What does freedom mean? Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman takes audiences on a tour of the world to hear the moving stories of five extraordinary people who struggled to find freedom, in one form or another. It is the study of what freedom is, both as a concept and as a human condition.
The first two he encountered showed that freedom is a state of mind. Shin was born in a North Korean slave labor camp and is now supporting his family after escaping to the United States. Despite his physical freedom, he remains a mental prisoner battling PTSD and adjusting to his new world. He has to learn to be free and make decisions he thought were impossible.
Albert Woodfox spent nearly 44 years in solitary confinement in a Louisiana cell before being released at age 71. The years without physical freedom gave him an indestructible sense of inner freedom. His mind was free, which helped him through the ordeal.
Freeman emphasizes the importance of freedom fighters fighting against injustice and tyranny today, just as America’s founding fathers did in 1776.
He studied the Declaration of Independence, which formally stated that governments must fight for the “inalienable” rights of their citizens. However, Thomas Jefferson’s original version says that liberty is an “inner” right, meaning that every human being is born with it. Today we can only look back at the sinister effects of word swapping on the history of women and black Americans.
He visited Rigoberta Menchú, a Guatemalan activist who was an ethnic Mayan whose entire family had been taken by government forces who had committed abuse and brutality against indigenous tribes that killed thousands. Even after 14 years in exile, she dedicated her life to fighting for the Mayans and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for her peaceful and effective methods.
In New York, he chatted with Nadia Tolokonnikova, founder of Russian feminist protest punk rock movement Pussy Riot. In 2012, she was arrested for giving a pop-up concert at a church to protest President Putin’s continued suppression of people’s freedoms in cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church. In prison, she fought for women’s rights in prison and promoted the reform of the prison system.
After all, many continue to fight for the freedom to express their identities. When Victoria Khan was seven years old after the Taliban killed her parents in the 1990s, she ended up in a suicide bomber training camp in civil war-torn Afghanistan. She refuses to be separated from her sister, protecting her from predators, even donning a burqa to do so. Even though both are living safe, free lives in Europe and America, Victoria realizes that to be truly free, she must fully accept, embrace, and transform herself.
Freedom is the birthright of every human being, but today’s world is still a long way from fully realizing it. There are still enslaved people who live amidst sociopolitical and economic inequality, and those who want freedom to be their heart. Hopefully, one day, these rights will apply to everyone.
