Plot

ACTIVIZED follows a handful of ordinary Americans who have surprised themselves by becoming political activists. The subjects of this film are passionate newcomers to the political arena; people who never saw themselves as rabble-rousers or trouble-makers. But something in the past three years inspired each of them to step up, put themselves on the front lines, and make a decision to defend American values and democratic institutions they believe are under threat.

A handful of ordinary Americans who have surprised themselves by becoming political activists. By definition, an activist is a person who campaigns for political or social change. These people are passionate newcomers to the political arena; people who never saw themselves as rabble-rousers or trouble-makers. But something in the past three years inspired each of them to step up, put themselves on the front lines, and make a decision to defend American values and democratic institutions they believe are under threat. In South Texas in the Fall of 2018, Asylum seekers are taken to bus stations often without money or directions to locate relatives in the United States. Elizabeth Cavazos volunteers at the bus station to help the immigrants understand the bus schedules and their itineraries. Gail Weinstein is a corporate lawyer who traveled to Dilley, Texas. 2400 women and children seeking asylum in the United States are detained here. Legal volunteers are given an orientation on the asylum framework of law and the process of asylum seeking on Sunday afternoons. The first step in the process is passing a credible fear interview where the asylum seeker must establish there is sufficient reason they cannot return to their home country. Cavazos claims she was raised in a conservative household where she was taught not to be outspoken about political issues. Weinstein recounts the week she spent in Dilley as a pro bono attorney as exhausting and emotionally taxing. In 1965, Lyndon Johnson declared it wrong to deny any of our fellow Americans the right to vote and the Voting Rights Act enshrining equal access to the ballot box was passed. NAACP member Gerald Givens claims that in North Carolina, there are those that would roll back the progress the law has made. Voting rights activist Aylett Colston and Givens both discount claims of voter fraud in their state. Colston says that such claims were made just to make it more difficult for people to vote. Colston left her corporate law job to defend voter rights full time. North Carolina districts are claimed to be gerrymandered to give advantage to one particular group of voters in each district. In the 2018, North Carolina has three amendments on the ballot that could restrict voting rights. One of these is a voter ID law which requires a photo ID for in person voting. Myrna Perez claims such a law would disenfranchise 8-12% of voters. Colston, who does not have a job like other working women, will have to regroup if the amendment passes. Vikiana Petit-Homme is a high school senior that protested in the March for Our Lives. In Massachusetts, she advocates for more gun laws. Petit-Homme does not only protest for against mass shootings in schools but also against the daily gun violence faced in neighborhoods today. In the State House in Boston. Petit-Homme advocates for lowering the voting age to 16 seeing youth, the future of America, as an important, active voting block. Daphne Frias, a student at State University in New York was also moved by the March for Our Lives and the ongoing movement that would persist. Daphne, who is confined to a wheelchair helped organize the 2018 rally in New York City for the March for Our Lives bus tour. At the event, Daphne met Manuel Oliver, an artist who lost his son at Parkland and made a mural as part of the event as an outlet for his grief and a memorial for his son. Oliver hits holes in the painting with a hammer representing gunshots of those who lost their lives due to gun violence. Frias makes her way to Washington, D.C. to participate in a protest organized by Manuel Oliver urging returning congressmen to tale up gun control legislation. Oliver continually makes the point that 105 people in America die from gun violence each day. In North Carolina, Gerald Given promotes "Soul to the Polls" and effort to get out the vote on Sundays in early voting. North Carolina officials have undertaken legislation to limit early voting in elections. Keith Sellars was arrested for voting in 2016. He had been incarcerated and was still on probation during that election. He subsequently negotiated a plea deal that allows him to vote in the 2018 midterm election. Not only did he vote, but he leads a march called, "Party to the Polls" that celebrated the joy and civic spirit in voting. In 2018, voting rights advocates lose their battle against amendments in North Carolina. Aylett Colston is disheartened that North Carolina will not have, in her opinion, free and fair elections. The activists, though with different focuses, all seem to agree that activism in an American thing to do as it always relies on individuals taking on established ways that create social change. They all continue to be activists for their chosen causes.