WTO/99

On 30 November 1999, more than 40,000 protesters prepared for actions around the ministerial summit on international trade in Seattle, Washington, organized by the recently established World Trade Organization (WTO). The activists gathered from across the political spectrum—left and right, progressive and conservative—and represented a wide range of causes, from labor rights to environmental protection.

Ian Bell reconstructs this four-day event using news broadcasts, home videos, press conferences, and outtakes. The result is a powerful account, presented without commentary from the filmmaker, assembled from roughly 1,000 hours of footage and carefully edited into a fluid narrative.

The streets of Seattle are packed with protesters, many armed with video cameras and in some cases chained to concrete containers. The film also follows corporate executives in trench coats and short-tempered law enforcement officers. WTO/99 thus captures a momentous event, powerfully reflecting the industrialized world’s inability to address both climate change and labor rights, and America’s increasing state aggression.