In November 1999, Seattle hosted the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), a meeting of international business leaders, power brokers, and other shapers of corporate aims and global markets. Also gathering in Seattle were tens of thousands of protestors—spanning political affiliations, classes, and generations—to demonstrate against this unelected body of policymakers with the power to upend global trade and environmental protections through self-serving deregulation and tariff schemes. With affecting and resonant archival footage, WTO/99 transports viewers to the streets of Seattle a quarter-century ago, employing news reports and pre-smartphone home videos to distill and delineate the trajectory of events, from the activists’ nonviolent protest to law enforcement’s aggressive response. The protests—and the film itself—are testaments to the challenge of organizing chaos into coherence. The result is a potent social document, and perhaps a harbinger of disorder and dissent to come.  TM

Q&A following screening.