Terry Sanders Wraps Documentary ‘On Rescuing Democracy And The Rule Of Law’

EXCLUSIVE: Terry Sanders has finished his latest project On Rescuing Democracy and the Rule of Law.

Two-time Oscar winner Sanders writes and directs the documentary. It explores the challenges and threats that established democracies, including the U.S., are facing and tells the story of the people who became involved with the Central and East European Law Initiative (CEELI) after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The doc tells the story of how more than 5,000 American lawyers, judges and legal experts became involved with CEELI, which was a pro bono initiative that provided technical legal assistance to former Soviet Bloc countries. Its work included helping to rewrite the constitutions of these countries, reform court systems, and adopt democratic rule of law principles.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has said: “In my judgment, CEELI is the most effective voluntary legal assistance initiative in history.”

Veteran filmmaker Sanders is co-head of the American Film Foundation, which produced On Rescuing Democracy and the Rule of Law. His earlier work includes producing Oscar-winning short A Time Out of War and co-producing Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, which won the Best Documentary Feature Oscar.

The team behind the new film said it will document how populist surges have softened some countries’ resolve to protect established democratic rule of law, and how the U.S. experienced a violent assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Sanders explained to Deadline his the 33-minute doc is in three parts. It starts at the end of WWII and the Cold War, before taking in the fall of the Berlin Wall and rise of democracy in former Soviet Bloc countries. It goes on to take in events including January 6, before looking at the rise of authoritarianism and concluding with segments on the situation today and where we head next.

On Rescuing Democracy and the Rule of Law has contributions from Homer Moyer, co-founder of CEELI, Mark Ellis, Executive Director of the International Bar Association, Betsy Andersen, former Executive Director of the World Justice Project as well as Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and historian Corey Brettschneider.