Skip to content

Awareness Film Night features Requiem for the American Dream

Film features interview of American linguist and political analyst and activist Noam Chomsky


Awareness Film Night’s 22nd season will open Oct. 12 with its latest flick: Requiem for the American Dream.

If the upcoming U.S. election is leaving you frustrated and longing for a voice of sanity amidst the political hype, look no further than the inimitable American linguist and political analyst and activist Noam Chomsky.

This 2015 documentary was filmed over four years and features interviews with Chomsky that is a personal and thought-provoking look at how the concentration of wealth in the U.S. corrupts the balance of power, making a sham of democracy and souring the whole mythic American Dream.

The New York Times describe this film as: “A sobering vision of a society on an accelerating decline … this well-paced film spotlights a man who, now 87, seems at the height of his intellectual powers.”

Renown movie critic Roger Ebert also noted, in his 2016 review of Requiem, that it’s “a provocative X-ray of current American political realities ... its animating concerns are central to the current year’s presidential election. The vicious cycle of wealth influencing power and therefore influencing legislation is effectively illustrated in a series of easily digestible vignettes.”

Despite his unsettling vision of the state of the U.S. political and social realities, Chomsky remains convinced that learning how the world works will greatly aid in changing it.

Awareness Film Night show time is 7 p.m. at Edward Milne Community School theatre. Admission is by donation.