Ian Bell’s ‘WTO/99’ Documentary Recaptures Outrage and Emotion of 1999 Protests

Over twenty-five years later, the impact of the 1999 protests of the World Trade Organization can still be felt today. Director Ian Bell puts archived footage together in WTO/99 to link these feelings of distrust, dissatisfaction and disappointment from the Battle of Seattle to how we interact with politics in the modern day.

In November 1999, Seattle hosted the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization, 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.

WTO/99 premiered at True/False Film Festival, and was screened at several film festivals across the United States. The film won jury prizes for Best Documentary Features at three different film festivals, including at New Orleans, St. Louis, and Mammoth Lakes. A release date is not currently available.

Alan French from Sunshine State Cineplex shared his thoughts on the film and its political themes still ringing true today, “While WTO/99 might focus on a flashpoint in American protest movements, it opens the door for larger conversations. Bell makes the anger and frustration personal while also highlighting the danger that was present during the police action. Rubber bullets and tear gas became commonplace on the streets of Seattle, while peaceful protestors found themselves on the wrong end of riot gear. For all the arguments that we are changing as a society, Bell reminds us that the songs remain the same, even if the times change.”

Watch the first look official trailer for WTO/99 above.