THE ORGANIZER

A film by Nick Taylor, Joey Carey
2018, 104 minutes
No. 189
Documentary


THE ORGANIZER
$375.00
Description
The Organizer is a portrait of Wade Rathke, the controversial founder of ACORN, as well as an exploration of that much maligned and misunderstood occupation – community organizing.

Before it’s infamous demise following several highly publicized scandals, ACORN had been the largest community organization in the United States. Rathke, a former anti-war and welfare rights organizer founded the organization in Little Rock in 1970 and over the next decades shepherded its growth into a national political powerhouse for the poor. His entrepreneurial vision helped build ACORN but internal conflict and external pressures would lead to its tragic downfall.

Undeterred, Rathke is now building new organizations around the world and trying to rebuild at home. With a wealth of archives and interviews, The Organizer is a film about people who have dedicated their lives to the often hidden, usually messy and always controversial job of building power for the powerless.

Festivals
Winner, Audience Award, Best Documentary, Woodstock Film Festival
Winner, Free Press Award: Best Social Justice Film, Columbus Film & Animation Festival
Winner, Best Documentary, Oxford Film Festival
Official Selection, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

Reviews
"A must-see film for activists. Many of the best organizers I have ever met were working for ACORN. If you never saw ACORN in its prime and wonder what all the talk was about, see this film. And if you recall ACORN but never really heard from the group’s members, it’s all in the film." - Beyond Chron