Extra Credit: The Square (2013): Zach Powell

The documentary “The Square” directed by Jehane Noujaim is about Egyptian citizens in the city of Cario, coming together in Cairos Tahrir Square to express their want for democracy. The citizen’s goals were to remove the Dictator Hosni Murbarak who has enforced autocratic rule over Egypt for 30 years. They then want to remove military rule. Once Murkarak resigned after the protest at Tahrir Square, the military promised not to hurt anyone and told all the citizens that they needed to go home. The citizens were expecting the military to put Murbarak on trial but nothing was done. 10 months after Murbarak was out of power, the military got very violent with the protesters. Running the protestors over with military trucks. Ahmed says,“The Square was war. Not a revolution.” The secret police were still in power and they were going to just elect someone that was the same as was just removed from power. When Mohamed Morsi was elected into presidency, everyone was very excited. He was the first democratic president in Egypt. Morsi two years after the revolution started, he gave himself unchecked power. The revolutionary's were very upset because nothing has changed. The government was all based on what the brotherhood wanted. Morsi ordered the people to attack the revolutionary's. Two and a half years after the protest started, protects across the country have started against Morsi. Morsi has more power than Murbarak ever had. Murbarak used military power, Mobri uses religion. Millions of Egyptian citizens showed up to protest on the one year anniversary of Mobri's election. Mobri resigned from power and the military power dropped too. The citizens wont know if this revolution has changed anything, they wont know for decades.

The film shows many different sources, and shows what actually was happening but also what the world got to see looking in on it. There were many clips of what happened and what was going on during the protest. These clips did a great job showing the emotions and the drive of the protester during the film. The film also does a great job at showing the violence, blood shed, the emotion, and fear in the citizen’s minds. It shows all that happened to the protesters and everything they had to endure to get what they want. I would say the weakness of the film is that there is not enough showing why the police and military are so powerful and why they are attacking the citizens. I also felt the film should have talked about the past more so that the audience who doesn't know any of this would see how long the government and its people have been fighting each other.

The government and violence is the same as when the revolution started. The citizens are still being attacked, beaten, tortured, killed, and arrested that are part of the revolution. The military is killing its people and running protesters over with their trucks still. The revolution that started 3 years ago is still very alive and very real. The citizens still feel nothing has changed even after everything that has happened. Citizens fear for their lives and its becoming harder and harder to continue the protest. Social media is the main component to keeping this revolution happening. The revolutionary main goal is to find more people that believe in their cause to fight for a better life.

Social media has played a very important role throughout this protest. The citizens used social media to spread videos, pictures and info on what was happening. They used it to spread their thoughts and messages on what they were fighting for. Social media was used to help connect and set up sit ins. The revolutionary encouraged people to capture what they were seeing and what was going on. The people would post what media they captured and put it on social media so the world could see all the violence and horror that the military was throwing at its citizens. The media posted online would hopefully cause people to want to join in on the cause and fight with the revolutionary's. Revolutionary used social media to show the world how corrupt the government was and how much they needed support, using social media to make this revolution important to the people around the world.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-hearst/egyptian-revolution-muslim-brotherhood-three-years_b_4603052.html