John Gianvito's Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind (2007) is exclusively showing November 3 - December 2, 2020 on MUBI in the Rediscovered series.
Above: John Gianvito and Howard Zinn
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first publication of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, the inspiration behind my 2007 film Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind. With over two and a half million copies sold, Zinn’s chronicling of over 500 years of the stories of individuals, events, and movements that have contributed to the fight for economic justice, racial equality, voting rights, labor protections, universal health and safety standards, has lost little of its pertinence or utility. Having spawned a Young Adult reader’s version, a graphic novel edition, and multiple other off-shoots, Zinn’s epic recounting of American history from below continues with each passing year to find its way into numerous high school and college reading lists nationwide. Unsurprisingly, its reach and influence has given rise to detractors on both the right and the left, quite likely playing a role in Donald Trump’s recent call to create a commission to promote “patriotic education” and to develop a “pro-American curriculum”—this from a man who once boasted, “I don’t read books. I’m not that interested in history.”
As I write this, on the eve of what is unquestionably the most critical election in my lifetime and arguably in the life of the nation, I think about how Howard understood the concept of patriotism and the clarion call that resounds behind all of his writing, looking backward as a way of helping us look forward, his words a constant prod, reminding us (often with Howard’s distinctive ebullience) that we each shoulder a collective responsibility, have a creative role to play, in shaping the world we wish to see. Regardless of whoever takes the Presidential office, the considerable, unfinished, still aspirational ideals of those who struggled before us advance or recede on our watch. My modest hope is that my film, in paying respect to some of those individuals who strove, often at the risk of their lives, to forge a more just and equitable vision for this nation, offers within it, some fuel for resistance.
“If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, not as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles.”
—Howard Zinn
“To the daring belongs the future!”
—Emma Goldman’s motto
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A note on this restoration. Not only am I deeply grateful to MUBI for hosting and supporting the HD restoration of Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind, but I owe special thanks to Mark Rance at Watchmaker Films in London whose unflagging efforts and determination over many years not only rescued this film from near extinction but has succeeded in making it look more striking than it ever did originally. Given the ceaseless evolving of exhibition formats and significant economic and technical demands of media migration, vast amounts of cinema’s history stand to be lost in the wake. If I wore a hat, I would take it off in honor of maverick outfits like Watchmaker—long may they thrive.