“[Beyond Barricades] offers aninspiring look at a group of musicians dedicating their lives to fighting for human rights through their songs and outreach,” reads the press release about the movie. “With their endless drive to help others, they put empathy over apathy and fight cynicism with optimism but find that things could go tragically wrong at any moment.”
The movie features interviews with the band and contemporaries such as Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Billy Bragg, Tim McIlrath (Rise Against), Brian Baker (Bad Religion), Chris Cresswell (the Flatliners, Hot Water Music), Tom May and Greg Barnett (the Menzingers), and many more.
“It’s hard to sum up the life of a band in an hour and a half,” says singer Justin Sane in a press statement. “We started Anti-Flag out of a passion for punk rock with the belief that punk music had the power to change people’s lives and have a positive impact on the world. With this documentary, we hope people will see that while life may not be as straight forward as that idealistic philosophy, it isn’t so far from the truth either. Regardless of what others take from this film, for us the experience of looking back on the history of Anti-Flag — sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes unbelievable — leaves us grateful to have had the opportunity to live a very rare and at times extraordinary life as part of this punk rock band.”
This is the second feature film produced by TurnStyle Films and Executive Producer Matthew Chojnacki (Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, 30 Years of Garbage: The Garbage Pail Kids Story). TurnStyle Films co-produced the thriller Powerbomb and is also currently in production on Don’t Fall In Love with Yourself, a documentary on Justin Pearson and the San Diego noise punk scene.
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This article appears in Sep 9-22, 2020.
