Veteran documentary editor and producer Alex Meillier takes a turn in the director’s chair to tell the remarkable story of documentarian-turned-activist Kirsty Sword Gusmão. Beginning with only a simple curiosity in the islands to the north of her native Australia, she becomes a forceful advocate for the tiny nation of Timor-Leste and a lynchpin in its harrowing struggle for independence. Meillier turns Gusmão and her team’s firsthand footage of the revolution into an insider’s guide to the personalities and secret networks that kept it alive. Along the way, we meet the charismatic leader of the resistance, Xanana, whose relationship with Kirsty would redefine the cause for which they both were fighting.

Alias Ruby Blade is an engaging portrait of a revolution with deep resonance in the events of the Arab Spring. By focusing his film on the movement’s most unlikely member, who in turn becomes one of its most indispensible agents, Meillier gives a personal edge to the individual sacrifices and courage needed to create a new democracy in modern times.

—Arthur Ryel-Lindsey

Directed by

Alex Meillier