Quest for Freedom

Year Published: 1970

Creator: Churchill Films (CHUH)

Complete Record: The story of man’s unending quest for freedom is told through animation, making inventive use of art treasures of the past. The spirited chronicle highlights the prehistory struggle for freedom from hunger and danger. Athens as the birthplace of democracy; the Roman contribution of justice; how freedom was submerged by feudalism in the Middle Ages and how it slowly emerged with the rise of a middle class; the rebirth of freedom during the Renaissance; the major documents which safeguard freedom in the modern world; contemporary milestones in the quest for freedom. The film translates abstract concepts into vivid, tangible, concrete visual terms. The barriers to freedom presented by natural environment are differentiated from man-made barriers. The essential guarantees of personal and political freedom are explained. The film illuminates two central ideas: 1) freedom and learning are inseparable; 2) freedom is a universal goal, sought by many peoples in the past and yet to be achieved by many in the future. Cave paintings; Egyptian art; Greek art and sculpture; Renaissance art.