Operation Lysistrata

One of the nicest surprises of the 12th Annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts put on by the Theatre for the New City, May 25 – 27, 2008 was Michael Patrick Kelly's riveting and important new documentary Operation Lysistrata. The only complete record of an incredible world wide anti war protest called "The Lysistrata Project" which took place on March 3, 2003 Operation Lysistrata documents this brain child of Sharron Bower and Kathryn Blume, two New York based anti war activists who started a world wide campaign to have people perform readings of Aristophanes' 2,000 year old satirical anti war play "Lysistrata" to protest the impending U.S. invasion of Iraq. The story of "Lysistrata" in brief: In ancient Greece the women, lead by Lysistrata, decide to take a stand against impending war by refusing to have sex with their men until the men have made peace. Hilarity ensues. The rules for "The Lysistrata Project" were that the readings could be as small as two people in a bar or a fully staged production, or anywhere in between and that it had to be performed on March 3, 2003. National and global interest grew quickly and readings were set up all over America and the world, from Singapore where gatherings of 3 people or more are routinely broken up by police, to a home schooled 15 year old boy in Ohio who staged his own production using plastic dinosaurs, to a group that performed "Lysistrata" on the Staten Island Ferry. What could such a protest accomplish? Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham sets the tone right from the start by telling a fable about a sparrow who is lying on the ground with his feet up in the air. When asked what he is doing the sparrow replies that he heard the sky is falling and that he wants to hold it up. When asked how he can expect to hold up the sky with his spindly sparrow's legs he replies that he is doing what he can. Just as interesting as the protest is the story behind Kelly's attempts to document the event. Kelly put out the word on the internet asking anyone performing a "Lysistrata" reading to video tape it and send the tape to him. He received video tapes from all over the world. He also had access to the preparations in New York. So, without barely leaving the borough of Manhattan, and working on a minuscule budget, Kelly, producer Suzanne Hayes and a talented editing crew have weaved together a gripping, touching, passionate, funny and ultimately bitter sweet account of a world of people just doing their part to keep the sky from falling. The documentary features interviews with actors F. Murray Abraham, Kathleen Chalfant, Living Theatre founder Judith Malina, historian Howard Zinn and many others. At this point there is no release date.

Operation Lysistrata was a moving, touching, inspiring yet straightforward record of a movement started by two women in New York that created a world-wide protest. It demonstrates the power of individuals and the Internet.

The movie never preaches, yet the messages are powerful and clear. Those messages are that individuals can make a difference in the world and that the Internet is a powerful tool for individualism and liberty.

We laughed, cried, and left the screening in a hopeful frame of mind. One can not praise too much the participants in Project Lysistrata, the women who started it and the makers of this film. Thanks to one and all.

The importance of using our rights is exemplified in Operation Lysistrata, particularly when a fairly elderly women brings forth the belief that the young generation of America feels as though they missed times in our US history to protest. She explains that the youth must do their part, as past generations have. The new generation of protests is shown in Operation Lysistrata, through two women organizing a idea of demonstration. The way the film crew captures it is interesting and creative, not to mention inspiring way. Setting aside the importance of our natural rights, operation Lysitrata shows the young generation many ideas, including the use of present technology, to aid their action.

In an election year, when concerns over the efficacy of our politics are running high, filmmaker Michael Patrick Kelly offers an insightful portrait of how an individual thought can have a global impact.

The story of a worldwide theatrical act of dissent, Operation Lysistrata follows a 3-month odyssey led by two New York activists, Sharron Bower and Kathryn Blume, as they coordinated global readings of Aristophanes' 2,500 year old play, Lysistrata, on March 3rd, 2003 to protest Bush's invasion of Iraq. Operation Lysistrata, whose title deliberately plays on the military action it sought to prevent, traces an idea that started with two women in New York and grew to global proportions. Bower and Blume coordinated 1,029 readings worldwide in churches, schools, basements, refugee camps, press corp offices, and private homes. An estimated 225,000 people in 59 countries and all 50 U.S. states participated in the event.

The film deftly weaves news footage, rehearsals from around the world, clever supporting animation, and interviews with actors, artists and ordinary people as it tells the story of freedom of speech, grassroots activism, and the power of theatre to change the world. From the idea of making an anti-war statement in January 2003, to the worldwide reading on March 3rd, to reflection 10 days after the event, Kelly's film includes a stunning array of footage from all over the world, as far as Singapore, Norway, Patras and Rome and across the United States, from Brooklyn to San Francisco and all points in between.

F. Murray Abraham, Judith Malina, Ellen McLaughlin, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Mercedes Ruehl, Robert Brustein, Tony Kushner and many others lend their theatre and film celebrity to the cause and are featured alongside everyday New Yorkers and global citizens who feel compelled to speak out.

As the film opens Abraham tells the story of the sparrow who, when he heard the sky was falling, lay down on his back and tried to hold it up with his little feet. When asked what he thought he, as a tiny, weak creature, would accomplish, he replied, "We do what we can." This notion of doing something, of standing up and being counted, permeates the film, which also includes archival footage from the Civil Rights and Women's Movements, commentary on art's role in social change by historian Howard Zinn, and documentary footage of the anti-war protests in New York, Washington DC and across Europe.

The readings ranges from fully realized theatrical productions, such as the one at the Brooklyn Academy of Music that featured Abraham, Bacon, and Sedgwick, to a reading without electricity in a Kurdish refugee camp in Patras, Greece. Performers in war-torn Philippines literally risked their lives to participate in this reading. A group of gagged performers stood before the Houses of Parliament in London and as Big Ben struck the hour, turned, removed their gags, and recited the play's communal chorus, an indictment of the misuse of reigning power. Community theatre groups performed indoors and on street corners, private citizens hosted readings in their homes, and 15-year old Daniel Merritt of Columbus, Ohio staged a version acted entirely by toy dinosaurs. And the film incorporates the attention-getting humor of Aristophanes' play, complete with every imaginable strap-on phallus, codpiece, and sex jokes galore.

We watch individuals become activists, find their political voices, and act on their convictions. We witness how divisive a force this war is, as people from varying sides of the political spectrum encounter one another through this event. And we see Aristophanes' play as a mirror that reflects contemporary culture and offers a way to talk about power and its abuses in our society.

Kelly's film represents an inspiring partnership between two activist forms: theatre and documentary film. Both media hold the power to cause social change, by exposing, articulating, and chronicling society's flaws and political ills. Operation Lysistrata is an artful blend of these two forms, at once chronicling the activism of artists speaking out against war, illustrating the power of Aristophanes' farce in making contemporary anti-war statements, and reinforcing the vital role documentary filmmakers play as our cultural watchdogs.

Five years into the war, with 4,100 US soldiers and over a million Iraqis dead, and countless wounded and in need of mental health care, Kelly's film stands as testament to the importance of dissenting voices. By bringing attention to this important global theatrical act of dissent, especially in an election year that could drastically shift our political landscape, Operation Lysistrata does its part in holding up the sky.

I was first intrigued by just looking at the title. For those of us who have read Lysistrata, we understand the power of nonviolent resistance of the Greek women.

What I did not like about the film was the very small snippets of the actual readings, as it focused more on just watching them rehearse.

Overall an intriguing idea, I'd still have to go research the project myself to be fully informed.

I do applaud the director for taking into account the over 200 readings that took place on March 3; it's amazing what an idea can become, and when we are presented with it, it seemed to just blossom into a throughly international project. The documentary standpoint was mediocre, however, and it failed to capture my total interests.