The story of a middle-aged former Activist who realizes he has become a part of the system he once fought so hard against.

The Activist is the story of Michael Sumner, a wealthy corporate lawyer, father to a spoiled son, and husband jaded by a broken marriage who one morning reflects on the idealism and activism of his past.
Cutting between Michael today, going about his morning routine, and Michael from 1970, delivering an impassioned speech to a rally of protesters, the young Michael incites the crowd with a call to action to fight for civil rights and against consumerism, war and greed - issues that are as prominent today as they were in 1970.

As the words of his past reflect his life today, Michael is shaken by the realization that he has become the man he once fought so hard against.

For the better part of three years, I embarked on an amazing journey when myself and a small crew went out to make a documentary film titled "ReGeneration". The subject of that film explored the widespread cynicism in today’s youth and young adults, and the influences that perpetuate our culture’s apathetic approach to social and political causes. It was a huge topic that brought us all over the country speaking with some of the greatest progressive minds such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Amy Goodman. What was more telling was how their activism today is as important as their activism in the 60’s and 70’s when revolution, and protest had reached its peak in American culture.

So it was during an early screening of that film when a good friend of mine who, like myself, is in his late twenties had made a comment that was tough to forget. He said to me “Damn, I remember seeing pictures of my Mom and Dad protesting against Vietnam. Now, they’re hard-core Republicans.”

I laughed, but thought about it for a while. Like his parents, I also recall stories from my father about his youth, having protested and dodged the draft in the 70’s. Things that today, I could not ever imagine my father even paying attention to. He just wasn’t a political guy. He worked in insurance, raised me in a big suburban home, and bought me a Nintendo, when Nintendo was the “it thing back in 1985 - but - my Dad an anti-war protestor? No way… but he was. So I kept thinking, what silenced him? Was it the system? Was it himself? Or Both? I mean surely with two wars going on, the global economic melt down, and everything else. Why isn’t my father as angry as he was back then?

Now that question alone has many obvious answers as Vietnam had come to an end and that generation grew older with more responsibilities… still, I was inspired to dig a little deeper and make a story out of this concept. The result was The Activist – a story of a man that once lived for truth and justice in a time of inequality and war, who grew up to become a wealthy suburbanite who otherwise hates his life and what he has become – and when the ghost of his past catches up to him, leave the audience with a glimmer of change.

I went out to make a narrative film that would stay true to the themes I had been exploring in my documentary work. Also, I wanted it to serve as a cautionary tale for today’s generation, to show what can happen if the idealism that fires our youth is left to burn and die off. Likewise, it shows many of the parallels to today’s problems with those of the 60’s and 70’s showing, in more ways then one, that not much has changed. Above all, in the final moments of the film, with its message of hope, I hope to inspire anyone that watches this film, including myself, to get off their ass and do more to help this world.