In his landmark A People's History of the United States, historian Howard Zinn toppled the conventions of top-down historiography by focusing on those whose voices are rarely heard. John Gianvito, inspired by Zinn, creates his own unique testament, a minimalist memorial to America's radicals and freethinkers. A film of poetic simplicity, Profit motive uses a mostly still camera and ambient sound to contemplate a series of gravestones and historical markers memorializing people who fought daringly and selflessly for social equality and justice. The graves of John Brown, Sojourner Truth, César Chávez, and others mark a picturesque yet somber travelogue through American history.