THE WORLD IS My COUNTRY

"The World is My Country"

The true story of the daring, controversial, decades-ahead-of-his-time

World Citizen #1 Garry Davis

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A song and dance man desperate to stop a war,

pulls off an act of political theater so gutsy

and eye-opening that it sparks a huge movement -- drawing Albert Einstein,

Albert Camus and a cast of thousands into a story Martin Sheen calls

"a roadmap to a better future."

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When he was Director of Programming for HBO, Greg Rhem said:

 

"Minutes after pressing play, THE WORLD IS MY COUNTRY was off to an unlikely start: a rainbow audience of kids watch as a 90-year old grandad hobbles onto a Charlie Chaplin stage.

 

As the film progressed, I was drawn in by Garry Davis' extremely unique story, with its infectious idea that managed to spark Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Albert Camus and 20,000 Parisians into a mighty movement: "World Citizenship!"

Garry had the innocence of a Forest Gump but was an honest-to-goodness real-life person -- with such purpose, common sense and guts -- blew me away.

 

How could this guy be real?

And yet, there he was in black-and-white archival, a part of world history! 

In the end, I was definitely taken with Garry's amazing story, because in a world torn apart by walls of fear, divisions and hate, his message of "World Unity" is something we all need to embrace. 

Garry may well be giving us, as Martin Sheen says in his intro, a "road map to a better future."

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-- GREG RHEM, former Director of Programming, HBO Documentary Films, now Creative Consultant, Bronx Brain 64