Activism is our duty - „Chomsky - Mujica” the movie

📷 Saul Alvidrez

(Za srpsku verziju ovog intervjua, molim vas kliknite ovde.)

"Wow! The greatest living sage and the most modest president - in one place, in one movie !? This must be ingenious!" - was my first reaction to the then still kickstarter project "Chomsky - Mujica" by Saul Alvidrez. Of course I donated some micro contribution, because this kind of projects should be supported. Fortunately, more people agreed with this, so the money was soon collected and this documentary was - filmed! The author promises that the film will have its premiere this year, and I hope that we will have the opportunity to see it in our region as well.

The exciting meeting takes place in Montevideo, in the home of the Uruguayan president and the most beloved statesman of the world, Jose Pepe Mujica, who will host the greatest intellectual of our time, Noam Chomsky. And this will be their first meeting, ever! It'll be a joyeous and friendly weekend, during which the two of them will share not only their lavish life experiences, but also ignite a conversation that will be remembered.

This documentary, dedicated to the young generations, is a beautiful and urgent message to humanity. It explores love, life, freedom, strength and the greatest challenges of the 21st century, with two exceptional personalities, whose paths have never crossed before.

In this interview we spoke with the activist and author of the film "Chomsky - Mujica" Saul Alvidrez: how did his personal activism and the "Mexican Spring" influence the creation of this work, how the persecution ultimately resulted in strength and creativity and why do we need not only the systemic but also fundamental change in the 21st... century and what we can hope for.

How was this whole experience for you? And also, what were you aiming for by making this movie?

This has been my first movie and an incredible experience, also because of the fact of being with and sharing a lot of time with Noam Chomsky and Pepe Mujica, which both are actually my heroes, more specifically my political heroes. But  they didn't want just to engage in this political discourse, but also...One very important thing about film is not just political, their wisdom is very wide so I ve tried to reach in this movie the wisdom about life, love freedom and many other interesting things that I believe are very important in order to try to achieve the goal of this movie - to share this necessary wisdom in order for us to overcome the 21st century issues… One of the main goals is to raise awareness on the ecological, political, economical and social instability and unsustainable model that we have for the world. And that is why I choose Noam and Pepe because I believe that the wise man of the North and the wiseman of the South (and this is of course a very personal approach to categorize) was the right choice. 6 years now and he hope is this year it will be released.

Chomsky and Mujica in the same sentence  - already that that sounds like a good idea... And then in a movie…. How was the meeting between the two of them? That was the first time they actually met?

The moment when Chomsky arrives at Mujica's house was incredible, the first handshake, the first hug... the first “Hello brother, how are you”... It was an incredible moment that I'm sure I will never forget. The whole filming process for me was a very accelerating and stressful moment, so I've been focused on what we were doing and letting aside what I was feeling.

📷 Maria Ayub

How has the film changed during the process? Documentary seems like a living thing sometimes...

Especially for me as an amateur (it's my first film)… You can plan some things. The first problem - and maybe that changed the entire process - was the translation. As you know, Noam doesn't speak Spanish and Pepe doesn't speak English at all, so we had to find a way to overcome that. And we did.

It was even more than I was expecting. For example, Noam (who is a particularly very reserved guy in private life) shared very personal experiences and anecdotes that I'm sure he has never shared publicly. Also , there were a lot of laughs and many jokes between them. An intimate and warm conversation between them, many things like that you will see in the movie. Many of them never expected to hear.

Could you tell us a bit more about the YoSoy132 movement and your story as an activist? If I understood well, without it  -  this  movie would have never happened?

Definitely. Of course this is not part of the documentary. But this movement has everything to do with this movie. I was the first member and founder of YoSoy132 movement which is known as the “Mexican spring”. We were fighting for the democratization of the media, against great  media conglomerates.

I have always had a political inclination. Before YoSoy132 I was planning to become president of my country

Really?

Yes, really, that's what I thought. But that changed my perspective radically. Especially after teaching from Noam and Pepe, I don't believe in political parties, I don't believe in what we now call democracy,  it is actually plutocracy. So I didn't like the traditional ways the politics work, so I try to think and to reach new ways to be politically active and things that matter to me. There was a lot of violence, death treads  and many ugly things that I received because of my activism in 2012. And that's why I left Mexico and went to live for 4 years in Latin America, and that's when I was studying a lot, more than ever, discovering in a profound way Noam and Pepe, discovering that our civilization is totally unsustainable, that it will collapse in the next  two or three decades, so that's when I got a new perspective of what my objectives of life should be. Just like you, I believe that activism and political action isn't just something that  we may feel inclined to or like to do, it's our responsibility. So in order to do that I tried to capture the meeting of the wisest guys of the millennia sharing the bible wisdom to the young ones, I believe that was important and it was a shame that Noam and Pepe never were together before. And if we achieved that, if we managed to capsule all this wisdom and to share it with youth, I believe that was the best thing I could do with my life at that point.

Right now, because of that way of thinking I believe my mission is to amplify the public conversation, so that is focuses on the solutions for all these  problems. I will try to guide my life and my work along those lines.

Message transmitted?

When it's released, that's the goal, but nevertheless I'm not as positive in the sense of believing that this would be the solution to fix the world. I believe that the most important thing to do is to spread those messages, and to work together... I believe the objective is for people to grow different ideas, and the mindset (especially cultural action) to work together.

📷 Maria Ayub

I believe what we should try is to search for new models how to live, and these models should come from the young ones because they are inheriting the next decades. I believe, and this might be the main point of the documentary, that we need to pass this cultural (it's not just an economic model) cause capitalism is not just economic it's cultural thing and the culture is more powerful than the armies, from this individualistic competitive model to collective cooperative way of doing things. So I believe that is a way to summarize my perspective on this matter.

How did the pandemic influence your work on this movie?

The movie was filmed in 2017, pandemic happened after that. Nevertheless, Noam was very promontory and very advanced of the time because he was talking about the possibility of pandemics, especially from the perspective of the massive use of antibiotics in the food industry. But we try to accommodate the narrative of the movie to be more actualized in this today's context.

At the beginning of the pandemic people believed  “this is the end of capitalism as we now it”, but of course not, the first to respond was political and economic forces… I believe its having some positive effects for the citizens - the citizens developing new ways of production, of growth, interaction. ...But I believe that covid 19 was enough to shake the world as it is, but not to change it. I believe that we need to work a lot on that , together. I  believe that solutions for 21st century won’t come from the politicians or economic world, that would be suicidal and stupid.

I believe that all injustice has a same root actually. I couldn’t help but notice that you have a post on your Instagram profile with the text: I am feminist.

First, my approach to feminism is as I support justice in any other domain,  I believe that it is obvious that we live in a male hierarchy, it’s too obvious. And of course, I support equality, I'm trying to be respectful and to be an ally .

Its pretty stupid that male hierarchy and male dominance , when we talk about a women we arew talking about the other half of the world and we are cutting all of that potential. There is a lot of injustice in this social model of the world...Half of the planet, the potential to have that potential  as a humanity, not to suppress it.

And of course racism, and many other models that don’t support diversity... Diversity is a potential and if that is so, we should embrace that diversity. That are messages of evolution and biology, in order to perpetuate life.

What did you personally learn from the process of making this movie?

The  thing that I learned is that limits exist only in my mind, you have your own limits and those limits live in here (head). I believe that everything is possible as long as you put all your heart into it. It would be better of course if you're putting your heart in something positive, in this case activism...That would be my personal advice or something to share... Everything is possible. You know how I reached Noam Chomsky? I went to the MIT website and I grabbed the email address and  I started sending emails, for almost one year. And reaching Pepe was even more difficult, but it can happen as long as you're stubborn

And as long as your idea is good.

Yeah, I believe… Especially the first time I talked to Noam and Pepe they received the idea with open arms, but there were many barriers in order to actually meet the two of them. Not because they did not want to do this , but just because they have a lot to do.

But that is the main thing, I truly believe in myself (not to brag about, I'm trying to share the message), I believe that I can do anything if I put my mind into, an I believe that strength should be used in order to make our future better, basically to survive - so again, this is something I truly believe. Just do it man.

So would you say that you're an optimist when it comes to the future of the world?

I believe that important thing is to do what you must, so I'm an optimist in the sense that I'm active, and what I believe it should be done and trying to do it, but to know what will happen... I don't know. To be honest, If I try to see the future I'm a kind of a pessimist, but that doesn't have anything to do with what I'm gonna do with my life... Yeah, limits are in here. (showing head).
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autorka intervjua: Milica Glogovac