A Director's Shot List For Democracy

“Make up a story. For our sake and yours, forget your name in the street. Tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don’t tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief’s wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear’s caul.” — Toni Morrison

This new space on Substack is envisioned as a series of writings, conversations and visual fragments. A lot of what I’m thinking about these days is refusal. What am I not willing to give up? What will I do when this or that happens? I want to be brave. I want to be one of the helpers. I want to save what’s been made. I want to make anew. Those thoughts often lead me to film. It’s how I communicate best.

So in thinking about refusal and resistance, I created my own director’s shot list, if you will. Shot lists are literally what we create and circulate to key crew members to stay on course on any given shoot day. A way to organize thoughts and priorities so that we are actually doing what we gathered to do - make the damn film. I wondered if I could apply some of those tactics to the current attacks on democracy. Here’s what I came up with…

1. Remember The Establishing Shot - When power attempts to narrate our insignificance and stir chaos within us, simply widen the lens. Get out of our heads about the now and place our eyes on history. To truly understand where we are now, we MUST know how we got here and what came before. There are lessons there. Establish that understanding. Remember that every authoritarian regime in history has eventually faced its final cut.

2. Cast Broadly - Our ensemble matters. We should think about coalition-building that crosses predictable lines. The most powerful resistances have often featured unexpected alliances. Martin Scorsese says that casting is 90% of directing. Let’s find the others and rally together.

3. Sound Design Matters - Create new language rather than echoing propaganda. Also, beware of phrasing that softens what’s really happening. It’s a matter of personal choice, but I haven’t leaned into the new language of “they disappeared people.” It’s too soft for me. I prefer saying that “They have made people disappear.” That lands to me. That reminds me that this isn’t about a magical disappearance. This is kidnapping, by force, by lies, by criminal activity.” Be alert to the sound mixing that softens what’s really happening. Also focus on phrasing that drowns out reason.

4. Lighting is Everything - Illuminate what authoritarians want kept dark. Be the gaffer who refuses to let shadows consume truth. Shine light on executive orders, judicial manipulation, suppression of voices. Speak up about it. Shine light on it. Tell a friend or family member who isn’t paying attention.

5. Edit With Precision - Cut through noise with clarity. Distinguish between theatrical threats and actual dangers. Not every idiotic pronouncement deserves equal screen time. Learn to recognize the misdirection designed to exhaust our attention.

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6. Location Scouting - Find where democracy still breathes. Locate the institutions needing defenders, like the courts, centers of journalism, places of education. These are our shooting locations, requiring our presence, our vigilance, our focus.

7. Costume Design - Let’s drape ourselves in consistency. The civil rights movement was a 15 year long movement that required consistent strategy and pressure. Required wearing values visibly. Think about displaying solidarity through symbolic resistance that reveals what side you’re on in this historical moment. In our speech. In our dress. On the walls of our cubicles. Find a way to be a safe space for someone on sight.

8. Script Supervision - Track the continuity of justice across scenes. Notice when rights are slipping away, notch by notch. Learn and remember the previous versions. Flag every deviation from constitutional principles.

9. Special Effects - Art, music, dance and poetry can generate emotional impacts that no manifesto like this can match. Even rest has its place. Midday reset. Drink water. Scroll less. Step outside. Take three belly deep breaths. Remind ourselves that feeling good isn’t a luxury. it’s strategy. Comfort in our minds and bodies is a form of resistance. Art nourishes.

10. Production Design - Build alternative structures while resisting the demolition of existing ones. Let’s create mutual aid networks, community support convenings and parallel systems that serve human needs when official channels fail. Recently, we’ve been doing a lot of this work at my homebase, ARRAY. It matters.

11. Method Acting - Embody the democracy we seek. Practice in small spaces what we hope to see at scale. Our local school board, our neighborhood association, our workplace. These are rehearsal spaces for the larger performance.

12. Breaking the Fourth Wall - Speak directly to power and speak to the people. Call our representatives. Show up at town halls. Write letters. File lawsuits. Put that sign on the lawn or on the fire escape. Pass out that flyer. Talk to that co-worker on a break. Do what we can where we are. Remember that we are not only the audience, but participants in this drama as it unfolds.

The democratic imagination requires both memory and vision. When authoritarianism presents itself as inevitable, we’ve got to remind ourselves that every frame can be reshot, every scene reimagined. Justice is not a single-take production, Friends. It allows for multiple directors and countless revisions.

The authoritarian imagination is actually quite limited. It can only envision power concentrated, voices silenced, differences erased. Our democratic imagination is vaster, richer, capable of holding complexity without breaking.

In this particular moment, with forces of regression seemingly ascendant, our resistance becomes reference footage for generations to come. Just as we study and learn, they’ll study how we moved in this darkness, how we stayed in the frame, how we found our light, how practiced refusal, how we won.

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