The title of the latest philosophically minded doc by Winnipeg’s Astra Taylor asks a question that may seem intimidatingly huge. Yet it’s an apt indication of the ambitious scope and remarkable depth of Taylor’s wide-ranging enquiry into the history — and health – of the democratic principles that supposedly gird up much of the modern world but may seem increasingly under threat. Politicians, radicals and big thinkers — including Cornel West, Angela Davis and Silvia Federici – all contribute their thoughts and insights on the assumptions and ideas that may bind societies together or tear them apart. Taylor’s quest to investigate these competing ideas about power (and who deserves to hold it) takes viewers on a journey that spans hundreds of years and nearly as many locations as we’re compelled to consider what democracy means to citizens coping with austerity policies, social crises and economic inequities.