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Truth to Power, the new documentary about System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian’s life and activist work, begins with a question that’s seemingly impossible to answer:
Can music change the world? But it’s a question that Tankian has never shied away from. The 53-year-old Armenian American has dedicated his life in the public sphere to trying to prove music can shift the way we think, from attacking the prison-industrial complex on
Toxicity, to the 2005 antiwar anthem “B.Y.O.B.,” to System’s landmark 2015 concert in Armenia’s capital, where Tankian called out the country’s government for corruption. And at times, he and his bandmates have been highly successful at inspiring change—their efforts to raise awareness of the Armenian genocide played a role in convincing the U.S. Congress to recognize the atrocity, which saw about 1.5 million people slaughtered by the Ottoman government during World War I.