Peace and the Quiet is an intimate portrait of two women whose lives become intertwined in their common pursuit of peace. In witnessing the simple but tireless everyday efforts they make to support what they believe, the question of what it really means to be an activist arises and points toward a need to reassess our conception of “activism”.

The film is a cinema verité style documentary focused on Dr. Kathie Malley-Morrison and Dot Walsh. While each characters gracefully plays the roles of wife, mother, grandmother, mentor, and teacher, they also both possess an unmitigated determination toward non-violence. It is within the subtle actions of these women, the brave intellect, and the intimate interactions that the broader inquiry of the film takes form.

Active versus inactive responses to extrinsically incited violence becomes the central question; the assessment of “morality” in making such a choice between the two the difficulty. When the price of action is high, whether cost tips the scale of ethics is debatable. Yet, when the offense of violence is egregious, does inaction becomes immoral? In an effort to understand a topic as vast and cumbersome as personal responsibility for moral action, the filmmaker engages the characters to explore the many perspectives and nuances of the topic. Their knowledge and research on the subject is dwarfed only by the benefit of an intimate window into their seemingly ordinary lives. The incongruence between the normalcy of their jobs, families, and friends and their uncommon willingness to devote so much energy to combat something beyond their personal lives forces us to reconsider our conception of an activist.