The Nowhere Fans

How does a war end? Since the beginning of human history, wars have been started for power, money, in search of more of what can only be, in a wronged perspective, achieved using the bodies of innocent people. John and Yoko, in their lives together and as individuals, always tried to use their privilege in the media to guide people to reflect about the true meanings of capitalism and imperialism, which often gives rise to violence that never seems to actually find an end. The War Is Over – If You Want It campaign came together with the single Happy Xmas in 1969, both with the intention of helping them tell the world that if everyone came together, the war could come to an end. At the time, despite not having significant success on the charts with Happy Xmas, John and Yoko created more means to talk about the campaign, with banners all over the world shared in different languages so that the message was understood universally.

Inspired by the Lennono’s campaign, and the current situation the world is, sadly, still in, ElectroLeague, founded by Brad Booker and Dave Mullins, teamed up with Sean Ono Lennon and Yoko Ono herself to create an 11-minute short film: WAR IS OVER: Inspired By The Music Of John & Yoko, which tells the story of two opposite sides soldiers in the WWI who play chess with the help of a very friendly and courageous pigeon, while violence continued on both sides, regardless of the sporting idea that competing in chess could entertain them from the chaos outside of the tarps. After a few days, even though the routine was strangely comfortable for those involved in the war, the same opponents who shared a simple game of pieces went to the field to indulge in a more brutal dispute that could end their lives. The encounter is as expected in any war: Violence, anger, a desire and desperation to win and a blinding effect on why they are there. Fighting why and for what? Meanwhile, the pigeon, which is also used in that bloodthirsty fight, then receives the biggest mission of its little life from the same person who started the battle: deliver the message that the war had to end. While flying high and fast, the war claims yet another victim, the pigeon itself, the small innocent being who was just another death, another causality to the tragedy but a great friend to the hopeful and scared soldiers. Hit by a bomb, the pigeon falls lifeless to the ground and the two main characters, who had already discovered that they were the ones playing together without knowing each other, ran to help it. There was no more time to save it but the message was delivered, war was finally over.

Not only is the film beautifully done, written by Dave Mullins and Sean Ono Lennon, produced by ElectroLeague in partnership with Lenono Music, Brad Booker and Shopie Cherry and with music by Thomas Newman, it touches the heart of anyone who knows that the war can end, if we want it to end. The message is not that there can be peaceful moments during a war, that you can trust a little pigeon or that the cute animation is just a charm to distract us. No… The story goes beyond that. It shows the humanity of those who are forced to wage war while the true powerful ones are in their offices just writing notes, condemning innocent people, like the pigeon and others, to lose their lives in the field, those who do not deserve that fate in the name of futile things that only it benefits those in suits and ties. And an evident reminder that the ones who started the wars are the ones who can end it and do so to understand it that it should never start ever again.

The film keeps John and Yoko’s desire for peace alive, it warms our hopes that we can fight together but for other purposes, positive ones, those of equality, those of conscience for the lives of others, those that together, can do more than just regret that something bad is happening that shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t, and our voices are powerful in unison.

WAR IS OVER: Inspired By The Music Of John & Yoko deserves the acclaim as a form of protest for peace and love for the cause that John and Yoko shouted for in times when few did so. It is art using its power to unite us.

Now, especially after winning the Oscar for Best Short Animation in 2024, we hope the film will soon be available on streaming platforms all over the world, reaching the people who share the same minds and turning it into a universal message just like John and Yoko did when their campaign first started. As you can imagine, we still dream the same dream, together.

“Eat peace, drink peace, sleep peace, live peace.” ㅡ John Lennon.