadlines for libertarian filmmakers (1,2)
Oscars?
–Oscar Bait
–Hollywood Hates You

May | 2025

5-1 | Victims of Communism Day
Anti-Socialism Escape from Socialism Democide

5-3 | World Press Freedom Day
Free Press as Hero Freedom of Speech

5-4 | Jane Jacobs Birthday
Jane Jacobs: Battle for the City

5-8 | Friedrich Hayek’s Birthday
Libertarian Video Shorts: Friedrich Hayek
Econ 101

5-12 | Mother’s Day
Call Northside 777

5-20 | James Stewart Birthday
James Stewart: Libertarian Film Hero

5-20 | R.J. Mitchell’s Birthday
Spitfire

5-20 | Cambodian Genocide Day of Remembrance
The Killing Fields
The Girl Who Spelled Freedom

5-27 | US Memorial Day
Memorial Day Speech by Ronald Reagan

Check upcoming deadlines for libertarian filmmakers (1,2)

June | 2025

6-4 | Tiananmen Square Protest Anniversary
Remembering Tank Man
Moving the Mountain
Anti-Socialism Resistance to Tyranny

6-10 | Best Graduation Speech Ever: Don’t Be An Individual

6-12 | The Day Ronald Reagan Challenged the Berlin Wall

6-12 | Loving Day
Loving

6-15 | Anniversary of Magna Carta
David Starkey’s Magna Carta
Libertarian Video Shorts: Magna Carta
Law & Liberty Libertarianism101 Resistance to Tyranny

6-16 | Adam Smith’s Birthday
Pro-Capitalism Econ101

6-17 | Father’s Day
Father’s Day: Three Films to Celebrate the Day

6-21 | Edward Snowden Birthday
Citizenfour
Snowden

6-23 | Alan Turing Birthday
Alan Turing: Happy Angel Birthday

6-23 | Clarence Thomas Birthday
Justice Clarence Thomas: Happy Birthday

6-25 | George Orwell’s Birthday
Orwell’s 1984 in Three Films
Animal Farm (1999)
Animal Farm (1954)

6-26 | Order DVDs in time for July 4th
American Revolution Films for your July 4th

6-30 | Thomas Sowell Birthday
Thomas Sowell: Common Sense

6->> | Free State Project Convention: “Porc Fest”
Free State Project: 101 Reasons Liberty Lives in New Hampshire
Derrick J.’s Victimless Crime Spree
Escape From Socialism

6->> | LGBT Pride Month
Sexual Liberty

Check upcoming deadlines for libertarian filmmakers (1,2)
6->> | VidCon (World’s largest online video conference, Anaheim CA)

July | 2025

7-4 | US Independence Day
July 4th, Independence Day: Eight Short Films
George Washington Reads the Declaration of Independence
Sons of Liberty
American Revolution Resistance to Tyranny

7-17 — 7-20 | Anthem Film Festival
Anthem Film Festival: List of Nominees & Award Winners

7-27 | Persecution of Richard Jewell
25 Years Ago Today the FBI Framed Richard Jewell

7-31 | Milton Friedman’s Birthday
Free to Choose
Econ101 Libertarianism101 Pro-Capitalism

Check upcoming deadlines for libertarian filmmakers (1,2)

August | 2025

8-1 | The Battle of Athens, Tennessee
An American Story

8-4 | Raoul Wallenberg’s Birthday
Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg
Pimpernel Smith
Democide

8-5 | Marilyn Monroe RIP
Ayn Rand Defends Marilyn Monroe

8-15 | Back to School Reminders
Free for Teachers: Economics & Politics Videos
Libertarian Films for Students

8-20 | Ron Paul Birthday

8-24 | William Wilberforce’s Birthday
Amazing Grace
Anti-Slavery

8-29 | John Locke’s Birthday

Check upcoming deadlines for libertarian filmmakers (1,2)

September | 2025

9-3 | Labor Day
Unions & Monopolies

9-5 | Jury Rights Day
Libertarian Video Shorts: Jury Nullification
Courageous Mr. Penn

9-11 | Anniversary of World Trade Center Attack
Boatlift: An Untold Story of 9/11 Resilience
The Other 9/11 Story Told in 13 Hours

9-15 | Convention of States Day

9-16 | US Constitution Day
Star Trek: The Omega Glory: Kirk’s Greatest Speech

9-19 | Cameron Hawley Birthday
Cameron Hawley: Libertarian Film Hero

Check upcoming deadlines for libertarian filmmakers (1,2)

October | 2025

10-13 | Margaret Thatcher’s Birthday
Thatcher: Death of a Revolutionary

10-15 | Elections
Simpsons Kang and Kodos Mock Two-Party System
Honest Political Ads: Seven Short Films
If People Spoke Like Politicians

10-26 | Hillary Clinton Birthday
Hillary Clinton’s Sunset Boulevard
Klintonerdammerung

10-30 | Nestor Almendros Birthday
Nestor Almendros: Libertarian Film Hero

10-31 | Halloween
Four Halloween Films For Libertarians
Horror
Ray Bradbury Theater, Usher II

Check upcoming deadlines for libertarian filmmakers (1,2)

November | 2025

11-7 | Daylight Savings Time ends
Libertarian Video Shorts: Daylight Saving

11-9 | Fall of Berlin Wall, 1989
Anti-socialism Escape from Socialism
Goodbye Lenin

11-11 | US Veteran’s Day
I Fought for You

11-23 | US Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving: A Celebration of Property Rights?!

11-24 | Holomodor Remembrance Day
Holodomor Holocaust Remembered In Four Films

Check upcoming deadlines for libertarian filmmakers (1,2)

December | 2025

12-1 | 12 Libertarian DVD Holiday Gifts Under $10

12-2 | Private Property Defended: Glitter Bombs vs. Thieves

12-5 | 21st Amendment Ratified, Repealing Prohibition, 1933
Key Largo
The Wet Parade

12-6 | 13th Amendment Ratified, Abolishing Slavery, 1933
Anti-Slavery

12-15 | Bill of Rights Day
Happy Bill of Rights Day!

12-24 | Christmas Eve
Fire Alarm, Shots Fired At Nakatomi Plaza
A Very Libertarian Christmas
George Bailey Based on Real-Life Banker: A.P. Giannini
Die Hard: A Christmas Movie For Libertarians
Capitalist Villain in Christmas Movie Sets Record Straight

Check upcoming deadlines for libertarian filmmakers (1,2)

Libertarian Calendar Resources

Libertarian Party Event Schedule
Google Search: iLibertarian Calendar
Google Search: Libertarian Film Festival
Google Search: Libertarian Film Internship
Google Search: Libertarian Film Award

1. Brexit: The Movie (2016)

Brexit: The Movie, which argues with devastating persuasiveness the case for Britain’s exit from the EU, was produced on a budget of just £300,000. For a film with ambitions to change the UK national conversation, that is not much money.

Nonetheless, through sheer merit, Brexit: The Movie was viewed in a brief span of months an incredible 2 million times — more than the razor-thin vote spread between Remain and Leave. Was it the deciding factor that tipped the scales? Impossible to say, but it clearly helped.

Given that EU proponents are still trying to claw their way back to making the UK a vassal state of a US-style centralized federal government, the utility of this excellent film may not yet be exhausted. Director Martin Durkin is one of the most talented political documentary filmmakers of our time. His previous credits include three additional libertarian films: Margaret: Death of a Revolutionary, Britains Trillion Pound Horror Story, and The Great Global Warming Swindle.

“The movie is a libertarian’s wet dream of Randian proportions.” –Newsweek

2. Citizenfour (2014)

In 2013, while the Obama administration and its talking heads were busy claiming that there was no domestic spying program, and doing everything possible to discredit whistle-blower Edward Snowden (with the cooperation of a compliant liberal media), documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras was quietly preparing to rip the lid off of their well-orchestrated narrative with her bombshell documentary Citizenfour.

Using actual footage from Snowden’s initial conversations with journalists, held in secret in a Hong Kong hotel room, Poitras wove together a story so compelling it made Citizenfour as much edge-of-the-seat thriller as documentary, and the film ultimately won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Over night, Edward Snowden went from household name to household hero. Advocates of unrestricted surveillance have been on the defensive ever since. The Oliver Stone film Snowden is likely to carry this ball further across the finish line.

As evidence of the importance of this film, the US government has given director Laura Poitras its highest enemy-of-the-State honor: constant surveillance.

More About This Film… | Topics: Search & Seizure

“Riveting, as well as the most indispensable documentary of the year.” –BBC

3. Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Dallas Buyers Club tells a story of breathtaking incompetence and cold-blooded arrogance on the part of the medical establishment and the FDA, in the context of one AIDS victim’s fight to save himself and others. Perhaps for that reason, the script was rejected 137 times by Hollywood execs, and nearly given up. At the last moment an unlikely financier, a Texas fertilizer entrepreneur, decided to take a gamble on it, financing half of its tiny $4 million budget. It was filmed in just 25 days. When Dallas Buyers Club was finally released, it won three Academy Awards and was nominated as well for Best Picture.

The film puts the FDA’s obstinate demand for absolute control of pharmaceuticals, defended for decades on grounds of public safety, into an altogether different light — it turns out you can be too safe, like when you’re dying and the agency won’t allow you have access to experimental meds because…safety first. After the film’s release, the Right to Try movement got a second wind, and patient rights bills have been popping up with increased frequency.

More About This Film… | Topics: Anti-Regulation | Legalize Drugs

“A terrific movie with a strong libertarian message.” –David Boaz, Cato Institute

4. Waco: Rules of Engagement (1997)

In 1993, a conflict occurred between a reclusive religious group, the Branch Davidians, and various state and federal law enforcement agencies (assisted by the US military). Dozens of people were killed, including children. Initially, the Clinton Administration was able to pull off a masterful narrative campaign to explain what happened, painting a picture of right-wing religious nut-cases shooting police officers and then meeting a well-earned fiery demise.

Then Waco: Rules of Engagement hit the theaters. Step by step the government’s version of the story was unraveled, and in its place was left a holocaust that could only be attributed to an incredible abuse of state power. The high quality of this film, and its consequent Academy Award nomination, gave it credibility with all corners of the political spectrum. Ordinary people suddenly realized, yes, it can happen here. The film was a watershed event in the handling of armed conflicts, with priorities subsequently changing from rapid resolution to minimization of loss of life. The phrase “we don’t want another Waco” remains in common usage.

More About This Film… | Topics: Democide | Propaganda

“It is impossible to see this film without reflecting that the federal government, from the top down, treated the Branch Davidians as if [their] rights did not apply.” –Roger Ebert

5. Improper Conduct (1984)

After the Cuban revolution, here and there refugees began appearing, telling stories of death camps for gay people and for others Castro deemed “undesirable.” The scattered claims of abuse were haughtily dismissed by liberal journalists and angrily denied by Cuban authorities. The Left had wholeheartedly maintained a narrative that socialism was a paradise for gays; the stories simply could not be believed.

Improper Conduct grabbed that narrative by the throat and squeezed until the truth came out. It is probably the most effective documentary ever made about socialist repression of personal liberty. The particular genius here is that it is the testimony of actual Cuban refugees, dozens of them, that gradually builds a damning and irrefutable picture of what it’s like to live in a “worker’s paradise.” The stories they relate of the labor camps to which they were sent are consistent, shocking, and very credible. This documentary was awarded the Grand Prix at the Twelfth International Human Rights Festival and is one of the very few on this website to earn the highest score in both libertarian content and production quality.

After the release of Improper Conduct, never again could the Left claim that Cuba was a human rights model to be emulated, without that awkward subject coming up…death camps for gay people.

More About This Film… | Topics: Social Tolerance | Sexual Liberty | Anti-Socialism

“The movie’s tone is civilized, but the testimony is as savage as it’s convincing.” –New York Times

6. Free to Choose (1980)

Free to Choose brought the subject of free markets into America’s living rooms, and was seen by millions thanks to nationwide airing on PBS. In this series, Friedman guides the viewer through ten documentary-style lectures on the workings of the market and its relation to human liberty. The series made a case for economic freedom so lucid and persuasive that it may even have helped elect Ronald Reagan in 1980, and in any case certainly gave intellectual support and respectability to free market reforms put forward by both Reagan and Thatcher.

Free to Choose remains the single most comprehensive series on economic liberty ever produced, and although now decades old it’s still firing on all pistons and is available free online. It’s a testament to the power of Friedman’s then-radical proposals — and perhaps this series itself — that some have already been implemented and others have become common subjects for discussion.

More About This Series… | Topics: Econ 101, Libertarianism 101, Pro-Capitalism

7. The Incredible Bread Machine (1975)

The Incredible Bread Machine was not a major motion picture. It was not even a minor motion picture, inasmuch as it was largely distributed on film reels between interested individuals and clubs, without ever being shown in a commercial theater. But it had power beyond its production and distribution budget, for the simple reason that it spoke a forgotten truth at just the moment when at least some were looking for that truth.

In 1975, there was no Cato Institute, no Drug Policy Alliance, no Mercatus Center, no Students for Liberty. The Libertarian Party had been founded just four years earlier in someone’s living room and was a party more in theory than practice. Reason magazine, originally a mimeographed handout, had only been printed as a regular magazine for five years. The very concept of libertarianism, the very word, was new and unknown outside a small group of dedicated people. So how did it initially spread and grow, to the point that today anyone in politics reaching for political respectability claims to be at least “somewhat libertarian,” and the party’s presidential candidate is scoring 10% in the polls?

Enter WRI Education, a small group of dedicated libertarians who had the crazy idea of spreading their ideas through film (at the time an expensive and uncommon thing to do). The high point of their work was The Incredible Bread Machine, and the less well-known but award-winning Libra. These two films were like rain on an intellectual desert. Directed at college and high school audiences, they articulated the concepts of liberty in a fun, entertaining way and thereby helped to recruit that first wave of young advocates who transformed the fledgling movement into a global intellectual force. These films are now dated, but are nonetheless interesting in their own right as a window into the early libertarian movement.

More About This Film… | Topics: Libertarianism 101 | Econ 101

8. Victim (1961)

Victim was a revolutionary film and an act of courage for all involved. At the time it was made, homosexual activity was a serious offense in Britain, not to mention held in wide contempt. Its illegality spurred a virtual crime wave of blackmail against gay men. In fact, ninety percent of all such cases were gay related. The story concerns one such young gay man who is being forced to pay money, or face exposure and prison. When he commits suicide rather than go through a police inquiry, a closeted bisexual barrister avenges his death and fights the law responsible for it.

Six years after the the film’s release, homosexual activity was decriminalized in Britain. Victim has been specifically cited as the catalyst for the liberating Wolfenden Report, which made the political case for legalization.

More About This Film… | Topics: Government as Bigot | Sexual Liberty | Social Tolerance

“Shot in high-contrast black-and-white, edged with the darkness of a sitting-room at night but trapped in a fierce spotlight, Bogarde is mesmerising.” –The Independent

9. On the Waterfront (1954)

A series of Pulitzer Prize-winning articles, first published in 1948, ripped the lid off of union corruption and exposed the devastating effect it had on the lives of ordinary workers. On the Waterfront broadcast that news into every theater across the country and made it part of the national conversation.

Up to that point, unions had largely been seen as beneficent organizations that dutifully protected the interests of their workers. The idea that the union leadership might be corruptible and self-serving, even criminal, was a revelation. Union reform followed, membership declined, and unions never again saw the high-water mark of the 1950s.

Eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture) were heaped on this film and for good reasons, including: tight direction, inspired acting, Leonard Bernstein’s energetic music, and a brilliant script. Marlon Brando was born for the leading role and gives a remarkable performance as a rough-and-tumble bruiser, cynical and gritty on the outside but with a heart that melts in the hands of virtuous Eva Marie Saint.

More About This Film… | Topics: Unions & Monopolies

“On the Waterfront…was a mission to make the voices of protesting longshoremen heard.” –Library Muse, Dartmouth College

10. The Wet Parade (1932)

In 1931, Upton Sinclair published The Wet Parade, a novel about the harmful effects of Prohibition. A year later, Victor Fleming turned that novel into a powerful film.

It tells the story of two families in early twentieth century America. Each is plagued with the problems of alcohol addiction. Prohibition it is hoped will end those problems, but instead makes things infinitely worse.

This film was clearly intended to demonstrate the downside of Prohibition. And just in case the audience missed the point, it’s underscored near the end in a speech made by a discouraged Prohibition enforcement agent. Says he: “The whole business goes more like a farce each day. [It] costs the government fifty million dollars a year to enforce a law, and where are we? There’s more alcohol being made in this country than ever before. Thirty six thousand places in this town where men and women and seventeen-year-old kids get drunk. More speakeasies than there were saloons. And what’s more, the otherwise law-abiding citizen won’t put down a bottle till it’s empty, simply because we’re trying to force a law down their throats they don’t want. [Before Prohibition] they got good liquor, and they didn’t have to dodge machine gun bullets when they went walking on Sunday. Sometimes I get so disgusted I’d like to go out and get stewed myself.”

A year after The Wet Parade hit the screens, Prohibition was repealed.

More About This Series… | Topics: Legalize Drugs

Hard to Believe | Forced organ harvesting of political prisoners by the Chinese government is exposed through extensive interviews of those involved.

“This documentary is extremely important for those involved in organ donation and transplantation, human rights, healthcare, ethics, and the law…The credentials of the interviewed experts are impeccable.”
–Journal of Bioethical Inquiry

An undercover BBC investigation reveals that the Chinese government is harvesting prisoners on a “just in time” basis for forced organ transplants. This is one of the earlier investigations to reveal what was happening.

Human Harvest | Two Nobel Prize winners investigate the forced organ harvesting trade in China and uncover one of the world’s worst crimes against humanity.

“Like a mystery novel with a devastating denouement, Leon Lee’s documentary starts with numbers that don’t add up and divines an unthinkable explanation. China had no organ-donation system until 2010, yet it’s now the one place in the world where a person can get a heart and lung transplant in less than a week.”
–Peabody Award

Warning: Trailer is shows reenactments of graphic violence.

The Bleeding Edge | When a young tech wiz discovers that the heart transplant he got in China was taken from a prisoner in a forced organ “donation,” he risks his life to save the next victims of China’s organ harvesting program.

“You could use many words to describe The Bleeding Edge: chilling, disturbing, powerful, courageous, moving. It’s a film that stays with you after the end, not only because it’s a story well told, but because the horrors it describes are happening right now. Normally we learn about such atrocities well after socialist governments collapse, when the hidden truth is finally revealed in a giant pit of emaciated bodies or when some death camp survivor writes a best-selling book. This time it’s real-time.”
–MissLiberty.com

Stop Organ Harvesting in China
Wikipedia: Organ transplantation in China
Facebook: Stop Organ Harvesting in China

“Doctors and medical students working in state-run civilian and military hospitals take up to 11,000 organs a year from donors under no anesthetic to supply China’s lucrative ‘organs on-demand’ transplant program, say a network of investigators comprised of international researchers, doctors and human rights lawyers attempting to end the macabre abuses.”
The Sydney Morning Herald: China’s gruesome live organ harvest exposed in documentary

“In an effort to increase the chances of successful transplant, Gutmann writes, the organs are often taken from prisoners while they are still alive. Gutmann estimates that to date, more than 64,000 Falun Gong practitioners have suffered this fate, with more being added to the count every day.”
NY Post: China’s long history of harvesting organs from living political foes

“Phone interviews by David Kilgour and David Matas revealed that in 17 locations in China, organs were procured from detained Falun Gong practitioners. This suggests that forced organ harvesting in China is a widespread, systematic, state-sanctioned atrocity.”
–DAFOH: Doctors Against Forced iOrgan Harvesting

“Mass murder is alive and well. That is the stark conclusion of this comprehensive investigation into the Chinese state’s secret program to get rid of political dissidents while profiting from the sale of their organs–in many cases to Western recipients. Based on interviews with top-ranking police officials and Chinese doctors who have killed prisoners on the operating table, veteran China analyst Ethan Gutmann has produced a riveting insider’s account–culminating in a death toll that will shock the world.”
–Book: The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China’s Secret…

“It’s a story straight out of a horror movie, but it’s been common practice in China for more than a decade. State-run hospitals have secretly harvested body parts from tens of thousands of prisoners, removing their vital organs while they are still alive.”
News.com.au: China’s other big business: Harvesting organs from prisoners when they’re still alive

“One doctor, who spoke anonymously because he still practices in China, vividly described a scene in 1992…his surgical task, to remove the liver and the kidneys from a man who had just been executed by a shot through the heart, was technically simple but emotionally complicated by the mark of a wire around the man’s neck, indicating that the police had forcibly prevented this particular man from speaking up in court.”
–World Affairs: Bitter Harvest: China’s ‘Organ Donation’ Nightmare

“Allegations surfaced in 2006 that the disappeared were being killed for their organs which were sold for large sums mostly to foreign transplant tourists. It is generally accepted that China kills prisoners for organs. The debate is over whether the prisoners who are killed are only criminals sentenced to death or Falun Gong practitioners as well. The authors produced a report concluding that the allegations were true.”
–Book: Bloody Harvest: Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China

“When reports first emerged from China in 2006 that state-run hospitals were killing prisoners of conscience to sell their organs, it seemed too horrible to be true. However, a new documentary is about to blow the lid on the illegal organ trade that is now allegedly worth a staggering US$1 billion a year. This despite the fact 10,000 organs are transplanted in China every year, yet there are only a tiny number of people on the official donor register.”
–Daily Mail: A Human Harvest: China’s organ trafficking exposed in shocking documentary that alleges the illegal trade is now worth a staggering US$1 billion a year

“Among the eyewitnesses cited by Lee are a Chinese police officer who claims to have seen organs harvested from a woman who was tortured and raped for days, before she was mutilated without anesthetic, and the wife of a doctor said to have extracted the corneas of some 2,000 patients while they were still alive. She alleges that some of the victims were subsequently burned alive after the cornea extractions, and that the Chinese government tried to assassinate her husband after he fled from his grisly job.”
–Breitbart: Report: China harvests organs from live prisoners

“China’s organ transplant numbers are second only to the United States. Unlike any other country, virtually all Chinese organs for transplants come from prisoners. Many of these are prisoners of conscience. The killing of prisoners for their organs is a plain breach of the most basic medical ethics.”
–Book: State Organs: Transplant Abuse in China

This is something of a cultural tragedy, as so much of what is great in the larger body of existing film was made long ago. For those who think every old movie is “boring” (not that modern films are ever disappointing, ahem), here is a short list of older libertarian films that just might change your mind.

Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN FILMS
In a future time when books are banned, a secret underground preserves the world’s literature.

“’We’ve all got to be alike. The only way to be happy is for everyone to be made equal. So, we must burn the books.’ Thus is explained the government’s antibook rationale. That is: exposure to the ideas found in books makes people different; differences create social friction; therefore books must be destroyed.”
–MissLiberty.com

Victim (1961)
WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN FILMS
When a young gay man in 1960s Britain commits suicide rather than face an inquiry regarding (then illegal) homosexual activity, a closeted bisexual barrister avenges his death and fights the law responsible for it.

“Released at a time when any homosexual act between men was illegal, Victim has often been cited as the catalyst for the liberating Wolfenden Report and the subsequent legalisation of homosexual activities. Revolutionary and aware of its own importance, Victim successfully treads the precarious tightrope, being both a gripping drama and a taboo-smashing landmark.”
Eye for Film

Suddenly Last Summer (1959)
A brilliant young doctor must restore the memory of his patient if he is to save her from being lobotomized in a corrupt state mental hospital.

“This is a powerful film with a first-rate cast, truly literary script (it retains much of the language of the original play), and very effective music and direction. From the outset, a malevolent atmosphere pervades the film. It makes the viewer really feel the danger that threatens the young woman at the center of this tale, as a powerful enemy moves her ever closer to lobotomy in an effort to stop her from exposing a shocking, secret truth.”
–MissLiberty.com

On the Waterfront (1954)
ACADEMY AWARD WINNER: BEST PICTURE
An heroic few stand alone against the corrupt bosses of a powerful union.

“Eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture) were heaped on this film and for good reasons, including: tight direction, inspired acting, Leonard Bernstein’s energetic music, and a brilliant script. Marlon Brando was born for the leading role and gives a remarkable performance as a rough-and-tumble bruiser, cynical and gritty on the outside but with a heart that melts in the hands of virtuous Eva Marie Saint.”
–MissLiberty.com

The Man in the White Suit (1951)
WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN FILMS
A research scientist invents a fabric both indestructible and stainproof, but manufacturing interests and unions try to prevent its production.

“This story is a terrific tribute to the inventive spirit. It’s a metaphor for the inevitable conflict between those who improve things and those whose lives and investments have been built around the status quo…It’s also one of the best comedies ever made. This film is jam-packed with odd, interesting, memorable characters. Even the smallest parts are played with great style, and the cast includes some of the best British acting talent of the day, including Alec Guinness in the leading role.”
–MissLiberty.com

Key Largo (1948)
A convicted mobster plots to return to his former glory by bringing back Prohibition, and the profitable criminal enterprises it spawned – but he will have to get past a WWII veteran to do it.

“The entire series of events takes place in a hotel, a crucible as it were, in which ultimate good is pitted against ultimate evil, trapped together by a hurricane that howls violently outside and tears at the hotel, as though God himself were pitching in. And within this crucible is one of the finest casts ever assembled: Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, and Claire Trevor (who won for this Best Actress in a Supporting Role), all guided under the legendary hand of director John Huston. Not a scene or moment is wasted in this tightly crafted classic film.”
–MissLiberty.com

The Stranger (1946)
The Nazi who engineered the Holocaust, Hans Kammler, disappeared at the end of WWII. In this fictional film, a war crimes official hunts him down to of all places…a small town in Connecticut.

“I will not spoil this tightly-crafted cat and mouse suspense with too much detail other than to say that the story was nominated for an Academy Award for ‘Best Screenplay.’ Add to that one of the finest casts ever assembled – including G. Robinson, Loretta Young, and Orson Welles (who also directed) – and you have a film that seventy years after its initial release remains one of most popular of all time, and with a platinum approval rating of 96% among critics.”
–MissLiberty.com

Note: The Stranger is out of copyright and is freely available online. It may be viewed in full via the YouTube link below.

We the Living (1942)
WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN FILMS
The rise to power of Soviet socialism corrupts every aspect of life in a Russian city, leaving its occupants with three choices: cynicism, self-destruction, or escape.

“In many ways, this film is a recovered masterpiece of 1940s style cinema; indeed it is considered by some critics in Italy as their equivalent of Gone With the Wind. There is tremendous artistry in every scene, expressed particularly in the subtle use of cinematography and wonderfully haunting music, and every part is played with great sensitivity. The effect is to make events not only understood but to create an atmosphere and mood that makes those events felt as well. It’s a little long by modern standards, but the time is not wasted. This engaging film has a touch of greatness.”
–MissLiberty.com

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN FILMS
ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE: BEST PICTURE
An ordinary American appointed to the Senate is nearly destroyed by a corrupt political machine, but triumphs in the end.

“This is a terrifically engaging drama that will really make you feel for the naive hero and his youthful allies, as it pulls at your heartstrings all the way through. At the same time, it also has a delightful comic element. Direction is tight, artful, and effectively melodramatic, with the extra touches that distinguish a great cinematic work. James Stewart, in the leading role, is ideal as the vulnerable hero, and he is supported by a superb cast. This is a powerful film, which at its first opening was the subject of considerable controversy. When the Washington Press Club sponsored the film’s debut, inviting four thousand politicians, politicos, and other guests, the premiere backfired. Some of the guests were offended by the film’s criticism of Washington, arguing that it would hurt the country’s morale. Columbia Pictures was subsequently offered several million dollars to shelve the film but released it anyway.”
–MissLiberty.com

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE: BEST PICTURE
When an evil prince uses state power to rob his subjects, Sir Robin of Lockesly turns outlaw to defend justice and the poor.

“This is an old movie, yes, but it remains the best cinematic telling of the Robin Hood tale: a first-class film with all the elements of greatness, including clever direction, witty dialogue, Academy Award—winning music, and one of the finest casts ever assembled. Errol Flynn makes a classy, daring hero, and despite all the violence going on the film maintains the feeling of a happy adventure. Incidentally, the scene in which Robin Hood splits his competitor’s arrow to win the archery contest wasn’t done with special effects. Professional archer Howard Hill split the arrow on the first try. This film won three Academy Awards.”
–MissLiberty.com

Does it need to be like this? Are all the great stories already told in film? Hardly. Never mind what movie ideas fiction still has to offer, let alone thousands of year of human history. Here are ten interesting stories — ten movie ideas for screenwriters — ripped from the headlines as it were of times either current or in the not too distant past, stories of real-life heroes and villains who have so far garnered only slight attention in books or documentaries, but who deserve so much more.

Helicobacter Pylori

Less than twenty years ago, if you complained to a doctor of painful stomach ulcers, chances are you would be told the cause was stress. Take it easy. Try some antacids. Perhaps a psychiatrist could help. Or in an extreme case, maybe surgery. Of course, sometimes the ulcer would develop into stomach cancer, a terrible way to go.

But in 1981, Australian scientist Barry Marshall began to suspect that the bacteria Helicobacter Pylori was responsible. Unfortunately, professional gastroenterologists dismissed the idea. It was well established that stress was the underlying cause of ulcers.

Marshall needed more proof, but animal experiments were useless in this case, and human experiments were forbidden. He often saw patients in agony from bleeding ulcers, and was desperate to save them. He was sure he had the answer. In a moment of extraordinary medical daring, before anyone could stop him, he swallowed a vial of Helicobacter Pylori, the very disease he knew to be so dangerous. He took the ultimate chance to prove his cure. He experienced the predicted symptoms – and did indeed cure himself of it. But still no one listened. His discovery was dismissed and ridiculed for ten years. “The science was settled,” so he was told.

Then Proctor & Gamble took up the battle on Marshall’s side, after learning that the company’s Pepto-Bismol product was part of Marshall’s treatment against the disease (in combination with antibiotics). The company launched a PR campaign that brought Marshall’s discovery to the attention of the public – bypassing the “scientific” community. The public was interested, and pressure was exerted on the FDA to fast-track tests, which eventually confirmed Marshall had been right all along. At last, the millions suffering could be treated.

In 2005, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Marshall and Robin Warren (who had first discovered the bacteria), “for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter Pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.”

As movie ideas go, it would be hard to find one with a more heroic main character or triumphant ending.

Sources:
Discover Magazine: “The Doctor Who Drank Infectious Broth and Solved a Medical Mystery”
Wikipedia: Barry Marshall

The Girls of Enghelab Street

On December 27, 2017, a one-woman revolution occurred in Iran, and that revolution has spread since. On that day, Vida Movahed climbed up on a utility box in Enghelab Street (Revolution Street) in Tehran, removed her hijab, tied it to stick, and waved it to an astonished crowd. It was an act of tremendous heroism, as the penalty for removing the hijab can be up to 20 years, and further defiance can be answered with death.

She was arrested, but thanks to international pressure was at least initially released, though it’s unclear what has happened to her since. Regardless, others have followed, some have been imprisoned, but more keep coming.

They have received very little support from virtue-signaling feminists in the West, many of whom are too busy donning hijabs in acts of solidarity with orthodox Islamic women.

Imagine the drama, the sacrifice, the risk – and the courage. Is this not worthy of storytelling?

Source:
Wikipedia: Iranian Protests Against Compulsory Hijab

Britain’s Other Finest Hour: The West Africa Squadron

After Britain passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which abolished the slave trade throughout the British Empire (thanks to the heroic efforts of William Wilberforce and other abolitionists), its anti-slavery efforts were taken much further, though hardly anyone knows this glorious history.

At great expense, the Royal Navy created The West Africa Squadron – at its height roughly a sixth of the entire navy — to patrol the coast of Africa for slave ships and free the slaves. The squadron’s efforts ultimately captured or destroyed 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 slaves.

The cost was enormous for Britain, in lives as well as money, as the death rate from tropical disease for British marines was extraordinarily high; it was considered one of the most dangerous assignments a marine could be given.

Eventually, their anti-slavery efforts were spread to North Africa and the Indian Ocean. The US also later joined in the cause, contributing a few ships from its much smaller navy.

To this day, the descendants of the freed slaves commemorate the West Africa Squadron, but many more should celebrate it as another of Britain’s finest hours.

Source:
Wikipedia: West Africa Squadron

The Farmers of Xiaogang Village

Mao’s Great Leap Forward triggered the single largest holocaust in human history, with an estimated death toll of 45 million; the details, long well-hidden, are only now coming out.

The short of it is that Mao decided to collectivize the farms, and then ordered at gunpoint that these new collectivized concerns meet arbitrarily high production targets, at the same time putting in charge military personnel who knew nothing about farming. The result was a famine of unprecedented scale.

However, in 1978, eighteen local farmers in the village of Xiaogang met and signed a secret agreement, by which they would break up the commune and reestablish private property, each receiving their own plot of land. If caught, it would have meant torture and death. But as recurring food shortages were a constant worry – the village had already lost half its population to famine – the farmers decided to go for it anyway.

In the first year operating privately, their combined efforts produced five times what had been produced on the same land as a commune. The bounty was so extraordinary that it couldn’t be hidden from neighboring villages, and the news gradually got back to Beijing. Luckily for the villagers, Mao had just died and the new leader, Deng Xiaoping, was a reformer in search of solutions to the country’s abject poverty. After learning the full story, instead of killing the farmers as Mao would have done, Deng ordered all farms to follow their lead. This is widely credited as the moment when China’s economy turned around and finally began its climb into modernity.

Probably never in the history of man have so few people – eighteen – been responsible for turning around a nation the size of China. Their courage has meant food and clothing and everything else for a nation of a billion people.

Source:
Wikipedia: Xiaogang Village

Saul & Me

Imagine a typical college student. She’s studying to become a doctor, economist, engineer, teacher, or maybe doesn’t yet know what she wants to be. She has hopes, perhaps, of a family, maybe has her eye on a special someone, enjoys time with her friends and perhaps a sport. In other words, she’s a normal kid launching herself on a happy path. That’s 99% of kids going to college.

Now imagine how different that young woman must be, not to mention perhaps a little weird, for her to discover, seek out, and befriend, of all people – Saul Alinsky, the godfather of thug politics — whose teachings, summed up in his book Rules for Radicals, spawned pretty much everything wrong with politics today and divided the country like never before.

That young woman was Hillary Clinton.

Hardly anyone knows it, but as a college student Hillary met Alinsky, arranged speaking opportunities for him, interviewed him, corresponded with him by letter (and continued to do so after college) and was so thrilled with his message she wrote a glowing college thesis on him. Yes, she wrote her college thesis on Saul Alinsky, the very essence of “by any means necessary” socialism. She adored him.

It’s a miracle that we know any of this, by the way. The Clinton White House requested Wellesley College to keep the thesis under lock and key, and it was only inadvertently later released to a Republican student who published it. That too should be part of any film on this subject.

Of course, in the end, Saul Alinsky did get one of his close progeny into office: Barack Hussein Obama. But just imagine if two Alinsky acolytes had held the White House in sequence, what sixteen uninterrupted years of Alinsky would have done to the US.

You have to wonder how many more of Alinksy’s hidden intellectual heirs are still out there.

Source:
Human Events: “Hillary’s Thesis: The Village Needs an Enemy”

Stanislav Petrov: The Man Who Stopped WWIII

On September 26, 1983, just three weeks after the Soviet air force had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Stanislav Petrov, the officer in charge of the Soviet Union’s nuclear early-warning system, was told that US-launched missiles were airborne and on their way to Soviet territory. By standard practice, he should have communicated that information through the chain of command so that the USSR could return fire; had he done so, it’s not unlikely that millions would have died on both sides.

But Petrov had suspicions about the new Soviet technology being used to track missiles, and ground radar could not confirm the sighting. Every second mattered – getting it wrong might mean the defeat of his country, and solely due to his own incompetence. He later said about that moment “My cozy armchair [in the bunker] felt like a red-hot frying pan and my legs went limp. I felt like I couldn’t even stand up. That’s how nervous I was.” He alone made the decision to not return fire.

As it happened, he was right. The new technology was faulty. Petrov should have been awarded the highest honors humanity has to offer, but the Soviet military, though relieved a mistake was not made, was also embarrassed by Petrov. They reassigned him to a new job and he eventually suffered a nervous breakdown. In 1998, the BBC quoted Petrov as saying, “I was made a scapegoat.”

In 2006, Petrov was finally honored by the United Nations, and a few documentaries were made about him, but he is now little-known.

Source:
Wikipedia: Stanislav Petrov

Voice of Poland

The long occupation of Poland by the USSR was the usual story of socialist oppression, poverty, and desperation, and it seemed at the time like it would never end. But in the 1980s, the spirit of liberation was in the air, and people began taking great risks to move that forward.

One of the best ways to undermine a totalitarian regime is simply to break its monopoly on information, by creating alternative channels through which people can learn what is actually going on. Zbigniew and Sofia Romaszewski were a brave young couple who did just that, establishing an underground radio station at considerable risk.

However, their broadcasts had to be very short. The problem was that the source of the radio broadcasts could be quickly located by electronic surveillance, so they could only broadcast about ten minutes at a time before moving the equipment to a new location. It seemed a nearly hopeless exercise, and an extremely dangerous one for them.

At some point they began to wonder – was this worth it? Was anyone actually listening? If people were, of course, it was huge, because they were a sole voice of truth in a sea of government propaganda. But if they weren’t, they were risking their young lives for nothing.

One night they came up with the idea of asking those listening to blink their lights on and off. They hoped to see a few lights blinking somewhere out in their city of Warsaw. But when they looked out of their window, that was not what they saw. All night, in all of Warsaw, Poland’s largest city, lights everywhere were blinking on and off. The entire city had been listening.

Such efforts were part of a much broader Polish resistance, of course, but it’s notable that Poland was the first Soviet-occupied nation to revolt and declare its independence from the USSR.

That’s a story to inspire all who encounter tyranny, wherever it occurs.

Source:
YouTube: Warsaw’s Blinking Lights – Learn Liberty

Taffy 3

It has been called “the US Navy’s finest hour,” and yet no narrative film commemorates what happened in the sea off Leyte Island in 1944.

The Pacific War was finally turning to the Allied advantage. The Japanese had suffered a series of major losses and the US had landed 100,000 troops on the Philippine island of Leyte, to begin the liberation of the Philippines and the final containment of Imperial Japan. The Japanese Navy was on the run, so it was thought, and there was little concern that the troops were in danger from sea or air attack.

However, the Japanese Navy had regrouped, and it had a plan. A few ships were used as bait to lure away the formidable US fleet, which pursued them thinking it was finishing off the stragglers. Meanwhile, 23 Japanese battleships and cruisers, which had remained concealed at sea, arrived at Leyte to bombard and annihilate the 100,000 largely unprotected American troops. Had their plan succeeded, it might have been the largest single loss of American blood in the entire war and dragged out the war immeasurably.

However, a small naval task unit, Taffy 3, made up of three lightly-armed destroyers and four destroyer escorts, called “tin cans” because they had no armor, had remained behind. They were support ships, not readied for major battle, and were largely staffed by reservists with scant experience. Nonetheless, these ships and the planes they carried engaged the enemy for hours and with such terrific ferocity, continuing to make attack runs even after they had run out of ammunition in an almost preposterous defense of their fellow troops on the island, that the Japanese commander became convinced that he was being attacked by the entire American fleet – and withdrew.

It’s one of the most incredible stories of heroism and loyalty in American history. A thousand US sailors died in the battle. If anyone deserves a major motion picture, they do.

Source:
Wikipedia: Battle off Samar

For the Children: The Eva Moscowitz Story

Eva was born in 1964 and grew up in Harlem, where she attended a public school that wasn’t very good. She prospered anyway because her parents were professors, and she had the advantage of being tutored by them at home. But she was keenly aware that other kids in her school did not have that advantage, and it seemed very unfair to her that these other kids had to just put up with substandard teaching and all that implied for their future.

When she grew up, she decided to do something about it. In 2006, she launched the Success Academy Charter Schools, which essentially put formerly underperforming public schools under new management and without the heavy hand of the teachers union. In each case, the schools she was given were ill-kept and indifferently staffed. Among the notes she jotted down from those times: “We have two weak 1st grade teachers. One is extremely emotional (cries every day) and they are inefficient instructors. Milk was frozen. Kindergartners cried. Mayhem resulted. Electricity went down again. Rugs were dirty.” She turned such places upside down.

Needless to say, to the United Federation of Teachers and to the NYC Democratic Party, she’s public enemy number one, and indeed has been threatened with violence more than once. Charter schools aren’t privatization, but they are a step in the direction of decentralization that is a direct challenge to the monopolists currently in charge.

Eva Moscowitz has overcome all obstacles including the NYC political environment, and today Success Academy is the highest-performing, fastest-growing charter school network in the country. This is a tremendous story of moral heroism, triumph, and hope – with the futures of kids at stake; a story of a courageous and caring reformer overcoming a threatening and formidable opponent, it would make a drama of the first order.

Sources:
Wikipedia: Eva Moskowitz
EvaMoskowitz.com

A School for Heroes: The Story of the Boy Scouts

In the early 1900s, the Boy Scouts were founded with the idea of inculcating boys with patriotism, courage, and self-reliance. Eventually an award system was created that recognized acts of extraordinary courage. Early records of the Boy Scouts are littered with accounts of boys saving people from drowning, from fires, from fallen electrical wires, etc.

However, a series of terrible tragedies also occurred in which young boys attempted to save others and lost their lives in the process. The leaders of the Boy Scouts had a moment of guilt and regret. They wanted to encourage the boys to great things, but they had underestimated the risks. After some soul searching, they reorganized, holding on to their original goals, but emphasizing safety training. Entire generations have since learned not just to be heroic, but how to be heroic: always be prepared.

Since the founding of the Boy Scouts, 110 million Americans have participated. An estimated 3 to 5 million people – roughly one in every hundred Americans — are alive today because they, or one of their parents or grandparents, had their life saved by a Boy Scout.

What a terrific family film that story would make. It’s one of the better movie ideas on this list.

Sources:
Voice of Scouting: Scouting Saves Lives
Running Toward Danger: Real Life Scouting Action Stories of Heroism, Valor & Guts

I hope you enjoyed these movie ideas. Need help learning filmmaking craft? An organization that can help you are: The Moving Picture Institute.

Alistair Williams is a British comedian who has been getting noticed lately because he just won’t stop saying things he’s not supposed to say. In this age of comedic self-censorship and conformity to left-wing opinion, Williams stands out as a uniquely independent voice. He also happens to be extraordinarily funny. I recommend following him on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.

The Left has already started accusing him of being everything from Hitler to Genghis Khan, which in itself is funny because he’s transparently just a guy who says the plain truth but in a way that makes people laugh. But given what’s going on with free speech in the UK (it’s dying), I’d say watch him while you can. You can judge Alistair Williams for yourself from a few examples he has provided on YouTube.

“Smart, passionate, impressively quick witted and bursting with infectious confidence, this is stand up that grabs your attention and Alistair Williams is quickly solidifying his place as one of stand up’s most exciting rising stars.”
–The Comedy Club

Ealing Studios was by no means a hotbed of free-marketers. Studio head Michael Balcon was an explicit supporter of the post-war Labour government, and indeed under his management the studio produced some films very sympathetic to socialism, such as They Came to a City. But even in these productions you sense not so much a desire for the heavy hand of government intervention, as simply a yearning for the return of the “we’re all in this together” community spirit of wartime Britain, and for people to just be kind and decent to one another.

In any case, the five Ealing films noted here for their libertarian content — usually consisting of mild organized resistance to the kind of bureaucracies typically associated with the classic welfare state — express a tone very much against the domination of the individual (or groups of individuals) by the State.

These films are notable as well for being some of the best examples of British comedy ever produced, still popular sixty years later, as evidenced by their recent digitally-remastered re-release.

The first of these was produced in 1949. Passport to Pimlico tells the story of a London borough, which discovers through the unearthing of an ancient document that it has a legal basis for secession. For a short time the borough declares itself an independent country, and benefits in that moment from the repeal of licensing and quotas. The independence doesn’t last, but the film nonetheless has the tone of pushing back a bit against the heavy hand of bureaucracy.

Whiskey Galore, also released in 1949, is very much in the same attitude. It relates a tale of comedic desperation, in which a small Scottish village has run out of its beloved whiskey. Suddenly a shipload of liquor runs aground just offshore. The villagers are just about to recover the cargo, when an uptight official forbids it because the cargo has not been taxed. That brings the village together in a small rebellion against the official’s authority, and everyone gets their whiskey after all.

A third film in the same vein, Green Grow the Rushes, was released in 1951. In this film, an old charter granted by a king entitles the locals to a degree of independence but the central government no longer respects that ancient legal document (one thinks of the Magna Carta). The locals, however, have not forgotten their rights, so when the Ministry of Agriculture sends in officious bureaucrats to improve agricultural production by meddling with local farms, the bureaucrats find the community to be…just a bit uncooperative. (It was actually produced not by Ealing but by A.C.T. Films Ltd. However, the film so successfully mirrors the Ealing style it is commonly included among the “Ealing comedies.”)

The same year produced my personal favorite libertarian film of all, The Man in the White Suit, about a research scientist who invents a revolutionary new fabric that is both indestructible and stainproof. When unions and manufacturing interests realize that an everlasting fabric would mean an end to their jobs and profits, they gang together and bring in government regulators to stop the inventor. In an odd coincidence, the story pits Alec Guiness (who would later play Obiwan Kenobe, of Star Wars fame) in the lead against a wizened, slow-moving Lord of The Ministry of Trade, who wheezes menacingly, not unlike Darth Vader, Obiwan’s nemesis of twenty years later.

One last libertarian film came out in 1957, All at Sea (titled Barnacle Bill in the UK). Alec Guiness again starred, this time as a retired Royal Navy captain who decides to invest in an amusement pier. Shortly after purchasing the pier, corrupt local officials decide to condemn and seize it for their own benefit. But the captain, the proud descendent of a long-line of seafarers, is no pushover, and he knows something of maritime law and naval battlefield tactics!

Libertarians will find much to enjoy in these five films, and fans of British humor in particular should certainly see them without fail.

It’s an odd thing that they were made in such a short period by this small studio. One suspects that interesting political conversations were going on there, at least among a few. Two of these films, The Man in the White Suit and Whiskey Galore, were directed by Alexander Mackendrick, and two, Passport to Pimlico and All at Sea, were written by T.E.B. Clarke.

How to See Them

Amazon (DVD): All at Sea
Amazon (DVD): Green Grow the Rushes
Amazon (DVD): Passport to Pimlico
Amazon (DVD): The Man in the White Suit
Amazon (Streaming): The Man in the White Suit

Links

Ealing, 1947-1956
Fiction & Politics: The Meaning of iEaling
IMDB: iEaling Studios
Our Mild Revolution
The shadow cast by iEaling comedies is no laughing matter
Wikipedia: iEaling Studios

The show was mostly a typical detective series, but it was unusually even-handed in its choice of villains — in many cases ordinary people were beset by various agents of the State, corrupt policemen, IRS agents, etc., something that almost never happens on TV. It seems some of these episodes have surfaced on YouTube. A few Vengeance Unlimited episodes particularly worthy of note:

Eden. “A married couple is targeted by an extortion ring using civil asset forfeiture to steal property, led by a small town sheriff and mayor. Mr. Chapel intervenes.”

Victim of Circumstance. “A famous FBI profiler buries evidence exonerating an innocent man of crimes committed by a dead serial killer. Mr. Chapel then decides to taunt the profiler with the possibility that the true culprit has risen from the grave.”

Vendetta. “Theresa Greco breaks up with IRS agent Gifford Marshall, who subsequently sets about using his powers to ruin her life. Mr. Chapel frames him for embezzlement.”

Act I: The Tragedy Begins

Coronavirus Appears, Chinese Authorities Try To Hide It
A worker in a Wuhan live animal food market enters hospital for an unusual flu | Dec 2019 | WSJ
Ai Wen, a director at the hospital, warns others of the disease and is told to shut up | Dec 2019 | Guardian
She subsequently disappears | Mar 2020 | OpIndia
Dr. Li Wenliang warns others of the disease, is told to shut up, and later dies of infection | Dec 2019 | BBC
Chinese authorities are aware of the deadly virus outbreak but cover it up for 3 weeks | Dec 2019 | Times
China secretly orders agents to buy up medical supplies around the world | Jan 2020 | SMH | Respekt
Confirmed: China delayed telling world while it bought up medical supplies | Jan 2020 | AP
Unaware, 40,000 families attend Wuhan festival. Wuhan will shortly be a plague city | Dec 2019 | The Star
Seven million Wuhan residents, many infected, travel around China and the world | Jan 2020 | NYT
Duped by China, WHO reports on Jan 14 no evidence of human-to-human transmission | Jan 2020 | Twitter
95% of coronavirus victims could have been spared had China been honest | Mar 2020 | USouthhampton

Chinese Citizens Try To Warn World and Are “Disappeared”
Two Wuhan bloggers attempting to tell world of virus disappear | Feb 2020 | BBC
A Chinese journalist investigating Wuhan deaths films his own arrest, disappears | Feb 2020 | Vice
Chinese businessman Ren Zhiqiang disappears after criticizing government | Apr 2020 | SCMP

China Lies About Death Toll
China estimates death toll at 3,400 | Mar 2020 | Aljazeera
Sale of urns far exceeds death toll estimate | Mar 2020 | Vice
True Wuhan death toll could be 40,000+ | Apr 2020 | WaPo
US Intelligence confirms China understating infections and death toll | Apr 2020 | Bloomberg

Widely Accepted Explanation: Many Flus Originate in There, Climate And Culinary Customs A Factor
Flus commonly originate in Asia | 2008 | Scientific American
SARS outbreak (2003) traced to coronavirus from wild animals sold in Chinese markets | 2003 | Wikpedia
Virologists warn that Chinese habit of eating wild animals is a viral “time bomb” | 2005 | CMR
Asian Flu (1957) traced to Guizhou province in China, kills one million globally | 1957 | Wikpedia
Hong Kong Flu (1968) appears in Hong Kong, kills one million globally | 1968 | Wikpedia
Bird Flu (1997) first human infection appears in Hong Hong | 1997 | Wikpedia

But Then Why Lie About It? Alternative Explanation Gains Traction…
Some note that virus first appeared in market right next to China’s only L-4 bio lab | Feb 2020 | Wikipedia
The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been in possession of this virus since 2013 | Apr 2020 | WSJ
Washington Post: Accidental release of virus from lab is a genuine possibility | Apr 2020 | WaPo
National Review: Trail leads back to Wuhan labs | Apr 2020 | NR
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: Experts speculate virus was accidentally released | Mar 2020 | BOAS
Chinese scientists say evidence suggests virus not from Wuhan market | Apr 2020 | Express
British government ‘no longer discounting’ possibility virus leaked from lab | Apr 2020 | Yahoo
Notably, Chinese have been caught 3 times by FBI with vials of various coronavirus | Mar 2020 | Yahoo
Australian researchers say virus may be man made | May 2020 | LifeSite
Is China performing ethnic biological weapons experiments? | May 2020 | Wash Ex

Act II : Coronarvirus Spreads to Rest of Asia

Experience With SARS Led to Preparation, Culture of Mask Wearing Pays Off
Asian edge: experience with 2003 SARS outbreak forced nations to be well prepared | Mar 2020 | FT
Asian governments encourage wearing of masks to stop spread of coronavirus | Mar 2020 | Time

South Korea Among First to Do Widespread Testing
Early on, signs everywhere ask public to don masks, wash hands — most do | Feb 2020 | BI
Test is ready and approved Feb 3rd and widely distributed in test centers | Feb 2020 | NBC
South Korea’s 2015 experience with MERS taught important lessons | Mar 2020 | ScienceMag

Japanese Beat Virus Without Lockdown or Testing, Possible Mask Usage Helped
Takes minimal precautions, other than masks and cleanliness, but has few deaths | Mar 2020 | JT
Testing doesn’t explain success in containing virus — they aren’t doing much | Apr 2020 | WSJ
Coronavirus explosion expected in Japan — where is it? | Mar 2020 | Bloomberg
Infections picking up, but still low by world standards | Apr 2020 | BBC
Japan succeeds in containing COVID without drama or heroic measures | Apr 2020 | Asia Times
Bloomberg: Did Japan just beat the virus without lockdowns or mass testing? | May 2020 | Bloom

Taiwan Remarkably Well-Prepared
Country has few coronavirus deaths | Mar 2020 | Focus Taiwan
Success attributed to preparation, coordinated tracking, and use of masks | Mar 2020 | FP
Taiwan has knowhow in fighting virus, but is blocked by China from joining WHO | Mar 2020 | Time

Act III : Coronarvirus Spreads to Europe

Italy Becomes EU Epicenter
Many garment workers from China work in Italy, travel back and forth | Mar 2020 | Spectator
Patient Zero made to queue 36 hours before seen, meanwhile spreads virus in hospital | Jan 2020 | Journal
Proposal in Italy to ban travel from China dropped for fear of appearing racist | Feb 2020 | CNN
Mayor of Florence starts “hug a Chinese” campaign to encourage openness | Feb 2020 | Pluralist
CGTN, a Chinese state media outlet, releases and promotes “hug” advocacy video | Feb 2020 | YouTube
EU fails to send medical aid to Italy, when push comes to shove it’s every country for itself | Mar 2020 | FP

Spain Reacts Slowly To Danger, Becomes Second Epicenter
Guardian: Clumsy government response and poor preparation leads to tragedy | Mar 2020 | Guardian

Germany Outsources Testing to Private Sector, Rapid Response Isolates Infection
Testing outsourced to private sector. Infections quickly found and isolated | Jan 2020 | Mainichi
Early mass testing pays off: German death rates remarkably low | Jan 2020 | APNews
Germany relaxes lockdown, no second wave resurgence so far | Apr 2020 | Yahoo

Sweden Takes a Gamble on Herd Immunity
Government takes radical strategy of doing little to stop the virus | Mar 2020 | Bloomberg
WHO lauds Sweden’s light-touch no lockdown COVID policy | Apr 2020 | NY Post

UK Considers Herd Immunity Strategy, But Abandons It In Favor Of Quarantine
Two Chinese nationals arrive in UK with coronavirus and are treated | Feb 2020 | Guardian
Government considers herd immunity strategy | Mar 2020 | Guardian
Herd immunity strategy is abandoned in favor of taking more aggressive action | Mar 2020 | NY Post
UK goes into quarantine | Apr 2020 | Sun

Act IV : Coronarvirus Hits US

Trump Bans Travel, Gets Slammed For It, But Turns Out To Be Right
US Patient Zero arrives from China to WA. Half of US deaths traced to this initial infection | Jan 2020 | NR
Trump orders ban on travel from China | Jan 2020 | Homeland Security
Democrats attempt to pass “No Ban Act” to block Trump travel ban | Feb 2020 | MEE
WaPo: Trump travel ban a blow to America’s already tarnished global image | Feb 2020 | WaPo
Politico: Travel ban could backfire, reduce international cooperation | Feb 2020 | Politico
Trump expands travel ban to EU and is slammed by EU leaders | Mar 2020 | US News
Five days later, EU realizes Trump was right and closes its own external borders | Mar 2020 | WaPo
Day after that, Germany goes further, closing its borders within the EU | Mar 2020 | Politico
Dr. Anthony Fauci later says Trump’s travel ban saved many lives. “It was the right move” | Mar 2020 | Fox
CDC Director Stephen Redd: travel ban “very helpful” to cut incoming cases from China | Mar 2020 | C-SPAN

Act V : CDC and FDA Bungle Everything

First, CDC & FDA stall initial discovery of virus in US
Regulators turn down opportunity to test samples on privacy grounds | Jan 2020 | BI
After some delay, Helen Chu defies regulators, finds COVID, and sounds alarm | Jan 2020 | The Week

Second, they delay testing by a month
CDC releases faulty test kits and FDA forbids other companies from providing any | Feb 2020 | TR

Third, they mislead public on efficacy of masks, delaying adoption
CDC: Do not wear masks unless you are infected; it won’t help | Jan 2020 | Marketwatch
Fauci: “Absolutely no reason to wear a mask” | Feb 2020 | USA Today
Is CDC just saying that to conserve scarce masks for healthcare workers? | Mar 2020 | NYT
Academic study shows even partial public use of masks markedly cuts flu transmission | 2018 | RAJ
Academic study shows almost any kind of mask will help | 2008 | PlosOne
Why do masks help? Because 80% of COVID-19 spreads from asymptomatic people | Mar 2020 | UPI
Asians wear masks to cut spread of disease, not for self-protection | Mar 2020 | Telegraph
Experts doubt CDC recommendation, say Americans should wear masks | Mar 2020 | NYT
WHO stands by claim that masks don’t do any good | Mar 2020 | CNN
Cato: CDC’s “noble lie” on masks to conserve supply undermines public trust | Mar 2020 | Cato
Reason for US mask shortage: stockpile depleted by Obama admin and never restored | Mar 2020 | WashEx
Factcheck: USA Today confirms Obama admin responsible for mask shortage | Mar 2020 | USA Today
Have a mask? You may still not be allowed to wear it. Some states ban them | Mar 2020 | Reason
Humiliated CDC “considers” recommending public should consider wearing masks | Apr 2020 | WaPo
Some places not waiting: San Diego orders mandatory face coverings | Apr 2020 | Sandiegoville
CDC officially backs down, recommends masks, citing “new evidence” | Apr 2020 | Twitter
Study: Use of masks cuts COVID spread by 75% | May 2020 | SFGate

Fourth, they confuse two types of COVID tests and screw up interpretation
Amateur Hour: Incredibly, CDC conflates viral tests and antibody tests | May 2020 | Atlantic

Fifth, they get in the way of medical supply chain
Mask shortage worsened by regulatory delays in approving new non-US providers | Mar 2020 | Reason
Mask manufacturers attempt to ramp up production, but stalled by regulators | Mar 2020 | Reason
Warehouses of desperately needed sanitation supplies wait and wait for inspection | Mar 2020 | WashEx
FDA stops distillers from making desperately needed hand sanitizer | Apr 2020 | Reason
L.A. bureaucrats shut down restaurants for selling groceries without a permit | Mar 2020 | Reason

Babylon Bee nails it…
CDC admits they have been looking through microscope upside down | May 2020 | BB

Turns out, CDC had other priorities than containing disease
As COVID approached, CDC was busy fighting war on drugs | May 2020 | Reason

Act VI : New York City Becomes US Epicenter

Bad advice: NY Mayor De Blasio says just go on normally if you’re under 50 | Mar 2020 | NYMag
MIT: NYC subway was major disseminator of virus | Apr 2020 | NYPost
Two months into crisis, NY says it will start sterilizing subways | Apr 2020 | CNBC
Mistake: Governor Cuomo forced nursing homes to accept COVID patients | Apr 2020 | BI
Mistake II: NY didn’t bother checking to see if nursing home deaths rose | Apr 2020 | NY Post
Hiding Mistake: NY undercounted nursing home deaths after scrutiny | Apr 2020 | Daily Caller
Bombshell: Over 4,300 infected COVID patients sent to NY nursing homes | May 2020 | Fox
Nepotism: NY Mayor De Blasio appoints wife to COVID equality task force | Apr 2020 | NY Post
Most new COVID cases were stay-at-home, not saved by lockdown | May 2020 | NYDN
NYT: New York City is primary source of new infections in US | May 2020 | NYT
Governor Cuomo: Volunteer heroes must pay NY state income taxes | May 2020 | Fox

Act VI : Media TDS Syndrome Shows

ABC: US vulnerable because Trump foolishly closed pandemic office for budget cut : Mar 2020 | ABC
No, the White House didn’t dissolve its pandemic response office | Mar 2020 | WaPo

Trump shipped our equipment to China while minimizing US risk | Mar 2020 | CNN
Trump sent millions of masks and ventilators to China when US needed them most | Apr 2020 | WaPo
Oops, no Trump didn’t send our equipment to China | Apr 2020 | WaPo
Anatomy of the smear detailed | Apr 2020 | Legal Insurrection

Act VII : How Seriously To Take It? The Public Gets Mixed Messages

On 1/21, Fauci: Coronavirus: “Not a major threat to US” | Jan 2020 | Daily Caller
On 1/29. Mother Jones: Flu is much deadlier | Jan 2020 | MJ
On 1/31: VOX: Is this going to be a deadly pandemic? No. | Jan 2020 | Twitter
On 1/31. Washington Post: Reality check: Flu is much bigger threat than coronavirus | Jan 2020 | WaPo
On 2/2, NY Mayor De Blasio: virus hard to contract, don’t worry about subway | Feb 2020 | NYC
On 2/3: Washington Post: Be wary of an aggressive government response to virus | Feb 2020 | WaPo
On 2/7: Daily Beast: Flu, not coronavirus, is the real threat | Feb 2020 | Twitter
On 2/24, Nancy Pelosi: Come to Chinatown celebration. It’s “perfectly safe” | Feb 2020 | Summit
On 2/29, Fauci: No need to change anything you’re doing, risk is low | Feb 2020 | NBC
On 3/3, WHO: COVID-19 not as contagious as flu, asymptomatic not contagious | Mar 2020 | WHO
On 3/4, CNN’s Anderson Cooper: Flu a bigger danger than COVID-19 | Mar 2020 | Daily Caller
On 3/9, Fauci: Want to go on a cruise ship? Sure, as long as you’re healthy | Mar 2020 | Forbes
On 3/9, Donald Trump: flu kills more people than coronavirus | Mar 2020 | Reuters
On 3/21, NY Mayor De Blasio: just go on normally if you’re under 50 | Mar 2020 | NYMag

Act VIII : Calling It Wuhan Virus or Chinese Virus Is Racist

Washington Post: Trump using term “Chinese Virus” is dangerous | Mar 2020 | Washington Post
The Hill: Trump use of “Chinese Virus” is xenophobic and racist | Mar 2020 | The Hill
NY Times: Trump ginning up violent attacked on Asians with use of term | Mar 2020 | NYT

Act IX : If It Saves Even One Life, It’s Worth It To Wreck Economy Indefinitely

NY Governor Cuomo: “If everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.” | Mar 2020 | NYPost
ABC: Trump’s push to open economy could come at cost of lives | Mar 2020 | ABC
Shutdown could cost more lives than COVID-19 | Apr 2020 | Boston Herald
Focus on COVID to cost 1.4 million lives, as focus on TB reduced | May 2020 | Guardian
Cuomo maintains each human life “priceless,” so no limit to lockdown | May 2020 | Reason

Act X : Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ): Miracle or False Lead?

Trump touts HCQ as possible cure, but results are mixed
Trump pushes FDA to fast-track treatments for coronavirus | Mar 2020 | CNN
He tweets anti-malarial drug HCQ has a chance of being a “game changer” | Mar 2020 | Axios
Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread | 2005 | Virology
French researchers release another study showing HCQ works | Mar 2020 | TechStartUps
FDA quietly removes objection to HCQ | Mar 2020 | FDA
Survey of 6,000 coronavirus doctors: HCQ best treatment available | Apr 2020 | Daily Mail
VA study find HCQ ineffective on sickest COVID-19 patients | Apr 2020 | Medrxiv

Trump blamed for poisoning, but details don’t add up
Wife claims she accidentally poisons husband, allegedly based on Trump tweet | Mar 2020 | Axios
NBC falsely reports she gave husband chloroquine, not cholorquine phosphate | Mar 2020 | NBC
It turns out his wife was very anti-Trump, prolific donor to Democrats | Mar 2020 | WFB
Some speculate it was murder, wife was unhappy with marriage | Mar 2020 | American Thinker
Victim was intelligent, engineer, not type to fall for offbeat claims | Apr 2020 | Free Beacon
Police open investigation into victim’s death | Apr 2020 | Free Beacon

Act XI | Our Friend China

Sends faulty tests to the West
Chinese test kits worse than nothing, have up to 80% error rate | Mar 2020 | WashEx
China supplied faulty coronavirus test kits to Spain, Czech Republic | Mar 2020 | Yahoo
Antibody tests China sold to UK have too many errors to be usable | Apr 2020 | Daily Caller

Tries to control global medical supplies, uses them for leverage
China secretly orders agents to buy up medical supplies around the world | Jan 2019 | SMH | Respekt
China blocks US manufacturers located there from exporting supplies to US | Apr 2020 | Summit
Claim: Chinese medical supply sale conditional on adopting internet technology | Apr 2020 | WashEx

Attempts to control narrative to blame virus on US, incite public panic
China alleges US may be source of coronavirus | Mar 2020 | Twitter
China weaving disinformation campaign blaming US for coronavirus | Mar 2020 | Daily Signal
China rewrites virus origin story with anti-American FB and Instagram ads | Apr 2020 | DT
Chinese twitter troll claims it’s China that’s free, not US, gets burned | Apr 2020 | Twitchy
Chinese agents use social media to spread scary virus disinformation | Apr 2020 | WashEx
NYT: Chinese spread messages claiming Trump to invoke martial law | Apr 2020 | NYT
China tries to block EU report showing they disseminate misinformation | Apr 2020 | DT

Blocks research into virus origin
Chinese universities deleting published research on coronavirus origins | Apr 2020 | Fox

Act XII | Our Friend World Health Organization (WHO)

WHO has no idea what’s happening, offers contradictory advice
WHO In Jan: No worries, it’s not communicable | Jan 2020 | Twitter
WHO in Feb: Oh wait, it’s communicable after all | Feb 2020 | WHO
WHO in Feb: China has contained it! Praise Dear Leader Xi! | Feb 2020 | WaPo
WHO in Mar: COVID has a 3.4% death rate! Run away! | Mar 2020 | KFF
WHO in Mar: Danger! Don’t stop lock downs too early! | Mar 2020 | NY Post
WHO in Apr: No need for lock down after all, stop panicking | Apr 2020 | NY Post

WHO is owned by China
Foreign Policy: How WHO became China’s coronavirus accomplice | Apr 2020 | FP
No matter what China does, WHO keeps praising them | Feb 2020 | WaPo
Why can’t WHO can’t talk about Taiwan? Because WHO is owned by China | Mar 2020 | BBC
Taiwan has knowhow in fighting virus, but is blocked by China from joining WHO | Mar 2020 | Time

WHO director is communist, covered up earlier epidemics, China got him the job
WHO director was among top members of Ethiopia’s Communist Party | Apr 2020 | Summit
WHO director accused of covering up 3 cholera epidemics in Ethiopia | 2017 | NY Times
WHO director got his job thanks to China, now he covers for them | Mar 2020 | Daily Caller

WHO is generally corrupt and incompetent
WHO gives North Korea $900K to fight coronavirus despite no reported cases | Apr 2020 | Fox
WHO spends twice as much on travel as medical supplies | Mar 2020 | Daily Caller
WHO stands by claim that masks don’t do any good | Mar 2020 | CNN
Who done it: complete analysis of trail of corruption at WHO | Apr 2020 | Healthcare Blog

Act XIII | Hypocrisy and Hubris

Media
Media whitewashing early coverage, changing headlines, deleting tweets | Mar 2020 | | Daily Caller
CNN anchor claim to be in quarantine belied by public altercation with cyclist | Apr 2020 | NYPost
CNN journo slams Trump for not wearing mask, then removes hers as cameras off | May 2020 | Fox

Politicians
Chicago Mayor Lightfoot had her hair done while condemning others for same | Apr 2020 | NBC
Pro-beach closure Congressman Rouda (D) caught at private beach | May 2020 | The Blaze
New Zealand health minister demoted after caught breaking lockdown | Apr 2020 | Guardian
Wisconsin governor admits wife and family violated his stay at home order | May 2020 | Chicago Trib

Experts
Top COVID research alarmist resigns after caught breaking lockdown | May 2020 | Telegraph
Neil Ferguson, aka “Dr. Lockdown,” disgraced after caught breaking lockdown | May 2020 | Spectator

Act XIV | Those Who Would Sacrifice Liberty For a Little Safety

Google gives location data to health officials to supposedly combat coronavirus | Apr 2020 | LI

Act XV | How Bad Is It Really Going To Be?

Early estimates now appear greatly exaggerated
Death toll could reach 50 million globally | Feb 2020 | New Scientist
WHO projects COVID-19 death rate at 3.4% | Mar 2020 | ScienceAlert
Trump says he has “hunch” will be less than 1%, publicly ridiculed | Mar 2020 | NPR
Scientists estimate 1.4% death rate, less than half that projected by WHO | Mar 2020 | Stat News
Iceland is doing very widespread testing, so far finding virus less deadly | Apr 2020 | Reason
Fauci lowers death projection by half to 60,000 | Apr 2020 | Bloomberg
Stanford study shows virus more common than estimated | Apr 2020 | ABC

Imperial college model that started panic now discredited
Mar: Imperial College estimates US deaths at 2.2 million | Mar 2020 | Mother Jones
Mar: Imperial lowers death toll estimates | Mar 2020 | Reason
May: Top Imperial alarmist caught violating social distancing, resigns | May 2020 | Telegraph
May: IT experts say Imperial COVID model “riddled with bugs” | May 2020 | Legal In

Death count methods seem intended to maximize number
Pathology prof notes inconsistencies in data, unclear how many dying from COVID | Mar 2020 | Spectator
Coronavirus deaths not counted consistently; definitional disagreement | Apr 2020 | Phil Inquirer
Nine in ten COVID-19 deaths have pre-existing condition | Apr 2020 | BBC
More than 99% of Italy’s COVID-19 deaths had pre-existing condition | Apr 2020 | Bloomberg
COVID-19 death definition changed to include “likely, but not tested” | Apr 2020 | AP
Factcheck: True, hospitals do get paid more if patient is listed as COVID-19 | Apr 2020 | USA Today

Act XVI | What Might Save Us?

Sun, heat, humidity
Analysis reveals the virus spreads more slowly in humid, warm climates | March 2020 | SSRN
This is consistent with the known virucidal effects of the sun | Nov 2005 | Journal of Virology
Virus rarely spreads outdoors, the danger is groups of people indoors | Apr 2020 | MedRxIv
Government study: Sunlight destroys virus quickly | Apr 2020 | Yahoo
Lesson from Spanish Flu: Patients recover better outside | Mar 2020 | Medium
Evidence mounts that being outside is safer | May 2020 | The Hill

Vitamin D
Also possible sun-stimulated vitamin D inhibits the virus, as it does for flu | Dec 2010 | IJID
Indonesian study: death rates dramatically different as function of vitamin D | Apr 2020 | SSRN
Phillippine study: Vitamin D significantly associated with clinical outcomes | Apr 2020 | SSRN
Vitamin D generally reduces risk of respiratory infections | Mar 2020 | MDPI

Artificial UV light
UV sterilization via far-UVC light has been proposed as way to reduce flu epidemics | Apr 2018 | LFW
New device shines UV-A light inside human body to kill viruses | Apr 2020 | Nasdaq
UV technology promises to kill viruses in public places | Apr 2020 | ColumbiaU
NYC bakery installs UVC lighting it bid to kill virus | May 2020 | NYEater
NYC subway installs 150 UVC lights in pilot project | May 2020 | CBS

Pack of smokes?
Smokers four times less likely to contract COVID-19 | Apr 2020 | DT

Act XVII | Wait, What? Lockdowns May Have Been A Mistake?!

Wall Street Journal: No correlation with lockdowns and reduced death rate | Apr 2020 | WSJ
WHO lauds Sweden’s light-touch no lockdown COVID policy | Apr 2020 | NY Post
Germany relaxes lockdown, no second wave resurgence so far | Apr 2020 | Yahoo
Study: Banning mass gatherings helped, but full lockdowns didn’t | May 2020 | Daily Mail
In 1968 Flu Pandemic, country didn’t lock down, had Woodstock instead | Apr 2020 | AIER
Bloomberg: Did Japan just beat the virus without lockdowns or mass testing? | May 2020 | Bloom
In CA, deaths by suicide now exceed those by COVID | May 2020 | Wash Ex

Additional References

Does blood type affect resistance to virus? | Mar 2020 | MSN
3M doubles mask production overnight, to produce a billion masks for US | Mar 2020 | Bloomberg
COVID-19 spread by droplets, not aerosol transmission | Apr 2020 | CDC
Parachute trials demonstrate need for double blind testing | 2003 | BMJ
PA workers toil nonstop 28 day shift to produce face mask materials | Apr 2020 | WaPo
Are quarantine orders constitutional? Yes, there is precedent | Apr 2020 | PacificLegal
Mathematicians: Gatherings larger than 23 will spread virus | Apr 2020 | Science News
CA police stand down after US Marine veteran challenges their integrity | May 2020 | YouTube