How to Start a Revolution

Gene Sharp is often misperceived by the left as a liberatory thinker. In fact, he is more of a neoliberal cold war intellectual (though I'm not sure it's fair to entirely cast his work in that way). Rather than me documenting this myself, I refer people to google the 2 outstanding articles on Gene Sharp by Marcie Smith on the Nonsite website. That said the film is worthwhile because Sharp was undoubtedly a historically highly influential thinker and in particular for it's showing of his links to the uprisings in Egypt and the Berbia. The 6 star rating also reflects some of the films weaknesses such as its hagiographic approach, some overstatement of his direct influence and a lack of analysis as to the shortcomings of the approach and any exploration of revolution for what ends (leading back to the neoliberal attribution).