Grace Lee Boggs is a Chinese American philosopher and grassroots activist who has devoted her life to social justice. Now 95 and rooted in Detroit, a symbol of worldwide economic collapse and industrial failure, she challenges a new generation of leaders to rethink what it means to be an American revolutionary.

Grace sends a message to the 99 percent: Part I

Grace sends a message to the 99 percent: Part II

The Film

How can we make a difference in a world plagued by seemingly endless wars, rampant consumerism, and environmental and man-made disasters? How do we sustain hope so we can continue fighting for change? These are the questions posed by Grace Lee Boggs, a 95-year-old Chinese American philosopher and activist in Detroit, whose life story embodies the major social movements of the last century. Born before women could vote, Boggs has built movements from within the African American community for 70 years, and remains a passionate writer and advocate for the rebirth of her adopted hometown. Using Detroit as a springboard for a process of re-imagination, conversation, and action, AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY asks audiences to rigorously reflect on their communities and themselves, reminding us that revolution is not only possible and necessary, but in places like Detroit, already happening.

AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: THE EVOLUTION OF GRACE LEE BOGGS is a feature-length documentary that includes biographical elements, but it is not a biopic. Grace is less a protagonist than a conduit for ideas and this is a film about the power of ideas and the process of building community. It’s also a film that will channel the elusive spirit and energy of a woman who has given herself over completely to ideas, community and revolution. The driving narrative is how one person traversed the major social movements of the last century – from labor to civil rights, to Black Power, feminism, and beyond – and emerged with a philosophy that is almost radical in its simplicity and clarity: revolution is not an act of aggression, but a series of dialectical conversations. It is a willingness to change tactics, reevaluate strategy, and embrace contradictions. “Revolution,” Grace says, “is about the ability to transform oneself to transform the world.” The same issues facing Detroit are the same ones facing people from Wisconsin to the Middle East. People everywhere are asking themselves, “Where do we go from here? How do we create justice? And how do we sustain ourselves so that we can continue fighting for change. AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY explores how a lifetime of thinking, advocating, and grassroots doing has culminated in powerful approaches to these elusive questions.

The Filmmakers

GRACE LEE (Producer/Director) is a Los Angeles based filmmaker of both documentary and fiction films. Her feature film AMERICAN ZOMBIE was released by Cinema Libre in 2008. Prior to that, she produced, wrote and directed THE GRACE LEE PROJECT, an award-winning documentary on Asian American identity and stereotypes which was released theatrically, broadcast on Sundance Channel and is distributed by Women Make Movies. She received her MFA in Directing from UCLA Film School, where her thesis film BARRIER DEVICE, starring Sandra Oh, won a Student Academy Award and Directors Guild of America award, She is the recipient of the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Digital Media, a Rockefeller Media Arts grant, the PPP Pusan Prize as well as funding from the NEA, Center for Asian American Media, UCLA Institute for American Cultures. Other documentary credits include BEST OF THE WURST, which is permanently featured at the Currywurst Museum in Berlin and CAMP ARIRANG, about U.S. military prostitution in South Korea. She has also taught production courses at UCLA Film School, UC-Irvine Department of Studio Art, and at Objectifs Film and Photography Center in Singapore and has appeared on panels and guest lectures ranging from the True/False Film Festival, the PEN/Faulkner Center, Stanford University, Scribe Video Center, UC Berkeley, the Smithsonian Institution, and many others.  
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AUSTIN WILKIN (Producer) Austin Wilkin is a Los Angeles based independent producer and writer. He recently produced BOB AND THE MONSTER, a feature-length documentary about punk rock musician and recovery specialist Bob Forrest, which premiered at SXSW, and screened at Hot Docs, Sheffield and IDFA documentary festivals. He was an associate producer on WE LIVE IN PUBLIC (Sundance 2009 Grand Jury Prize winner) and has worked on productions for networks and companies ranging from CNN, NBC and HBO and THX. In addition to producing AMERICAN REVOLUTIONAR, he is developing several other non-fiction projects. He is a graduate of Boston University's Film Department and a Boston native.

KIM ROBERTS (Editor) is an Emmy winning editor of feature documentaries. Her recent work includes Waiting for Superman (Paramount), Food, Inc. (nominated for a 2010 Oscar), Autism the Musical (HBO), and the upcoming Last Call at the Oasis (Participant). Kim won an Emmy for Autism the Musical, her third nomination. She has received two Eddie Award nominations from the American Cinema Editors, and a WGA nomination.

Her other films include: Oscar Nominees and Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winners Daughter from Danang and Long Night’s Journey into Day; Two Days in October (Peabody and Emmy winner ‘06); Made in L.A. (Emmy winner ’09); The Fall of Fujimori (Sundance ‘05); Lost Boys of Sudan (Independent Spirit Award ‘04); Daddy & Papa (Sundance), A Hard Straight (Grand Prize, SXSW) and Splinters (2011). She also co-wrote and directed the fiction film Wilderness Survival for Girls(ContentFilm/Image Entertainment). Kim received her Masters Degree in Documentary Film Production from Stanford University, where she won a Student Academy Award. She is a member of the American Cinema Editors and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

JERRY A. HENRY (Cinematography) received his MFA from UCLA Film School with an emphasis on documentaries, cinematography, and digital media. Since graduating, he has shot and produced over 300 reality television programs and documentary series including MADE, 16 & PREGNANT and TRUE LIFE for MTV News & Docs as well as programs for PBS, National Geographic, A&E, Bravo, VH-1, NBC, ABC and the Discovery Channel among many others. Documentary feature credits include THE GRACE LEE PROJECT, David Zeiger’s SIR, NO SIR! and WINTER SOLDIER and most recently the Academy Award nominated EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP. Jerry’s award-winning short documentaries I PROMISE AFRICA and SOMETHING OTHER THAN OTHER have screened in over 100 film festivals around the world and he is a recipient of the Gordon Parks Emerging African American Filmmaker Award. He is currently in post-production on his first feature-length documentary ECONOMY SUPERSTAR and continues to explore the beauty of HDSLR filmmaking and time-lapse photography while enjoying fatherhood.
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QUYEN TRAN (Cinematography and Stills) Quyen Tran received fine art and photography training at the University of Virginia and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. before receiving an MFA in Cinematography from UCLA’s Graduate Film School. At UCLA, Quyen won Best Cinematography honors three years in a row, photographing numerous films that screened in festivals including Sundance, Telluride, SXSW and Tribeca Film Festival, among others. Quyen has photographed films internationally, including South Africa, Thailand, Japan, China and Vietnam.  She recently returned from the Toronto International Film Festival with the narrative feature GIRLFRIEND.  In between features she photographs commercials and documentaries, with clients including Nike, Sony, and Apple. In addition to AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY, Quyen is shooting two other documentary features and is in pre-production for a narrative feature slated to begin production in June 2011 in New York City. 
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Eurie Chung (Associate Producer) is a native New Englander who arrived in Los Angeles to study social work and Asian American Studies at UCLA and fell into documentary filmmaking. For her master's thesis, she directed and edited a short documentary METRO ES PARA TODOS: HEE POK "GRANDMA" KIM AND THE BUS RIDERS UNION. She currently works as an editor/post-production supervisor at a small post-production facility in L.A.

Grace Lee Boggs

You can read more about Grace Lee Boggs at the following sites:

The Boggs Center

The Next American Revolution

University of California Press

Clips

Thank You!

This film could not be made without the help of these generous individuals