Mark Reviews Movies: TRUTH TO POWER

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Review by Mark Dujsik | February 18, 2021

"Can music change the world?" That's the question, asked by director Garin Hovannisian, that begins and ends Truth to Power, a glowing and shallow documentary about musician Serj Tankian, best known as the lead singer of the band System of a Down.

Ignoring how naïve that question is, it's also the wrong one to be asking of Tankian as the thesis of this movie. Although the documentary traces Tankian's career in music, the actual music doesn't really matter here. It's more about the singer's activism on stage, in writing, and within other public platforms, and the real question we're left asking is if one person can change the world. More to the point, we have to ask if Tankian specifically changed the world.

The movie, which was also produced by the main subject, doesn't make the case that he did, although it certainly finds a lot of ways to suggest or state that he has. Tankian, a man of Armenian descent, spent much of his career arguing that the world should recognize the Armenian genocide in the early part of the 20th century. This movie, though, also has little to do with that, although the singer's outrage about the long-standing denial and passion for awareness—driven by his grandfather's survival of the genocide—are apparent.

After a lengthy summation of Tankian's life (from childhood, through his discovery of wanting to become a musician, to his time as System of Down's front man, and finally to his multiple solo projects) and more than some back-patting (mostly for being vocal about politics, despite controversies and backlash), the movie eventually arrives at a 2015 concert in Armenia, where the singer spoke out against the corrupt government. A few years later, a peaceful revolution erupted to protest that corruption. Whether or not one can make a convincing argument that Tankian was directly responsible in any way for it, that doesn't stop the singer or Hovannisian.

Truth to Power shows the small but effective ways that an artist can use his or her voice to argue for a cause, encourage political discourse, or use art as a means for a message. It's pretty basic stuff, usually contested only by those who want to separate politics from art (but really only want certain political views to stay silent), but as for changing the world, that's a bit much to buy.

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