Year 2 Week #4 Inside the ACLU - Film

I haven't really spent any time thinking about this one over the past year.

I did a little brainstorming this week and came up with a few little concepts. It's still a very nebulous thing.

Here's the original post: http://gotprojects.blogspot.com/2009/02/week-4-inside-aclu-playshort-story-or.html

Here's my notes:

The ACLU was originally a group of fiercely libertarian lawyers who banded together in the colonial united states. They where instrumental in the founding of the country.

There original leader was present at both the signing of the declaration of independence and both continental conferences.

Something happened during the revolutionary war in that made it essential that they be erased from the history books.

They've operated since then as a sort of clandestine branch of the United States government.

Not sure why they ever felt the need to create a public face.

Sort of like the Freemasons, every ACLU lawyer knows there are secrets most just don't really know what they are.

All scenes take place in super hippy dippy "progressive" settings. Especially the really sinister stuff. Maybe the first time we see get a glimpse of their darker side is at Cafe Gratitude.

We could get totally absurd and have Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders be rival shadowy empires.

Each regional branch of the ACLU has a distinct character and purpose.

The Oregon branch is much more cultish than the others. They hold tight to old rituals and practices. The other branches are a little freaked out by them. They in turn look at all other branches of slightly heretical.

The LA branch is totally fixated on celebrity. Very much like scientology they actively recruit people from the entertainment world with whom they share some but not all of their secrets. Most other branches see them as essentially a rogue element and never associate with them except when unavoidable.

The Chicago branch is the paramilitary center. They are the people who continue the work started during the revolutionary war, whatever that was. They have the closest ties with the government.

Their main offices in New York are really just for show.

The real power center is in Butte Montana.