Plot Synopsis

THE ANARCHISTS is a six-episode documentary series that chronicles a strange and deadly series of events that unfold over six years. What begins as an impulsive one-off gathering, turns into a full-on, annual event, growing in size and attracting sponsorship from crypto-currency companies featuring speakers such as Ron Paul and BitCoin investor Roger Ver. And when rule-avoidant freedom activists come together in one of the most dangerous cities in the world, utopian ideology collides with the unpredictability of human nature. Relationships are fractured, rivalries are forged and ultimately, lives are lost. In 2015, Jeff Berwick, a Canadian entrepreneur turned provocateur, launched a conference in Acapulco, Mexico in hopes of promoting anarchy in its purest form -- an ideal espousing the absence of government with absolute individual self-rule. The event, called "Anarchapulco," draws an international array of libertarians, fugitives, and families seeking to "unschool" their children to protect them from the bureaucracies of modern life, as well as crypto-currency evangelists and others attracted to the idea of creating a stateless community, free from governments and central banking systems. THE ANARCHISTS follows individuals engaged in this movement with full access to the drama that ensues as a community tries to live alongside tourists and drug cartels with only the principles of anarchy as their guideposts. The loosely defined ideology proves unable to hold the community together and many of the radical expats eventually find their dream of an anarchist paradise crumbling around them. Ultimately, this stranger-than-fiction tale evolves from a critique of our modern culture into a dramatic observation of the limitations of ideological thinking and the consequences of rejecting consensus.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Sunday, August 14, 2022 at 10pm ET/PT, HBO premiered "Leaving," the finale of THE ANARCHISTS. Disillusioned in 2020, the Freemans move their family to another city where they face a new set of problems. Lily returns to Anarchapulco to speak about the dangers of anarchism. With conference attendance down, many in the community question what anarchy still means to them.