Since late 2010, more than a dozen nations have experienced popular uprisings that have collectively been called the Arab Spring. Protests, buoyed by predominantly young participants and social-media organizing, have exposed repression and led to regime changes. What does it mean to take part in a collective action that has the potential to unseat dictators and bring previously undreamed of freedoms to a people?

WE ARE THE GIANT explores this question through a series of insightful activist portraits: Osama describes how his 21-year-old, Virginia-raised son, Muhannad, fought against Gaddafi’s forces in Benghazi. Ghassan and Motaz remain committed to peaceful resistance even as Syria descends into ever-more-hopeless violence. Sisters Maryam and Zainab become pivotal opposition figures while their father suffers in a Bahrain prison. Underscored by echoes from past resistance leaders – ranging from Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela to Aung San Suu Kyi – these stories illustrate what drives revolutionaries and reveal the sacrifices they must make to pursue their causes.