HBO just released the trailer for The Anarchists, a new six-part docuseries about a community of ex-pats led by Canadian entrepreneur Jeff Berwick who flocked to the sandy shores of Acapulco, Mexico in search of a utopian life free from government control. In 2015, Berwick created a yearly conference dedicated to anarchy called Anarchapulco. Everything was going great, and the anarchist community was living peacefully.
“And then the murder happened,” Juan Galt, one of the anarchists interviewed in the docuseries, says in the trailer.
But wait, let’s rewind. The basis of Berwick’s style of anarchy was rooted in peace. The anarchists who gathered in Acapulco were just a group of mostly American citizens who were tired of paying taxes and living under what they call a “statist” empire. They loved cryptocurrency because it threatened to undermine the world’s banks. Berwick argued that the word “anarchy” simply means “an” — without — “archy” — ruler.
These anarchists didn’t want to be mistaken for the kind who caused bloodshed in the streets.
So how did things go so wrong?
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“There was some sketchy stuff happening behind the scenes,” anarchist Lisa Freeman, who left a suburban life in the U.S. with her husband and children, says in the trailer. “You need to stop, or there’s going to be serious consequences. You listen, or you die.”
Things begin to escalate when cryptocurrency values crash and tensions between local anarchists rise.
“It’s amazing how destructive human beings can be if they decide to not cooperate and play nice,” Galt says.
Directed by Todd Schramke, The Anarchists follows the drama that ensues when the community settles in Acapulco alongside tourists and drug cartels. With intimate access to the movement’s key players, including one-on-one interviews with Berwick and American fugitive couple John Galton and Lily Forester, “this stranger-than-fiction tale evolves from a critique of our modern culture into a dramatic observation of the limitations of ideological thinking and the consequences of rejecting consensus,” according to HBO.
The Anarchists premieres on Sunday, July 10 at 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. Subsequent episodes will drop on Sundays at the same time and will be available to stream on HBO Max.
Watch the trailer for The Anarchists above.
Main Image: The anarchy “A” drawn on a sandy beach in The Anarchists courtesy of HBO
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