A PROGRESSIVE MEDIA NETWORK PROJECT
The Campus of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
FESTIVAL STAFF:
Behreandt, Jeremy
Barker, Katherine
Boland, James
Boland, Maria
Cooper-Murphy, Lisa
Janes, Sarah
Miles, Katie
Nichols, Katie
Phillippi, Tracy
Pichotta, Joe
Slembarski, Rick
Smith, Victor
Troge, Matt
Verthein, Bill
Waldbillig, Ted
*****
THE
SECOND ANNUAL – 2007 – EAU CLAIRE PROGRESSIVE FILM FESTIVAL
A PROGRESSIVE MEDIA NETWORK PROJECT
THE CAMPUS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE
FRIDAY, APRIL 13-SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2007
A PROGRESSIVE MEDIA NETWORK PROJECT
THE CAMPUS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE
FRIDAY, APRIL 13-SUNDAY APRIL 22, 2007
BOB NOWLAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
JOHN NICKSIC, DIRECTOR
STAFF: Katie Barker, Jeremy Behreandt, James Boland, Maria Boland, Lisa Cooper-Murphy, Sarah Janes, Katie Miles, Katie Nichols, Tracy Phillippi, Joe Pichotta, Danielle Ryan, Rick Slembarski, Victor Smith, Matt Troge, Bill Verthein, and Ted Waldbilig
JOHN NICKSIC, DIRECTOR
STAFF: Katie Barker, Jeremy Behreandt, James Boland, Maria Boland, Lisa Cooper-Murphy, Sarah Janes, Katie Miles, Katie Nichols, Tracy Phillippi, Joe Pichotta, Danielle Ryan, Rick Slembarski, Victor Smith, Matt Troge, Bill Verthein, and Ted Waldbilig
Our broad aims with the Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival are to raise awareness and encourage activist engagement within ongoing struggles for human emancipation, social justice, collective equality, ecological sustainability, and a peaceful world. As a result, we are not just showing films; we are also conducting extended, facilitated discussions afterward–and we encourage you to stay for these, and participate in them, as you can, to help forge and strengthen progressive networks, coalitions, and alliances throughout the Chippewa Valley region–and beyond. We hope you will join us as part of a broader, growing progressive movement that is developing right now in the Eau Claire area, a movement that is striving to reclaim and carry forward our state’s proud progressive heritage. Join us either way–just for the screenings or for the screenings and discussions–and participate in an unrivaled and unprecedented 10 days-long, independent, non-profit, all-volunteer, campus- and community- based, small city, progressive film festival!
*****
I want to
thank the following
supporters of the Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival for all they
have done to help us make it
happen this year: University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Department of
English, WHYS Community Radio, The Liberator, Volume One,
the Progressive Media Network, Jeremy Gragert, Davin Haukebo-Bol, Dana
Thompson, Andy Swanson, Paul Kaldjian, Sean McAleer, Brian Standing,
Marty Wood, Judy Knoll, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Learning and
Technology Services, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Facilities
Planning and Management, Elsa Va, Mike Fries, Patti See, Shane Leonard
and Northern Cities Vowel
Shift, Hot Sauce Holiday, Allanna Wood, Greg Bauwens and Company,
Jarrett Waite, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire WAGE center, Erin
Polnaszek, Rachel Hawkins, Mary Jo
Klinker, Jessica Bryan, Sara Harless, Kirby Harless, and Laurel
Kieffer. I also want to thank all of the film makers and film
distributors who
have worked with us to bring you the great films that make up our
festival line-up. And of course you our audience–without you our
festival would be nothing! But most of all I want to thank the great
staff of people who have shown tremendous, inspiring dedication,
enthusiasm, and commitment in working to produce
and conduct this film festival: John Nicksic, Katie Barker, Jeremy
Behreandt, James Boland, Maria Boland, Lisa Cooper-Murphy, Sara Janes,
Katie Miles, Katie Nichols, Tracy Phillippi, Joe Pichotta, Rick
Slembarski, Victor Smith, Matt
Troge, Bill Verthein, and Ted Waldbillig. I dedicate this
festival to
the sixteen of you.
Bob Nowlan
Executive Director, Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival
Bob Nowlan
Executive Director, Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival
PROGRAM
(DATES, TIMES, TITLES, SCREENING TIMES, AND FILM DESCRIPTIONS)
* All Sessions in HHH (Hibbard Humanities Hall) Room 100 Unless Indicated *
FRIDAY 4/13
6 pm
Why We Fight 98 minutes HHH 100
Eugene Jarecki’s thorough, judicious, yet powerfully compelling, critical anatomy and indictment of the history of the military industrial complex in the United States from President Eisenhower’s late-term warnings against its grave dangers onward through the present time over four decades, and nine presidents later. Since Eisenhower's time, everything has become much worse, as Eugene Jarecki describes it. The war in Iraq was made possible by a new range of weapons systems: a bomb called the "bunker buster" was dropped by stealth bombers on the first night of the conflict. Is American foreign policy dominated by the idea of military supremacy? Has the military become too important in American life? Jarecki's shrewd and intelligent polemic would seem to give an affirmative answer to each of these questions.
This Land is Your Land 117 minutes HHH 103
Offers a funny and moving look at the impact of major corporations on American life, told largely from the point of view of ordinary citizens. The film examines both evident and lesser known areas of corporate influence, hears how people across the country feel their own lives have been affected, and looks at some of the brave, compelling and sometimes hilarious ways in which individuals and communities are reacting.
9 pm
War is $ell 56 minutes HHH 100
Inquires extensively into what its title involves, how this works and has worked, with and by and for whom with particular emphasis on the US, especially since its emergence as a global ‘superpower’. The history, tactics and culture of war propaganda. From Madison, Wisconsin independent filmmaker Brian Standing.
The World According to Shorts 95 minutes HHH 103
Six films culled from the best short films to screen internationally in recent years, from Chile, Australia, Norway, Poland, Brazil, and Germany. La Perra–caustic class satire (Chile); We Have Decided Not to Die–surrealistic triptych of characters appearing to float free of time and space (Australia); United We Stand–black comedy resulting from an unexpected hiking discovery (Norway); Antichrist–Lord of the Flies Polish-style; The Old Woman’s Step–haunting seaside idyll (Brazil); and Ring of Fire–surreal animated tale of bowlegged cowboys stumbling upon a sagebrush Sodom and Gomorrah (Germany).
SATURDAY 4/14
2 pm
Manderlay 139 minutes HHH 100
The second of Lars Von Trier’s three-part USA series, beginning with Dogville, that offers a savage indictment and blunt critique of American hypocrisy, sanctimony, and venality through creatively imagined scenarios and stagings.
Alabama, 1933. A caravan of black limousines carries gangsters from a gold mining town in Colorado to a rural Alabama area where slavery still survives as an institution. Alabama looks uncannily like Colorado, as it must: The story that began in Lars Von Trier's Dogville (2003) continues here, with the same visual strategy of placing all the action on a sound stage, with chalk lines indicating the outlines of locations. A few rudimentary props flesh out the action, including doors, windows, and machine guns. The movie is the second in a trilogy by Von Trier, who has never visited the United States but has set several movies here, all of them generated by his ideas about American greed, racism and the misuse of power. To say his America is not recognizable to any American is beside the point; neither is the America in most Hollywood entertainments. Presenting imaginary worlds as if they were real is how movies work. Von Trier's purpose is fiercely polemical. The Danish iconoclast holds strong ideas about our society, and expresses them in satiric allegories of such audacity that we cast loose from realism and simply float with his conceits . . . Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
5 pm
Strange Fruit 57 minutes HHH 100
Exploring the history and terror of the long all-too-extensive practice of lynching in the US and its political and cultural legacy and impact. As well as the heroism of those who fought back. STRANGE FRUIT explores the history and legacy of a song unique in the annals of American music. Best-known from Billie Holiday's haunting 1939 rendition, the song "Strange Fruit" is a harrowing portrayal of the lynching of a black man in the American South. The film tells a dramatic story of America's past by using one of the most influential protest songs ever written as its epicenter. The saga brings us face-to-face with the terror of lynching as it spotlights the courage and heroism of those who fought for racial justice when to do so was to risk ostracism and livelihood if white - and death if black. It examines the history of lynching, and the interplay of race, labor, the Left, and popular culture that would give rise to the civil rights movement.
8 pm
Doing Time: Life Inside the Big House 60 minutes HHH 100
Documents what life is like on the inside in Lewisberg, one of the most brutal and feared prisons in the US. The institution gained its reputation in part because of the brutal nature of many of its prisoners, and of their treatment within this complex.
Called "riveting and beautifully made" by The New York Times, the Academy Award®-nominated DOING TIME: LIFE INSIDE THE BIG HOUSE takes a hard-edged look at life inside the walls of Lewisburg, a maximum security federal penitentiary where rehabilitation and parole have all but been abandoned. After gaining unprecedented permission from the Justice Department, Emmy® Award winning-director Alan Raymond spent five unescorted weeks inside Lewisberg. Focusing on several inmates as well as the corrections officers, DOING TIME details the often-shocking prison conditions and raises questions about the effectiveness of a term inside what is known as the "Big House." A rare, unprecedented look at prison subculture, DOING TIME will change the way you look at incarceration in America. ~docuramafilmfestival.com
SUNDAY 4/15
2 pm
The God Who Wasn't There 62 minutes HHH 100
Documentary filmmaker Brian Flemming examines the Bible and discusses the history of early Christianity, raising doubts as to whether the New Testament personage Jesus ever really existed. Flemming examines the similarity of the Jesus story to other savior myths of the time and points to inexplicable gaps in early Christian history that combine to shed doubt on the Bible's Jesus story. Bowling for Columbine did it to the gun culture. Super Size Me did it to fast food. Now The God Who Wasn't There does it to religion. Holding modern Christianity up to a bright spotlight, this bold and often hilarious new film asks questions few dare to ask. Your guide through the world of Christendom is former fundamentalist Brian Flemming, joined by such luminaries as Jesus Seminar fellow Robert M. Price, professor Richard Dawkins, author Sam Harris and historian Richard Carrier. A movie the Los Angeles Times calls "provocative - to put it mildly." Hold on to your faith. It's in for a bumpy ride.
5 pm
The Cult of the Suicide Bomber 96 minutes HHH 100
On 7 July 2005, explosions on three underground trains and one bus in London killed 56 people. The victims represented the diversity of Britain's most cosmopolitan city. It is believed that the attackers killed themselves in carrying out this act. If so, this is Britain's first suicide bombing. David Rosenberg explores the history and politics behind such terror attacks and finds out about people who organise and carry them out. This film explores the history of suicide attacks as weapons in warfare, and related conflicts, as well as attempt to investigate what range of factors foster an inclination to fight through this means.
8 pm
Who Killed the Electric Car? 92 minutes HHH 100
Inquires into exactly this question, certainly a timely topic today as ever before, directed by Chris Paine.
A murder mystery, a call to arms and an effective inducement to rage, Who Killed the Electric Car? is the latest and one of the more successful additions to the growing ranks of issue-oriented documentaries . . . . The answers may not surprise you, particularly if you are predisposed to watching a film titled "Who Killed the Electric Car?," but they're eye-and-vein-popping nonetheless. As Mr. Paine forcefully makes clear, the story of the electric car is greater than one zippy ride and the people who loved it. From the polar ice caps to Los Angeles, where many cars truly are to die for, it is a story as big as life, and just as urgent. – Manohla Dargis, New York Times
MONDAY 4/16
6 pm
Laramie Inside Out 56 minutes HHH 100
An inquiry into the cultural politics of Larmie, Wyoming past and present, in the aftermath of the Matthew Shepard murder. In October 1998, Wyoming college student Shepard was brutally beaten and left to die. His shocking murder pushed Laramie into the media spotlight and sparked a nationwide debate about homophobia, gay-bashing and hate crimes. Filmmaker Beverly Seckinger, a Laramie native, returns home to the site of her own closeted adolescence to investigate the impact of Shepard's murder. She encounters students, teachers, parents, and clergy suddenly moved to speak out and take action. An inspiring story of personal discovery and the meaning of community.
"With warmth, humor, and insight, Bev Seckinger gives us a vision of Laramie that few have imagined. By documenting the strength and resiliency of Laramie's gay and lesbian residents, her film offers a complex corrective to most media depictions of her hometown. A lovely, loving testament." –Beth Loffreda, Author, LOSING MATT SHEPARD
The Hour of the Furnaces (Pt. 1) 95 minutes HHH 203
Perhaps the most famous and influential film in the history of Third Cinema, in three parts, focusing on revolutionary liberation struggles in Argentina in the 1960s. A landmark in the history of revolutionary world cinema, still often unseen by even many serious film audiences.
The Hour of the Furnaces, a collectively produced experimental documentary, is one of the most influential films ever to come out of Latin America. First released in 1968, it came to represent one of the most articulate voices of the western world's first supra-national revolution: the radical student, worker and civil rights movements in Europe and the Americas which were then spilling over local and national borders with lighting speed. The Hour of the Furnaces defined itself as the first embodiment of a ‘Third Cinema’–a radical cinema in which group production and the politics of distribution and presentation took precedence over ‘mere' aesthetic concerns. The four-hour film was a tool for education, debate and agitation, not just cinematic non-fiction. The film translates revolutionary fervor into a dynamic visual narrative. In a highly graphic style, the images and pulse of the film viscerally challenge political and cultural oppression. With amazing black-and-white documentary footage, assaultive title sequences, powerful editing and a radical-left sensibility, The Hour of the Furnaces lays out how a large, resource-rich country impoverishes and disenfranchises so many of its people, and what's to be done about it. Stalking pampas, mineshafts, factories and cane fields, the film documents overwork and underemployment, military repression, police brutality, illiteracy and a low standard of living. The collective energies of Octavio Getino, Fernando E. Solanas and their filmmaking compatriots indict an entrenched Argentine oligarchy–seen golfing and sipping cocktails–who sell out their countrymen to foreign capital, especially in the U.S. and Great Britain. – Cinematexas
9 pm
Daddy & Papa 57 MINUTES HHH 100
Focusing on current controversies surrounding same-sex couples adoption and parenting in the US today. Through the stories of four different families, DADDY & PAPA delves into some of the particular challenges facing gay men who decide to become dads. From surrogacy, foster care, and interracial adoption, to the complexities of gay marriage and divorce, to the battle for full legal status as parents, DADDY & PAPA presents a revealing look at some of the gay fathers who are breaking new ground in the ever-changing landscape of the American family.
“With emotional intelligence, humor, honesty, and courage, DADDY & PAPA brings to life the rich social and racial diversity and challenges of gay parenting. This artful, heart-full documentary should be mandatory viewing for every family judge, social worker, educator, mental health professional, policy maker, and neighbor.” —Judith Stacey, Professor of Sociology and Gender & Sexuality, New York University
The Hour of the Furnaces (Pt. 2 & 3) 165 minutes HHH 203
Perhaps the most famous and influential film in the history of Third Cinema, in three parts, focusing on revolutionary liberation struggles in Argentina in the 1960s. A landmark in the history of revolutionary world cinema, still often unseen by even many serious film audiences.
The Hour of the Furnaces, a collectively produced experimental documentary, is one of the most influential films ever to come out of Latin America. First released in 1968, it came to represent one of the most articulate voices of the western world's first supra-national revolution: the radical student, worker and civil rights movements in Europe and the Americas which were then spilling over local and national borders with lighting speed. The Hour of the Furnaces defined itself as the first embodiment of a ‘Third Cinema’–a radical cinema in which group production and the politics of distribution and presentation took precedence over ‘mere' aesthetic concerns. The four-hour film was a tool for education, debate and agitation, not just cinematic non-fiction. The film translates revolutionary fervor into a dynamic visual narrative. In a highly graphic style, the images and pulse of the film viscerally challenge political and cultural oppression. With amazing black-and-white documentary footage, assaultive title sequences, powerful editing and a radical-left sensibility, The Hour of the Furnaces lays out how a large, resource-rich country impoverishes and disenfranchises so many of its people, and what's to be done about it. Stalking pampas, mineshafts, factories and cane fields, the film documents overwork and underemployment, military repression, police brutality, illiteracy and a low standard of living. The collective energies of Octavio Getino, Fernando E. Solanas and their filmmaking compatriots indict an entrenched Argentine oligarchy–seen golfing and sipping cocktails–who sell out their countrymen to foreign capital, especially in the U.S. and Great Britain. – Cinematexas
TUESDAY 4/17
6 pm
Zero Degrees of Separation 89 Minutes HHH 100
How's this for lovers in dangerous times: Israelis and Palestinians living in inter-ethnic relationships–and they're gay. Elle Flanders frames their struggles with a mournful eloquence, integrating her own family's home movies–which depict her grandparents' happy arrival in Israel in 1950–to strong effect. There is a political bias here–and it's not pro-Israel–but it's a basic humanism that resonates the strongest. (Eye Weekly)
The mixed Palestinian-Israeli couples in Elle Flanders' Zero Degrees of Separation are gay, but the obstacles they face have less to do with sexual preference–or cultural homophobia–than they do with the cruelly unequal treatment accorded two sides of a religious, ethnic and political divide. Fine entry in this subject's ever-growing documentary library is strong meat that warrants attention from Jewish, Arab, human rights, gay and general fests, as well as specialized broadcasters. (Variety)
Domestic Violence I 196 Minutes HHH 103
Frederick Wiseman, one of the historically most famous and pioneering exemplars of cinema verité, with exhaustive, harrowing two-part documentary series focusing on what is often enough actually involved in the working class experience of attempting to deal with the impact and consequences of domestic violence, especially through our criminal justice system. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE was filmed in Tampa, Florida. The film shows the police responding to domestic violence calls and the work of The Spring, the principal shelter in Tampa for women and children. Sequences with the police include police response, intervention, and attempted resolution of domestic violence calls. Sequences at the shelter include intake interviews, individual counseling sessions, anger management training, group therapy, staff meetings, and conversations among clients and between clients and staff. Since two thirds of the residents at the shelter are children, the film also has sequences of school activities, therapy sessions for children where domestic violence is discussed, and counseling for parents and children organized around children's issues and experiences with domestic violence. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 2 takes place in the arraignment, misdemeanor, and injunction courts in Hillsborough County, Tampa, Florida. The courts deal with such issues as bail, bonds, release pending trial, the specific context of injunctions regulating time and place of parental visits, restraining orders, contact with children, support payments, and the court's decision about fault and punishment. The judges and lawyers ask questions which elicit the stories of couples' relationships and the specific form of violence between them.
9 pm
Brother Outsider : the Life of Bayard Rustin 83 Minutes HHH 100
The life of the lead organizer of the Black Civil Rights Movement, responsible for teaching Martin Luther King, Jr. much of what he learned about organization and activism, as well as for assisting King throughout much of his career, yet needing to remain in the background because he was always openly, unapologetically gay. BROTHER OUTSIDER takes a multifaceted approach to the material, reflecting the complexity of Rustin’s story. This feature-length portrait unfolds both chronologically and thematically, using interviews and traditional documentary techniques, as well as experimental approaches. The work of Marlon Riggs and the pastiche quality of his groundbreaking documentaries have inspired the production team. The historical aspects of the piece are based on meticulous primary research in the Rustin papers and other archives, and will incorporate elements such as archival footage, stills, posters and broadsheets, government propaganda films, paintings, and other cultural artifacts. Though Bayard Rustin did not keep a journal, the film uses his first-person voice wherever possible, gleaned from his extensive writings (compiled in the volume Down the Line, published in 1971, and other unpublished collections), papers and personal correspondence, and numerous recorded interviews. The extensive oral interviews conducted by the Columbia University Oral History Research Project constitute a primary recorded source of Rustin’s reflections and perspectives. Beyond this, Rustin’s and other first-person voices contrast with excerpts from Rustin’s FBI files, which present J. Edgar Hoover’s view of Rustin as a "suspected communist and known homosexual subversive." BROTHER OUTSIDER creates an aesthetic that reflects Rustin’s position as an outsider, a troublemaker and an eloquent speaker who refused to be silenced.
Drug Wars/Religious Freedom (ACLU Freedom Files) 60 minutes HHH 103
From Robert Greenwald who brought you Unconstitutional, Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, and more, produced and directed by Jeremy Kagan for the American Civil Liberties Union, ten 30-minute long films, made between 2005 and 2006, focusing on the following issues: Drug Wars, Religious Freedom, Racial Profiling, Dissent, Beyond the Patriot Act, Youth Speak, Women’s Rights, Gay and Lesbian Rights, The Supreme Court, and Voting Rights. A revolutionary, 10-part series that tells the stories of real people in America whose civil liberties have been threatened, and how they fought back. This dynamic new series combines interviews, documentary footage, comedy, drama, music and animation to engage viewers and alert them about critical civil rights issues ranging from free speech to religious freedom. The programs are reaching millions of viewers on cable network Court TV and satellite network Link TV, campus network Zilo TV, DVD's, and new media such as blogs, podcasts, and streaming video.
WEDNESDAY 4/18
6 pm
The Forsaken Land 108 Minutes HHH 100
A subtle but forceful combination of visual poetry, political commentary, and feverish eroticism, winner of the Camera d/Or at Cannes for best first feature, focusing on the human and ecological impact and legacy of 23 years of Civil War in Sri Lanka.
. . . The Forsaken Land sidesteps battle scenes and rallying cries to seek out a language for what war feels like on a personal scale. And not just any war - this is Sri Lanka's twenty-two-year-long civil war between the Sinhala government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. When conflict lasts this long, the stories that emerge change, and so must the storytelling. One of the first images in the film is of a dead arm jutting up from a river, the hand frozen in half-grasp. What follows is a procession of similarly structured images, each one distilling the daily experience of war down to simple essentials: cruelty, despair, numbness and, above all, absurdity. Writer-director Vimukthi Jayasundara rejects the clearly drawn lines of a conventional war tale because Sri Lanka's on-and-off slaughter has not been kind enough to provide them. Instead, scenes butt up against each other in measured collage. A woman watches a lone tank rumbling aimlessly in the dusk. A hapless soldier mans a pointless checkpoint on a deserted road. When his fellow soldiers show up, it is to drag him off to a lake and dump him naked in the water for a joke. Later, he is driven out to an open field where an anonymous man lies whimpering inside a burlap sack. He is asked to beat the man to death. The events of The Forsaken Land exist in a twilight between war and truce, allowing for moments of reflection and surprising eruptions of erotic desire. Death, sex and waiting–this is the picture of paradise at war. –Cameron Bailey, Toronto Film Festival
Domestic Violence II 196 Minutes HHH 103
Frederick Wiseman, one of the historically most famous and pioneering exemplars of cinema verité, with exhaustive, harrowing two-part documentary series focusing on what is often enough actually involved in the working class experience of attempting to deal with the impact and consequences of domestic violence, especially through our criminal justice system. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE was filmed in Tampa, Florida. The film shows the police responding to domestic violence calls and the work of The Spring, the principal shelter in Tampa for women and children. Sequences with the police include police response, intervention, and attempted resolution of domestic violence calls. Sequences at the shelter include intake interviews, individual counseling sessions, anger management training, group therapy, staff meetings, and conversations among clients and between clients and staff. Since two thirds of the residents at the shelter are children, the film also has sequences of school activities, therapy sessions for children where domestic violence is discussed, and counseling for parents and children organized around children's issues and experiences with domestic violence. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 2 takes place in the arraignment, misdemeanor, and injunction courts in Hillsborough County, Tampa, Florida. The courts deal with such issues as bail, bonds, release pending trial, the specific context of injunctions regulating time and place of parental visits, restraining orders, contact with children, support payments, and the court's decision about fault and punishment. The judges and lawyers ask questions which elicit the stories of couples' relationships and the specific form of violence between them.
9pm
Darwin's Nightmare 107 minutes HHH 100
The larger scope of the story explores the gun trade to Africa that takes place under the covers--Russian pilots fly guns into Africa, then fly fish back out to Europe. The hazards and consequences of this trade are explored, including the pan-African violence propagated by constant flow of weapons into the continent. If it is a "survival of the fittest" world, as Darwin concluded, then the capitalist interests that fund the gun runners are climbing the evolutionary ladder on the backs of the Africans in this stark Darwinian example. Much like the foreseeable extinction of the Lake Victoria perch, and death of Lake Victoria itself, the Africans are in grave jeopardy, even as they survive in the only ways they know how. In the 1950s or 1960s, the Nile perch was released into the Lake Victoria. In just a few decades, the large, voracious predator has all but eliminated the other species of fish, turning the lake into an ecological wasteland. "But economically, it's good--and indeed, perch fillet is Tanzania's best selling export to Europe. Fishermen, factory workers, civil servants, pilots of cargo aircrafts, delegates of the European Commission, communities living around Lake Victoria: plenty of people are involved in some way in this new industry. But if Africa exports hundreds of tons of premium-priced fish each day, what exactly do Africans get in return? A powerful documentary film, that is as visually and aurally striking as it is deeply disturbing, while focusing on a nexus of exploitation little-known in the US.
Racial Profiling/Beyond the Patriot Act (ACLU Freedom Files) 60 minutes HHH 103
From Robert Greenwald who brought you Unconstitutional, Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, and more, produced and directed by Jeremy Kagan for the American Civil Liberties Union, ten 30-minute long films, made between 2005 and 2006, focusing on the following issues: Drug Wars, Religious Freedom, Racial Profiling, Dissent, Beyond the Patriot Act, Youth Speak, Women’s Rights, Gay and Lesbian Rights, The Supreme Court, and Voting Rights. A revolutionary, 10-part series that tells the stories of real people in America whose civil liberties have been threatened, and how they fought back. This dynamic new series combines interviews, documentary footage, comedy, drama, music and animation to engage viewers and alert them about critical civil rights issues ranging from free speech to religious freedom. The programs are reaching millions of viewers on cable network Court TV and satellite network Link TV, campus network Zilo TV, DVD's, and new media such as blogs, podcasts, and streaming video.
THURSDAY 4/19
6 pm
What is Indie? 121 minutes HHH 100
Inquiring into what is truly independent music today, and what are true musical artists and distributors like and about, featuring a whole host of them. At a time when independent artists in the music industry have more power and control over their careers than ever before, What is INDIE? tries to determine just what it really means to be 'indie'. The film features interviews with indie music experts including Derek Sivers (Founder of CD Baby), Panos Panay (Founder of Sonicbids) and Suzanne Glass (Founder of Indie-Music.com), as well as with 20 artists including Ember Swift and Paul Cargnello. Does being 'indie' mean that you're 'unsigned', or that you're just not signed to a major record label? Is it possible to be 'indie' on a major label?! Taking a look at the changing music industry and its effect on independent artists, the film draws some surprising conclusions! Directed by Dave Cool and self-financed through his record label Stand Alone Records, the documentary was filmed primarily in his home town of Montreal, with additional filming in New York City, Boston and Toronto. With the incorporation of musical performances from a considerable range of ‘indie’ artists.
Dissent/Youth Speak (ACLU Freedom Files) 60 minutes HHH 101
From Robert Greenwald who brought you Unconstitutional, Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, and more, produced and directed by Jeremy Kagan for the American Civil Liberties Union, ten 30-minute long films, made between 2005 and 2006, focusing on the following issues: Drug Wars, Religious Freedom, Racial Profiling, Dissent, Beyond the Patriot Act, Youth Speak, Women’s Rights, Gay and Lesbian Rights, The Supreme Court, and Voting Rights. A revolutionary, 10-part series that tells the stories of real people in America whose civil liberties have been threatened, and how they fought back. This dynamic new series combines interviews, documentary footage, comedy, drama, music and animation to engage viewers and alert them about critical civil rights issues ranging from free speech to religious freedom. The programs are reaching millions of viewers on cable network Court TV and satellite network Link TV, campus network Zilo TV, DVD's, and new media such as blogs, podcasts, and streaming video.
9 pm
Before the Music Dies 95 Minutes HHH 100
Never have so few companies controlled so much of the music played on the radio and for sale at retail stores. At the same time, there are more bands and more ways to discover their music than ever. Music seems to have split in two–the homogenous corporate product that is spoonfed to consumers and the diverse independent music that finds devoted fans online and at clubs across the country. BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES tells the story of American music at this precarious moment. Filmmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen traveled the country, hoping to understand why mainstream music seems so packaged and repetitive, and whether corporations really had the power to silence musical innovation. The answers they found on this journey–ultimately, the promise that the future holds–are what makes BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES both riveting and exhilarating. At the heart of BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES are interviews with musicians, industry insiders, music critics, and fans that reveal how music has reached this moment of truth. Featured performances from a truly diverse group of artists, ranging from The Dave Matthews Band and Erykah Badu to Seattle street performers and Mississippi gospel singers show us that great music is always out there… as long as you know where to look. BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES will renew your passion for great music, and inspire you to play an active part in its future.
Women’s Rights/Gay & Lesbian Rights (ACLU Freedom Files) 60 minutes HHH 101
From Robert Greenwald who brought you Unconstitutional, Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, and more, produced and directed by Jeremy Kagan for the American Civil Liberties Union, ten 30-minute long films, made between 2005 and 2006, focusing on the following issues: Drug Wars, Religious Freedom, Racial Profiling, Dissent, Beyond the Patriot Act, Youth Speak, Women’s Rights, Gay and Lesbian Rights, The Supreme Court, and Voting Rights. A revolutionary, 10-part series that tells the stories of real people in America whose civil liberties have been threatened, and how they fought back. This dynamic new series combines interviews, documentary footage, comedy, drama, music and animation to engage viewers and alert them about critical civil rights issues ranging from free speech to religious freedom. The programs are reaching millions of viewers on cable network Court TV and satellite network Link TV, campus network Zilo TV, DVD's, and new media such as blogs, podcasts, and streaming video.
FRIDAY 4/20
6 pm
I Know I'm Not Alone 86 Minutes HHH 100
Michael Franti, of Spearhead, travels to and throughout the Middle East, to inquire into sources of conflict, as well as hope for peace and reconciliation beyond, playing and sharing his music as a contribution to overcoming cultural and political divides. From a still young but nonetheless by now long-time committed progressive musical activist. With its raw video and editing techniques, the documentary is unlike the many academic and politically driven pieces in the marketplace, instead offering the audience a sense of intimate travel and the opportunity to hear the voices of everyday people living, creating and surviving under the harsh conditions of war.
"Just an amazing film. Really one of my all time favorites." -- Andrew Werthmann, Northwest/West-Central Wisconsin Progressive Organizer and Activist
The Supreme Court/Voting Rights (ACLU Freedom Files) 60 minutes HHH 101
From Robert Greenwald who brought you Unconstitutional, Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, and more, produced and directed by Jeremy Kagan for the American Civil Liberties Union, ten 30-minute long films, made between 2005 and 2006, focusing on the following issues: Drug Wars, Religious Freedom, Racial Profiling, Dissent, Beyond the Patriot Act, Youth Speak, Women’s Rights, Gay and Lesbian Rights, The Supreme Court, and Voting Rights. A revolutionary, 10-part series that tells the stories of real people in America whose civil liberties have been threatened, and how they fought back. This dynamic new series combines interviews, documentary footage, comedy, drama, music and animation to engage viewers and alert them about critical civil rights issues ranging from free speech to religious freedom. The programs are reaching millions of viewers on cable network Court TV and satellite network Link TV, campus network Zilo TV, DVD's, and new media such as blogs, podcasts, and streaming video.
9 pm
Pick up the Mic 95 minutes HHH 100
Feature-length documentary on the homohop (aka queer hip-hop) movement. Performances, history, background, context and perspective. An excellent introduction to and overview of an exciting movement, with powerful performances from talented musical artists. Queer Hip-Hop: it’s a lot more than a stylish oxymoron in this surprising, fast-paced documentary on the world of queer rappers. Featuring searing public performances and raw, revealing interviews with the community’s most significant players, the film captures an unapologetic underground music movement just as it explodes into the mainstream–defying the music industry's most homophobic genre in the process. Shot over a three-year period, the film traces their intertwining relationships from San Francisco’s underground music scene of the early ‘90s through performances as recent as 2005. It was recorded in such major cities as New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, but breaks down coastal stereotypes by also covering performers in such diverse areas as Houston, Minneapolis, and Madison, Wisconsin–and a particularly memorable outdoor gig in the Ozarks. The artists are followed rehearsing, performing, and struggling– always revealing their raw, most intimate feelings, including experiences with homophobia, gender identification issues, and suicide. PICK UP THE MIC reveals these artists and producers as they attempt to express their lives through hip-hop music–a medium from which they’ve often felt alienated because of it’s widespread misogyny and anti-gay rhetoric. But their stories resonate far beyond the music industry and queer communities, reminding us all of the surprising resiliency of the human spirit. PICK UP THE MIC is not only a captivating record of a burgeoning culture, but is ultimately–and perhaps more importantly– an inspiring exploration of the universal desire to voice the passion and pain of one’s individual existence.
SATURDAY 4/21
2 pm
The Gleiwitz Case 70 Minutes HHH 100
The Gleiwitz Case (Der Fall Gleiwitz, 1961) is a visually-striking film from East Germany, about the Nazis' implementation of a plan to fake an attack on a German radio station, and thus justify the invasion of Poland. The austere film is like no other, made in early-'60s communist Germany that deliberately borrows cinematic styles from the 1930s and earlier yet somehow, in 2006, plays as very contemporary. Raising many interesting questions about interrelations among fascism, aesthetics, and politics.
5 pm
The Murderers are Among Us 81 minutes HHH 100
The Murderers are Among Us is a haunting and indelible film on the process of healing and reconciling with personal accountability . . . Filmed in 1946 amid the ruins of the former Soviet-controlled East Germany, The Murderers are Among Us is a compassionate portrait of hope, resilience, and personal atonement. Rooted in the tradition of German expressionism, Wolfgang Staudte juxtaposes the bleak austerity of realistic filmmaking with rapid montage sequences, unusual camera angles, and sharp contrasts of light and darkness to create a pervasive sense of disorienting harsh reality that reflects the fractured lives of the war's survivors: the exaggerated shadows cast by the gossiping tenants as they discuss Hans and Susanne's unorthodox living arrangements; the ominous darkness and sharp angle of the tenement staircase as an inebriated Hans staggers up the stairs; the suffused light that punctuates Susanne's presence. What emerges is not a menacing portrait of a faceless Cold War enemy, but a poignant tale of profound humanity and a sincere, desperate cry for justice. – Wolfgang Staudte, Strictly Film School
8 pm
Your Unknown Brother 103 minutes HHH 100
A Communist is released from prison in 1935 Hamburg. He tries to link up with the Party again, but is unsure as to who he can trust, and has difficulty adjusting to life in Nazi Germany. This landmark film exploring the role of the individual in confronting anti-fascism was invited to the Cannes Film Festival. Ironically (and tellingly) it was withdrawn by the East German authorities, who from that point undermined the artistic activities of Ulrich Weiss, an independent, untamable and unpredictable talent. Based on the novel by Willi Bredel.
"A MILESTONE." -MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
“Uses a keen sense of psychological drama to investigate the intrigue, betrayal and paranoia of the underground resistance movement to National Socialism in 1930s Hamburg.” - LEEDS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
"Director Ulrich Weiss was the greatest talent to emerge from the Babelsberg film school in the 1970s."-THE OXFORD HISTORY OF WORLD CINEMA
SUNDAY 4/22
2 pm
Act of War : the Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation 60 minutes HHH 100
Hawaiian history through Hawaiian eyes: from the events leading up to and surrounding the mid-January, 1893, coup d’etat against the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen Lili’uokalani, through contemporary movements for the restoration of indigenous Hawaiian independence and sovereignty. Focusing on one of the most sordid chapters in the dark history of American imperialism, an overthrow that marked the culmination of a century of foreign intervention in Hawaii and what was denounced at the time by U.S. President Grover Cleveland as an unwarranted and illegitimate act of war.
5 pm
Aloha Quest (Parts 1 and 2) 118 minutes HHH 100
On Sunday, December 19, 1999, an historic six-hour educational television presentation was broadcast throughout Hawai'i on KFVE television. The "educast" was simultaneously webcast to the world over the Internet. Featuring a mix of live interviews, musical performances, and pre-recorded segments, the entire six hours was brought to the Hawai'i community and the world commercial free. Co-produced by Aloha First and Na Maka o ka 'Aina, Aloha Quest was hosted by Ed Ka'ahea, Iaukea Bright and Ka'iulani Edens. The telecast featured interviews with many prominent spokespeople in government, law, education and the arts. Various historians, educators, cultural experts, artists, actors and activists shared their knowledge of history and culture and expressed views on the contemporary case for Hawaiian sovereignty and independence. Historical segments presented new findings regarding the legal basis for the existence of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the popular opposition to U.S. annexation in 1897-98. Selected segments from the six-hour broadcast are available as two 1-hour programs, Aloha Quest - Part One and Aloha Quest - Part Two.
DAM/AGE 50 Minutes HHH 101
Arundhati Roy’s campaign against the Narmada Dam project in India, which will displace over a million people. Focusing on the consequences of globalization and development as well as the urgent need for state accountability and exercise of free speech in protest and dissent. The film shows how Roy chose to use her fame to stand up to powerful interests supported by multinational corporations and the Indian government. For her, the story of the Narmada Valley is not just the story of modern India, but of what is happening in the world today, "Who counts, who doesn't, what matters, what doesn't, what counts as a cost, what doesn't, what counts as collateral damage, what doesn't." Arundhati Roy is the author of The God of Small Things, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1998. Roy has also published The Cost of Living, a book of two essays critical of India's massive dam and irrigation projects, as well as India's successful detonation of a nuclear bomb. In her recent book Power Politics, Roy challenges the idea that only experts can speak out on such urgent matters as nuclear war, the privatization of India's power supply by Enron and issues like the Narmada dam project.
8 pm
Kaho' olawe Aloha ‘Āina 57 minutes HHH 100
Tracing the history of the Hawaiian Island of Kaho’olawe, currently still the one Hawaiian island without any settled human population, from pre-historic times through years of plantation ranching and onto the conversion of the island into a site of U.S. Navy heavy bombardment target practice, up through the heroic effort to stop the bombing and reclaim the island for the indigenous Hawaiian people. And culminating with the efforts of the Protect Kaho’olawe ‘Ohana to clean up after the decades if military destruction, protect archaeological sites, control plant erosion, restore native plants, and preserve the island as a spiritual and educational resource for the people of Hawaii.
Fight Back, Fight AIDS: Fifteen Years of ACT UP 75 Minutes HHH 101
A comprehensive insider history of one of the most powerfully influential and impactful movements in postmodern progressive politics, ACT UP: AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power.
In 1987 with AIDS deaths in the thousands and government policy still criminally indifferent, activists formed ACT.UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) with the sentiment "turn anger, fear, and grief into action." James Wentzy's documentary Fight Back, Fight AIDS: 15 Years of ACT UP uses archive footage of speeches, demonstrations and ACT.UP meetings as it follows the group's imaginative, inspiring and in-your-face campaigning over 15 years. Deploying increasingly bold tactics such as demonstrations, civil disobedience, die-ins and political funerals, ACT UP has addressed issues including more research funding, quicker drug testing, AIDS prevention education, government intervention, and most recently, measures to combat the disease in Africa. – BERLINALE.PANORAMA
In March 1987, the first AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) event took place on Wall Street. In the 15 years since the protest that shut down the world's financial center, ACT UP has been at the forefront of public awareness. Their demonstrations, die-ins, political funerals, marches, and speeches were key in propelling issues related to HIV/AIDS into major political and international topics. ACT UP member and AIDS video activist James Wentzy has constructed a vivid compilation documentary with Fight Back, Fight AIDS: 15 Years of ACT UP. The powerful clips depict the multiple bold events that ACT UP has staged, including: the inspiring First ACT UP action on Wall Street protesting the profiteering of the pharmaceutical companies that made AIDS-related drugs; National Nine Days of Rage, in which more than 50 ACT UP chapters congregated on the New York state capital to protest AIDS policies (or the lack thereof) involving IV drug use, homophobia, people of color, women, prison programs, and children with AIDS; and intense coverage of political funerals of ACT UP and affinity group The Marys, which included carrying an open coffin from Washington Square to the New York Republican Party headquarters on West 43rd Street, as well as an open casket political funeral in front of the White House. With fierce images and speeches, including many poignant ones by film historian and ACT UP pioneer Vito Russo, Fight Back, Fight AIDS is a dynamic alternative historical record of the queer political landscape, HIV/AIDS, and AIDS activist video. – TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
[THIS IS A PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE, STILL SUBJECT TO LAST-MOMENT CHANGES.]
*****
LAST YEAR'S FIRST-EVER EAU CLAIRE
PROGRESSIVE FILM FESTIVAL
FRIDAY APRIL 28-SUNDAY MAY 7, 2006
A PROGRESSIVE MEDIA NETWORK PROJECT
FRIDAY APRIL 28-SUNDAY MAY 7, 2006
A PROGRESSIVE MEDIA NETWORK PROJECT
ON THE CAMPUS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
WISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE
Introductory Note
Welcome to the first-ever, and we hope, with your interest, and your support, the first annual, Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival. Our broad aims are to raise awareness and encourage activist engagement within ongoing struggles for human emancipation, social justice, collective equality, ecological sustainability, and a peaceful world. As a result, we are not just showing films; we are also conducting discussions afterward–and we encourage you to stay for these, and participate in them, as you can. We hope you will join us as part of a broader, growing progressive movement that is developing right now in the Eau Claire area, a movement that is striving to reclaim and carry forward our state’s proud progressive heritage.
Putting together a festival like this, from scratch, in three months’ time, has been quite a challenge–and it certainly has required a lot of work. But we expect you will be pleased with the quality of the twenty-five films we will share with you over the course of these ten days. Twenty-five films in ten days! That’s quite an impressive film festival for a city the size of Eau Claire and a campus the size of UWEC, but we are proud to make it happen here. I want to thank my tremendous staff of great people, all students here at UWEC, who have made this festival happen: Maria Boland, David Gardner, Jerad Hill, Liz Hirschmann, Eddy Kaiser, Jeff Kesterson, Katharine Kolb, Zach Koss, Jed Mortenson, John Nicksic, Juli Pitzer, Joe Reichert, Jackie Rose, Matt Royten, Rick Slembarski, Karl Thomalla, Andrew Werthmann, and Andy Wilkins. You all have been fantastic! I want to thank our sponsors–The Progressive Media Network, Volume One magazine, The UWEC Department of English, and The UWEC Foundation–as well as our host–The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Thanks so much to all of you! Thanks for additional encouragement and support as well to Jeremy Gragert, Andy Swanson, Stacy Thompson, Paul Kaldjian, James Boland, Joel Pace, Logan Duginske, and Anne Moser. Thanks to all the distributors who have worked with us to make these films available to you, thanks to the film makers for their dedication and their accomplishment, and thanks to you, our audience–without you no festival like this would be worth anything at all. I hope you find it an interesting and valuable experience.
Bob Nowlan
Director, Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival
Screening and Post-Screening Discussion Schedule
Friday April 28
6-9
pm HHH
323
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and Selling the American Empire (Jerad Hill and Rick Slembarski, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitators)
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and Selling the American Empire (Jerad Hill and Rick Slembarski, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitators)
68 minutes, 2004, Produced, written and directed by Sut Jhally and Jeremy Earp; USA; Produced by the Media Education Foundation and Distributed by imMEDIAte Pictures.
You won't see President Bush
swinging any golf clubs in Hijacking
Catastrophe, which opens today
at Cinema Village. You won't see his and his advisers' heads attached
to the bodies of stars from Bonanza.
This is not Michael Moore's Fahrenheit
9/11
revisited. You will, however, see and hear Mr. Bush, Vice President
Dick Cheney and other members of the administration say again and
again, with various phrasings, "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein
has weapons of mass destruction." (That is an exact quotation from Mr.
Cheney.)
9pm-12
am HHH
100
School of Americas Assassins and A Place Called Chiapas (Jerad Hill and Maria Boland, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitators)
School of Americas Assassins and A Place Called Chiapas (Jerad Hill and Maria Boland, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitators)
School
of Americas Assassins: 18 minutes, 1995, Robert Richter,
Producer
and Director, USA, Distributed by Richter Videos.
This Academy Award-winning
documentary looks at a United States institution that trains Latin
American military officers. Few Americans have heard of the school--the
U.S. Army School of the Americas--nor are they aware that some of its
graduates have gone on to become dictators and violators of human
rights in their home countries. The program contrasts the mission
statement of the school with the actions of its graduates, among whom
are former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, numerous other strongman
throughout Central and South America, and a large number of lower-level
officers who have been charged with the murders of thousands of
civilians, including North American missionaries. Using rarely-seen
footage, the program shows how officers who studied at the school are
responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people--including
Archbishop Romero of El Salvador. The camera reveals the hidden world
of the School of the Americas, and the work of church people, activists
and members of Congress to close it down.
A Place Called Chiapas: 89 minutes, 1998, Directed by Nettie Wild, Canada/Mexico; Distributed by Zeitgist Films.
Wild, who co-wrote and narrated the script, takes us on a journey to Chiapas, one of the poorest states in Mexico, where an army of indigenous Indians made history on January 1, 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect. "In Canada," Wild, as narrator, intones, "we debated the Free Trade Agreement. Here in Chiapas, they went to war over it." The film traces the uprising of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, led by Subcommandante Marcos, a charismatic, Internet-savvy intellectual from Mexico City, who sparked the revolt of Indians seeking to reclaim their lives and their land by taking control of five towns and more than 500 ranches. Chiapas hasn't been a pretty picture since. Heavily armed paramilitary forces (with which the Mexican government denies its alignment) have kept up their aggressive opposition to the Zapatista movement. . . . These emotions of fear and despair and hope are set against a beautiful backdrop of southern Mexico, where milky veils of mist drape lovingly over lush jungles. The eagle-sharp eyes of Kirk Tougas, who shares cinematography credit with Wild, captures the villagers in startlingly clear angles: the gnarled, bare feet that look as though they sprouted from the earth; the woman raising a crudely made ax over her head and bringing it down in one cool, swift slice; the mother nursing her child; the smiling, toothless woman. At times, it is easy to forget you are watching a documentary about true-to-life struggles -- Amy Smith, The Austin Chronicle
A Place Called Chiapas: 89 minutes, 1998, Directed by Nettie Wild, Canada/Mexico; Distributed by Zeitgist Films.
Wild, who co-wrote and narrated the script, takes us on a journey to Chiapas, one of the poorest states in Mexico, where an army of indigenous Indians made history on January 1, 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect. "In Canada," Wild, as narrator, intones, "we debated the Free Trade Agreement. Here in Chiapas, they went to war over it." The film traces the uprising of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, led by Subcommandante Marcos, a charismatic, Internet-savvy intellectual from Mexico City, who sparked the revolt of Indians seeking to reclaim their lives and their land by taking control of five towns and more than 500 ranches. Chiapas hasn't been a pretty picture since. Heavily armed paramilitary forces (with which the Mexican government denies its alignment) have kept up their aggressive opposition to the Zapatista movement. . . . These emotions of fear and despair and hope are set against a beautiful backdrop of southern Mexico, where milky veils of mist drape lovingly over lush jungles. The eagle-sharp eyes of Kirk Tougas, who shares cinematography credit with Wild, captures the villagers in startlingly clear angles: the gnarled, bare feet that look as though they sprouted from the earth; the woman raising a crudely made ax over her head and bringing it down in one cool, swift slice; the mother nursing her child; the smiling, toothless woman. At times, it is easy to forget you are watching a documentary about true-to-life struggles -- Amy Smith, The Austin Chronicle
Saturday April 29
2-5
pm HHH 323
The War at Home (Katharine Kolb and Liz Hirschmann, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitators)
100 minutes, 1979, Produced and Directed by Barry Alexander Brown
and Glenn Silber; USA; Produced by Catalyst Media and Distributed
by
First Run Features.
Nominated
for an Academy Award and widely considered one of the
most
important political films ever made, The
War at Home vividly chronicles the anti-war protest movement of
the 1960's and 70's. The film provides an illuminating look at the home
front of the Vietnam War - the war that students and other anti-war
dissidents waged on America's political system, military and notions of
patriotism. Through a powerful combination of rare archival footage and
interviews with students, community leaders, Vietnam veterans, and
participants from all points of view,
The War at Home shows how the anti-war movement grew into a
genuine people's revolt in tandem with the escalation of war in
Vietnam.
"A turbulent decade superbly evoked!" -Los Angeles Times
"No-holds-barred! Takes us places that The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, and Coming Home forgot to tread." -Atlanta Constitution
"Brilliant!" -Boston Globe
"Extraordinary! The whole world was watching. Remember?" -Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
5-8 pm HHH 323
Blood in the Face (Jerad Hill and Karl Thomalla, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitators)
78 minutes, 1991, Produced and Directed by Anne Bohlen, Kevin Rafferty & James Ridgeway; USA; Produced by Right Thinking and Distributed by First Run Features.
A darkly
humorous and frightning closeup view of today's far-right movement.
Blood in the Face uses archival footage and interviews to reveal the
workings of the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, the Aryan
Nations, and David Duke. The most controversial and compelling film of
the year, Blood in the Face
is as timely and powerful. With interviews by Michael Moore (Roger & Me and Bowling for Columbine), the film
was conceived by James Ridgeway (political correspondent for The Village Voice and author of the
book Blood in the Face) with
co-producers Anne Bohlen (Academy Award Nominee) and Kevin Rafferty
(co-producer of The Atomic Cafe)
who also shot and edited the film.
"Forget The Silence of the Lambs - Blood in the Face is definitely the scariest movie of the year. Silence after all, is fiction - Blood is for real." - New York Daily News
"David Duke's entrance into the area of legitimate politics should make one thing clear: the people this movie reveals with such creepy intimacy can't quite be written off as irrelevant fanatics." - Entertainment Weekly
"Riveting... insidiously spooky... full of outrageous details... first rate journalism." - Vincent Canby, The New York Times
"A gutsy, scary, almost appallingly funny look at the threatning world few of us see, from a vantage point few could imagine." - The LA Times
8-11
pm HHH 100
Justifiable Homicide
(Andy
Wilkins and Joe Reichert, Post-Screening
Discussion Facilitators)
85 minutes; 2002; Produced and Directed by Jonathan Stack and Jon Osman; USA; Produced by Gabriel Films and Reality Films, and Distributed by Cinema Guild..
Justifiable Homicide is a feature
documentary based on the brutal murder of two Puerto Rican young men
Antonio Rosario and Hilton Vega who were shot by two NYPD detectives in
the Bronx in early 1995. One of the detectives was Mayer Giuliani's
former body guard. The story follows Margarita Rosario, as she
transforms from a mourning mother and Aunt to a powerful community
activist, questioning the police officers' actions and raising the
possibility of a cover-up. A police
inquiry affirmed the detectives'
claims: that Rosario and Vega
and third accomplice Freddie Bonilla (who survived the shooting) were
shot while perpetrating an armed robbery. According to the report, the
detectives opened fire in self-defense after the alleged robbers
instigated a shoot-out. As far as the NYPD was concerned, the incident
was over. Case closed, justifiable homicide. Margarita Rosario, doubting the police
version and realizing that one
of the detectives who shot her son served as Mayor Giuliani's body
guard in 1993, seeks help from the Civilian Complaint Review Board
(CCRB), and independent city agency whose responsibility is to serve as
watchdog over the NYPD. After a lengthy invesstigation, the CCRB report
affirmed that the two detectives used excessive and unnecessary force.
The City's response? The CCRB director along with the lead
investigators are forced to resign.
An independent Pathologist hired by
the
Margarita Rosaio also
counters the police version, demonstrating that all the shots struck
the victims in their backs as they lay prone on the floor and not from
the front as th City Medical Examiner's and the police had
claimed.
With a legal system unwilling to
address
these profound
inaccuracies, Margarita takes her anger to the streets, organizing
protests and rallies. She soon realizes that there are many others who
have lost family members to police action. Margarita responds by
organizing Parents Against Police Brutality, to unify their struggle
against a that sems to be stacked against them.
Margarita's words still echo loud,
"I can
not bring my son
back but I can work to prevent other parents from suffering a similar
loss."
Sunday April 30
2-5 pm HHH 323
The Fight in the Fields: Cesar
Chavez and the Farmworkers' Struggle
(Andy
Wilkins, Post-Screening
Discussion Facilitator)
120 minutes, 1997, Rick Tejada-Flores and Raymond (Ray) Telles, Producers, Writers, and Directors; USA; Produced by Independent Television Network Services and Paradigm Productions; Distributed by Cinema Guild.
120 minutes, 1997, Rick Tejada-Flores and Raymond (Ray) Telles, Producers, Writers, and Directors; USA; Produced by Independent Television Network Services and Paradigm Productions; Distributed by Cinema Guild.
The Fight in the Fields,
Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers' Struggle tells the story of
Cesar
Chavez, the charismatic founder of the United Farmworkers Union, and
the
movement that he inspired and led. Chavez was the most important
Latino leader in this country's
history. His vision reached out beyond farmworkers to touch millions of
Americans from all walks of life. Chavez combined traditional Mexican
American
values and grass roots organizing with the nonviolent tactics of
Mahatma
Gandhi. The result was more than a traditional labor union - it was an
all-encompassing
struggle for social and economic justice. La Causa, the cause, inspired
the Chicano civil rights movement and changed American society. The
union's
friends included Robert Kennedy, among their enemies were Ronald Reagan
and the powerful Teamsters Union. At the height of the movement more
than
14 million Americans supported the farmworkers' grape and lettuce
boycotts,
moved by Chavez' fasts and committment to nonviolence. Using
archival footage, newsreel, and present-day interviews with Ethel
Kennedy, former California Governor Jerry Brown, Dolores Huerta, and
Chávez' brother, sister, son and daughter, among others, the
documentary traces the remarkable contributions of Chávez and
others
involved in this epic struggle.
5-8 pm HHH 323
A Grin without a Cat
(Bob
Nowlan, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitator)
180 minutes, 1977/1992; Directed, Written, and Edited by Chris Marker; France; Produced by Dovidis/ISKA/Institut Nationel de l'Audiovisuel; Distributed by First Run/Icarus Films.
180 minutes, 1977/1992; Directed, Written, and Edited by Chris Marker; France; Produced by Dovidis/ISKA/Institut Nationel de l'Audiovisuel; Distributed by First Run/Icarus Films.
A
Grin Without a Cat (Le Fond de l'air est rouge)
is Chris Marker's
epic film-essay on the worldwide
political wars of the 60's and 70's: Vietnam, Bolivia, May '68, Prague,
Chile, and the fate of the New Left. Released
in France in 1978, restored and "re-actualized" by Marker fifteen years
later (after the fall of the Soviet Union), we are proud to release the
film now for the first time in the United States. Described
by Marker as "scenes of the Third World War," the film (the original
French title is virtually untranslatable) is divided into two parts,
each weaving together two strands:
Part 1: Fragile
Hands
1. From Vietnam to Che's death
2. May 1968 and all that
Part 2: Severed
Hands
1. From Spring in Prague to the Common Program of Government in France
2. From Chile to - to what?
From 1967
(the year Marker argues was the real turning point) on, A Grin Without a Cat is a
sweeping, global contemplation of a defining ten years'
political history.
"The
subject at hand is how, in the sixties, the 'universal standard of
civilization' assumed from the fifties began to collapse. The war in
Vietnam - that 'nation placed at the convergence of the world's
contradictions' - was the watershed, and Marker skillfully and
hauntingly depicts its effect. He goes on to show the many
civilian-police battles throughout Europe; the revolution within the
revolution in Asia, South America, and Czechoslovakia; the space
between the police and union stewards into which the French Left rushed
in May '68; the assassination of princes (Che Guevara) and the deposing
of kings (Richard Nixon); and those Cheshire Cats commonly known as
politicians who cannot explain why what was in the air never quite
materialized on the ground." -
Pacific Film Archives
8-11 pm HHH 100
Blacks Britannica (Jerad Hill,
Post-Screening Discussion Facilitator)
58 minutes, 1978, Directed by David Koff, USA/UK, Produced by WGBH-Boston; Independently Distributed.
58 minutes, 1978, Directed by David Koff, USA/UK, Produced by WGBH-Boston; Independently Distributed.
An
innovative, ground-breaking, independent
documentary film that critically examines Britain's colonial legacy and
its contemporary ramifications.
Of all the films
which have so far been made about the black community
in Britain, this one comes closest to telling it how it is. The thesis
is that the black community in Britain is the most oppressed section of
an oppressed working class. The fact that young blacks reject their
decreed role in the country's social and economic structure has meant
that the state has been obliged to use a number of devices to reinforce
its intentions, including the police, the judiciary, the media and the
schools. The whole picture is linked by a number of interviews with
activists in the black community, which means that the picture which
emerges is an authentic black view of affairs. British TV could have,
and should have, done this years ago. -- Time
Out London
Blacks Britannica is a relentless and engrossing indictment of racism toward black immigrants to England, told from an obvious Marxist perspective. The film argues that discrimination in England is based on economics and fueled by opportunists across the entire spectrum of British politics. Told through the eyes and words of a cross-section of blacks, David Koff's film uses interviews, stock footage, and scenes of street life and violence to show how blacks in England are trapped at the bottom of an economic and political system which shows little compassion or concern about their fate. Rapid editing, overlapping dialogue and cinema verité all build to an emotional and violent climax, whose conclusion is underscored by a reggae band's call for revolution. As Koff puts it, the film "reflects the increasingly militant response within the black community to the continuing attacks upon it, both by the fascist elements on the street and by the state itself." An official of the British Information Service in Washington called the film "dangerous" and asked for equal time. New York Times critic John O'Connor said the film not only documents the growing militancy, "but, quite clearly, the structure and tone endorse it." The program was originally scheduled to air on July 13, 1978, but the showing was postponed so that WORLD's executive producer David Fanning could make some changes. "I never had any dispute with the central premise of the film or with its contents," Fanning said at the time. He argued that the changes were intended to make it more understandable to the American public. But later, Fanning told Newsweek: "I was concerned with the film's endorsement of a Marxist viewpoint" . . . Blacks Britannica is a reminder that there are other ways to see the world, to analyze events and to place them in a context that enlightens and informs us even as we are aware of its political bias. What made the film less palatable for officials at WGBH was that Blacks Britannica analyzed a subject much too close to home. It did not fit in with the official discussions of income, education and middle-class status that are comfortable for the majority of Americans . . . David Koff's Blacks Britannica became an affront to Fanning and WGBH. The station's lawyers have gone to court in this country and in England to block showings of Koff's version. This raises issues of artistic integrity, of the ability of independent filmmakers to gain access to the airwaves and many other legal and moral questions. But most of all the controversy should make us all aware of how power is distributed. There is no guarantee for blacks in Britain, or for powerless groups anywhere, to have their views expressed without modification or censorship in our highly touted system of Western democracy. -- Joel Dreyfuss, Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media
Blacks Britannica is a relentless and engrossing indictment of racism toward black immigrants to England, told from an obvious Marxist perspective. The film argues that discrimination in England is based on economics and fueled by opportunists across the entire spectrum of British politics. Told through the eyes and words of a cross-section of blacks, David Koff's film uses interviews, stock footage, and scenes of street life and violence to show how blacks in England are trapped at the bottom of an economic and political system which shows little compassion or concern about their fate. Rapid editing, overlapping dialogue and cinema verité all build to an emotional and violent climax, whose conclusion is underscored by a reggae band's call for revolution. As Koff puts it, the film "reflects the increasingly militant response within the black community to the continuing attacks upon it, both by the fascist elements on the street and by the state itself." An official of the British Information Service in Washington called the film "dangerous" and asked for equal time. New York Times critic John O'Connor said the film not only documents the growing militancy, "but, quite clearly, the structure and tone endorse it." The program was originally scheduled to air on July 13, 1978, but the showing was postponed so that WORLD's executive producer David Fanning could make some changes. "I never had any dispute with the central premise of the film or with its contents," Fanning said at the time. He argued that the changes were intended to make it more understandable to the American public. But later, Fanning told Newsweek: "I was concerned with the film's endorsement of a Marxist viewpoint" . . . Blacks Britannica is a reminder that there are other ways to see the world, to analyze events and to place them in a context that enlightens and informs us even as we are aware of its political bias. What made the film less palatable for officials at WGBH was that Blacks Britannica analyzed a subject much too close to home. It did not fit in with the official discussions of income, education and middle-class status that are comfortable for the majority of Americans . . . David Koff's Blacks Britannica became an affront to Fanning and WGBH. The station's lawyers have gone to court in this country and in England to block showings of Koff's version. This raises issues of artistic integrity, of the ability of independent filmmakers to gain access to the airwaves and many other legal and moral questions. But most of all the controversy should make us all aware of how power is distributed. There is no guarantee for blacks in Britain, or for powerless groups anywhere, to have their views expressed without modification or censorship in our highly touted system of Western democracy. -- Joel Dreyfuss, Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media
Monday May 1
6-9 pm HHH 230
Weekend (Stacy Thompson, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitator)
105
minutes, 1967, Directed
and Written by Jean-Luc Godard, France; Produced by
Cinecedi, Comacio, Films Copernic, and Lira
Films; Distributed by Grove Press/New Yorker Film and Video.
Those first two titles ["Week-End" and "Week End"] are Weekend’s early self-designations; the latter two the last of many raspberries Godard blows at the audience in the course of the film. Weekend is a film of loathing . . . Loathing of the bourgeoisie. Loathing of the state of French society. Loathing of the state of the wider world. Loathing of the failure of mainstream politics. And a loathing of what “cinema” represents . . . Weekend is the first of Godard’s new style of filmmaking. It marks a clear break with La Chinoise, its immediate predecessor — gone are the romanticism, the poetry, the cinematic pleasure, the psychological closeness to its protagonists. In the case of the latter, the two central characters of the bourgeois couple Roland and Corinne (who are separately conspiring to murder one another, in some grotesque refraction of classic film noir, and jointly planning to speed up the death of Corinne’s father in order to collect the inheritance) are sketched in the thinnest possible terms. Godard only means to give us an archetypal “case” of the contemporary bourgeois: amoral, self-centred, and materialist. The lack of emotional investment in them as characters on the part of the audience is a deliberate strategy on Godard’s part. We are meant to keep at a distance from them . . . The film’s stunning, most famous sequence, one that is often invoked as the essence of what Weekend is about is the long 8-minute tracking shot (interrupted only by flashing titles giving the time) of the cacophonous anarchy of a long traffic jam on a country road, Godard’s potent image of a civilisation on the verge of collapse. But in Weekend there’s a sense that this is no longer what concerns Godard . . . The film becomes increasingly fractured, devolving into a series of scattershot set pieces whose comic-satiric tone is set early on with the cutaway in the first scene down to the fight over a car prang, and then with the escalating slapstick fight . . . These set pieces continue: the argument between the young bourgeois woman and the farmer, over an even more serious car accident, where the class struggle is sardonically shown to dissolve in the face of a common enemy . . . The encounter with Emily Bronte (made up to look more like Little Bo Peep) and Tom Thumb transforms this comic-satiric tone to a metaphoric one, contrasting the worlds of literature, philosophy, and geology with the inherent violence and (self-)destructiveness of the bourgeoisie. The entry into the film of the FLSO (Seine and Oise Liberation Front) guerillas is a further ratcheting-up of this metaphoric level, where the very distance of the camera from the events being portrayed underline how Godard is denying any level of psychological or emotional involvement. . . . An incessant, rhythmic, aggressive drumming is the aural backdrop — a contrast to the Mozart played in the farm courtyard — to the violence and aggression in the last part of the film: . . . Which leads to the final shot of the film, Corinne’s off-handed and unemotional comment to the guerillas’ chef on learning (in one of the few close-ups in this latter part of the film) that she’s eating her husband: “I’ll have a bit more later, Ernest.” With this Godard brings Weekend to an abrupt, cynical end, exhausted as he is by the world he is portraying and by cinema itself. “End of story.” “End of Cinema.” -- Ian Johnston, Not Coming to a Theater Near You
Week-End/Week End A Film
Adrift In The Cosmos A Film Found On A Scrap Heap. End of
Story End of Cinema.
Those first two titles ["Week-End" and "Week End"] are Weekend’s early self-designations; the latter two the last of many raspberries Godard blows at the audience in the course of the film. Weekend is a film of loathing . . . Loathing of the bourgeoisie. Loathing of the state of French society. Loathing of the state of the wider world. Loathing of the failure of mainstream politics. And a loathing of what “cinema” represents . . . Weekend is the first of Godard’s new style of filmmaking. It marks a clear break with La Chinoise, its immediate predecessor — gone are the romanticism, the poetry, the cinematic pleasure, the psychological closeness to its protagonists. In the case of the latter, the two central characters of the bourgeois couple Roland and Corinne (who are separately conspiring to murder one another, in some grotesque refraction of classic film noir, and jointly planning to speed up the death of Corinne’s father in order to collect the inheritance) are sketched in the thinnest possible terms. Godard only means to give us an archetypal “case” of the contemporary bourgeois: amoral, self-centred, and materialist. The lack of emotional investment in them as characters on the part of the audience is a deliberate strategy on Godard’s part. We are meant to keep at a distance from them . . . The film’s stunning, most famous sequence, one that is often invoked as the essence of what Weekend is about is the long 8-minute tracking shot (interrupted only by flashing titles giving the time) of the cacophonous anarchy of a long traffic jam on a country road, Godard’s potent image of a civilisation on the verge of collapse. But in Weekend there’s a sense that this is no longer what concerns Godard . . . The film becomes increasingly fractured, devolving into a series of scattershot set pieces whose comic-satiric tone is set early on with the cutaway in the first scene down to the fight over a car prang, and then with the escalating slapstick fight . . . These set pieces continue: the argument between the young bourgeois woman and the farmer, over an even more serious car accident, where the class struggle is sardonically shown to dissolve in the face of a common enemy . . . The encounter with Emily Bronte (made up to look more like Little Bo Peep) and Tom Thumb transforms this comic-satiric tone to a metaphoric one, contrasting the worlds of literature, philosophy, and geology with the inherent violence and (self-)destructiveness of the bourgeoisie. The entry into the film of the FLSO (Seine and Oise Liberation Front) guerillas is a further ratcheting-up of this metaphoric level, where the very distance of the camera from the events being portrayed underline how Godard is denying any level of psychological or emotional involvement. . . . An incessant, rhythmic, aggressive drumming is the aural backdrop — a contrast to the Mozart played in the farm courtyard — to the violence and aggression in the last part of the film: . . . Which leads to the final shot of the film, Corinne’s off-handed and unemotional comment to the guerillas’ chef on learning (in one of the few close-ups in this latter part of the film) that she’s eating her husband: “I’ll have a bit more later, Ernest.” With this Godard brings Weekend to an abrupt, cynical end, exhausted as he is by the world he is portraying and by cinema itself. “End of story.” “End of Cinema.” -- Ian Johnston, Not Coming to a Theater Near You
9pm-12am HHH 100
Out: the Making of a Revolutionary (Bob Nowlan, Liz Hirschmann, and John Nicksic, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitators)
60 minutes, 2000, Produced, Written, and Directed by Sonja de Vries & Rhonda Collins, USA; Distributed by Third World Newsreel.
Convicted of the 1983 U.S. Capitol
Bombing, and "conspiring to
influence, change, and protest policies and practices of the United
States government through violent and illegal means", Laura Whitehorn,
an out lesbian and one of six defendants in the Resistance Conspiracy
Case, spent 14 years in prison. Out:
the Making of a Revolutionary is the story of her life and
times: five tumultuous decades of struggle for freedom and justice.
Whether you agree or disagree with radical left politics, this is a
documentary that will challenge you to think about what you might be
willing to risk for your own beliefs.
"The film skillfully interpolates historical footage of a 'whites only' world with the life story of an exceptionally engaging woman who was not only a revolutionary who acted on her principles, but also a lesbian." - Bay Area Reporter
"Seeing 'OUT' is worthwhile not only for progressive politicos, but for anyone who can appreciate the story of a classic American type: the conscientious rebel" - San Francisco Express
"The film skillfully interpolates historical footage of a 'whites only' world with the life story of an exceptionally engaging woman who was not only a revolutionary who acted on her principles, but also a lesbian." - Bay Area Reporter
"Seeing 'OUT' is worthwhile not only for progressive politicos, but for anyone who can appreciate the story of a classic American type: the conscientious rebel" - San Francisco Express
Tuesday May 2
6-9
pm HHH 321
Brothers and Others (Katharine Kolb and Jackie Rose, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitators)
54 minutes, 2002, Directed by Nicholas Rossier, USA; Produced by Baraka Productions, Nicolas Rossier, and Trilby MacDonald; Distributed by Arab Film Distribution
The atrocities witnessed by the
world
on September 11th were hateful
acts by terrorists who chose to view their victims not as people but as
symbols of a perceived evil. By jailing thousands of Arabs, Muslims and
South Asians without evidence or due process, is America perpetuating
the cycle of hate and ignorance which claimed so many innocent
lives? Featuring interviews with such experts as Noam Chomsky and
James
Zogby, Brothers and Others
is a one-hour documentary on the impact of
9/11 on Muslims and Arabs in America. The film follows a number of
immigrants and Americans as they struggle in the heightened climate of
hate, FBI and INS investigations, and economic hardships that erupted
following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"It reminds us of the need to balance our desire for security with an equal concern for the rule of the law and civil liberties which make America the great nation that it is." --John Esposito, Author of Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality
"It reminds us of the need to balance our desire for security with an equal concern for the rule of the law and civil liberties which make America the great nation that it is." --John Esposito, Author of Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality
9pm-12
am HHH 100
Lost Boys of Sudan (Jeff Kesterson, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitator)
87 minutes, 2003, Directed by Megan Mylen and Jon Shenk; USA/Sudan; Producec by Actual Films and Principe Productions; Distributed by Shadow Distribution.
Lost Boys of Sudan is
a
feature-length documentary that follows two Sudanese refugees on an
extraordinary journey from Africa to America. Orphaned as young boys in
one of Africa's cruelest civil wars, Peter Dut and Santino Chuor
survived lion attacks and militia gunfire to reach a refugee camp in
Kenya along with thousands of other children. From there, remarkably,
they were chosen to come to America. Safe at last from physical danger
and hunger, a world away from home, they find themselves confronted
with the abundance and alienation of contemporary American
suburbia. Lost Boys of Sudan won an Independent Spirit
Award and screened
theatrically in 70 cities across the U.S. to strong audience and
critical praise. The film was broadcast nationally on the PBS series
POV in the fall of 2004 and earned two Emmy nominations. An
extensive
national outreach campaign has brought Lost Boys of Sudan
to thousands of community settings to build awareness and support for
refugees and the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. The film screened on Capitol
Hill with the Congressional Refugee and Human Rights Caucuses as well
as with the State Department's Refugee and Migration Bureau. It is in
use as an educational tool by Amnesty International and the United
Nations. Lost Boys of Sudan has already raised more than a half
million dollars in direct educational support for the Sudanese youth
across the country, recruited thousands of volunteers for local
community organizations and raised funds and political action for the
Darfur crisis.
Wednesday May 3
6-9
pm HHH 323
Farmingville (Paul Kaldjian, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitator)
79 minutes, 2004, Directed by Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Sambini; USA; Produced by Camino Bluff Productions; Distributed by POV (Point of View Television).
The hate-based attempted murder of
two
Mexican day laborers catapults
the Long Island town of Farmingville into national headlines, unmasking
a new frontline of the border wars -- suburbia. Blending the stories of
town residents and day laborers, Farmingville reveals the human impact
of mismanaged national policies that lead to fear, racism and violence.
In the summer of 2000, amid growing tensions between longtime residents and illegal-immigrant day laborers in the Long Island town of Farmingville, two young Mexican men were lured to a job site by white supremacist youths and beaten nearly to death. Many documentaries might be content to begin and end with that grim story, but Farmingville, a new one produced and directed by Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini, goes much further, taking the attempted murders as a starting point for larger questions about hatred, tolerance and the future of labor and immigration law in this country. In the late 1990's, some 1,500 workers from Mexico flooded Farmingville (population: 15,000), lured by the promise of work in the contracting, landscaping and service industries. Soon residents were complaining about overcrowded rental housing — up to 30 men in one — and the packs of men standing on street corners, waiting for work. One disgruntled resident, Margaret Bianculli-Dyber, started a group to protest the immigrants' presence; other groups quickly sprang up to protect the workers' rights, including an informal union organized by the laborers. The film soberly documents how legitimate quality-of-life grievances like overcrowding and noise can degenerate into racially inflected intolerance. As Ms. Bianculli-Dyber's efforts draw support from extremist hate groups nationwide, verbal and physical harassment of the workers escalates, and the residents argue bitterly with their local legislators and one another. Even the beating incident of 2000 fails to shock the community into a peaceful solution; rather, each side uses the horrific event as further evidence for its position. Though it has the slight, informal feel of a made-for-television documentary shot on video, Farmingville is an unusually sensitive and sophisticated piece of investigative journalism (to gain their subjects' trust, Ms. Tambini and Mr. Sandoval lived and worked in Farmingville for nine months during the filming.) In 78 minutes, the film manages to do justice to the experience of the newly arrived immigrants (who, in one of the film's few heartening moments, gather for a morale-boosting soccer game), to the complexities of federal immigration policy, and even to the often-disturbing views of the quality-of-life contingent. There is occasionally some subtle irony in the filmmakers' choice of frame (as when Ms. Bianculli-Dyber is interviewed in front of her collection of grinning troll dolls) but they generally steer clear of editorializing about their subjects, no matter how extreme the views they voice. If everyone listened to one another with such patient even-handedness, films like Farmingville might not need to be made at all. -- Dana Stevens, New York Times, October 20, 2004
In the summer of 2000, amid growing tensions between longtime residents and illegal-immigrant day laborers in the Long Island town of Farmingville, two young Mexican men were lured to a job site by white supremacist youths and beaten nearly to death. Many documentaries might be content to begin and end with that grim story, but Farmingville, a new one produced and directed by Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini, goes much further, taking the attempted murders as a starting point for larger questions about hatred, tolerance and the future of labor and immigration law in this country. In the late 1990's, some 1,500 workers from Mexico flooded Farmingville (population: 15,000), lured by the promise of work in the contracting, landscaping and service industries. Soon residents were complaining about overcrowded rental housing — up to 30 men in one — and the packs of men standing on street corners, waiting for work. One disgruntled resident, Margaret Bianculli-Dyber, started a group to protest the immigrants' presence; other groups quickly sprang up to protect the workers' rights, including an informal union organized by the laborers. The film soberly documents how legitimate quality-of-life grievances like overcrowding and noise can degenerate into racially inflected intolerance. As Ms. Bianculli-Dyber's efforts draw support from extremist hate groups nationwide, verbal and physical harassment of the workers escalates, and the residents argue bitterly with their local legislators and one another. Even the beating incident of 2000 fails to shock the community into a peaceful solution; rather, each side uses the horrific event as further evidence for its position. Though it has the slight, informal feel of a made-for-television documentary shot on video, Farmingville is an unusually sensitive and sophisticated piece of investigative journalism (to gain their subjects' trust, Ms. Tambini and Mr. Sandoval lived and worked in Farmingville for nine months during the filming.) In 78 minutes, the film manages to do justice to the experience of the newly arrived immigrants (who, in one of the film's few heartening moments, gather for a morale-boosting soccer game), to the complexities of federal immigration policy, and even to the often-disturbing views of the quality-of-life contingent. There is occasionally some subtle irony in the filmmakers' choice of frame (as when Ms. Bianculli-Dyber is interviewed in front of her collection of grinning troll dolls) but they generally steer clear of editorializing about their subjects, no matter how extreme the views they voice. If everyone listened to one another with such patient even-handedness, films like Farmingville might not need to be made at all. -- Dana Stevens, New York Times, October 20, 2004
9pm-12 am HHH 100
The Future of Food (Paul Kaldjian, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitator)
88 minutes, 2004, Written and Directed by Deborah Koons; USA; Produced by Liliy Films and Distrributed by Cinema Libre Studio.
The
Future of Food offers an in-depth investigation into the
disturbing
truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that
have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade.
From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca,
Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods
have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health
implications, government policies and push towards globalization are
all part of the reason why many people are alarmed about the
introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply. Shot on
location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, The Future of Food examines
the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what
we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world's
food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale
industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as
real solutions to the farm crisis today. The Future of Food reveals
that there is a revolution going on in the farm fields and on the
dinner tables of America, a revolution that is transforming the very
nature of the food we eat.
"Fighting for the Future of Food - Deborah Koons Garcia's film documents how genetically engineered foods slipped into our supply" - San Francisco Chronicle
"Fighting for the Future of Food - Deborah Koons Garcia's film documents how genetically engineered foods slipped into our supply" - San Francisco Chronicle
"The Future of Food provides an excellent overview of the key questions raised by consumers as they become aware of GM foods... [The film] draws questions to critical attention about food production that need more public debate." --- Excerpt from " Fahrenheit agbiotech" - Film review by Thomas J. Hoban - Nature Biotechnology
"If you eat food, you need to see The Future of Food" -- Newstarget.com"This stylish film is not just for food faddists and nutritionists. It is a look at something we might not want to see: Monsanto, Roundup and Roundup-resistant seeds, collectively wreaking havoc on American farmers and our agricultural neighbors around the world. In the end, this documentary is a eloquent call to action." --- The Telluride Daily Planet
Thursday May 4
6-9
pm HHH 323
Bonhoeffer (Rick Slembarski, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitator)
90 minutes, 2003, Directed by Martin Doblmeier; USA; Produced and Distributed by First Run Features.
The
German
theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the first, and strongest,
voices of resistance to Adolf Hitler. An acclaimed preacher, pacifist
and author, Bonhoeffer came to the famed Abyssinian Baptist Church in
Harlem on a teaching fellowship. When Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in
1932 he had a new awareness of racial prejudice and challenged
Christian churches to stand with the Jews in their moment of need.
Bonhoeffer eventually joined the unsuccessful plots to assassinate
Hitler and was executed three weeks before the end of the war.
“Though structured as the biography of the late German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Doblmeier’s engrossing documentary also offers a well-researched history of his times.” – New York Daily News
“A touching narrative on the nature of faith.” –The New York Times
9pm-12
am HHH 100
Priest (John Nicksic, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitator)
105 minutes, 1994, Directed by Antonia Bird; UK; Distributed by Swank Pictures.
Because film by its very nature is
steeped in images of the real world and oriented in action, it has
trouble capturing a sense of the spiritual. But it is precisely that
elusive sense, emerging from the mire of sin and guilt, that makes Priest an exceptional movie . .
. This powerful drama looks at the tortured soul of a gay priest
and comes up with a curiously inspiring statement about faith and
morality . .. Set in inner-city Liverpool, it stars the hot
young British actor Linus Roache as the Rev. Greg Pilkington, a
dutiful, idealistic diocesan priest assigned to a tough parish to
replace an older clergyman who has lost his marbles because of the
pressures of working in grim, poor neighborhoods. Full of a
desire to do right in his new job, Father Greg hits a snag almost the
minute he arrives. He discovers that the gregarious parish pastor, the
Rev. Matthew Thomas (Tom Wilkinson . . .), is living an essentially
married life with the parish housekeeper, Maria, played by Cathy
Tyson . . . Fans of novelist Graham Greene may recognize a
touch of the tortured discussions of faith and morality that crop up in
his books -- at one point Greg weighs the agonies of his soul in a
rambling speech during a seaside walk with his gay friend. But he's
essentially talking to himself. Roache plays the priest so
deftly you get a rare sense of a man's inner struggle, and of his
inability to ease up on himself because he takes his responsibilities
as a clergyman so seriously. It's an amazing performance that makes
utterly human a man's quest for spiritual truth while he tries to hide
from the truth about himself. This film is extraordinary for the
themes it explores -- sometimes with delicious humor -- beyond the
obvious. It's one thing to see a man struggle to find himself, another
for a film to carry the fight to a luminous moment that brings that
struggle into the larger world where differing visions of truths
contend. All of this is played out against a background of a
working-class parish filled with strong characters who make their mark,
for better or worse, in telling moments on the screen. The movie
becomes a fascinating glimpse at a vast subject -- intolerance vs.
understanding. -- Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle
Friday May 5
6-9
pm HHH 323
Punishment Park (Eddy Kaiser, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitator)
Punishment Park (Eddy Kaiser, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitator)
88 minutes, 1971, Directed by Peter Watkins, The Netherlands/USA/UK; Produced by Chartwell and Francoise and Distributed by Project X.
In an imagined world all too close
to reality, draft-dodging radicals are given a stark choice: go to
prison or spend three days in Punishment
Park. Peter Watkins' riveting pseudo-documentary reveals the
gruelling consequences of option B, as one 'corrective group' begins a
57-mile desert trek to reach a US flag, with a pack of rifle-toting
National Guardsmen just a couple of hours behind. Made in 1971 as a
response to the social upheavals of the late 60s, the film feels just
as shockingly relevant today. America's involvement in Vietnam
looms large in the movie, bringing to mind the debate over more recent
conflicts. It's impossible not to see a parallel between Punishment
Park and Guantanamo Bay. On top of that, the film evokes the sadistic
rituals of reality TV, with Watkins' verite technique having hardly
dated at all. Working with a cast of mostly non-professionals (many of
whom subscribed to their characters' views), he creates a searing sense
of authenticity. But what really resonates is the supple back and forth
cuts
between the desert ordeal and the trial of seven rebels, implying that
the latter's fates have already been set . . . this is still a
vividly executed piece of political provocation. As the Punished face
'justice' in the blazing heat, you'll be chilled to the bone.
--Matthew Leyland, BBC
Twenty-five years on, Peter Watkins's dystopian nightmare still grips, imagining hippies and radicals getting tortured for quasi-judicial sport by the National Guard, licensed by "internal security" tribunals convened by the US senate. Punishment Park is supposed to have assumed a new and horrible relevance in the era of 9/11 and Guantánamo. So it does, in part. But Watkins's fierce and palpable outrage is very different from our postmodern world, which shrugs at extensively ironised reality TV and fails to be scandalised for very long at photos of giggling soldiers brutalising their prisoners at Abu Ghraib. For me, the movie evoked more potent localised memories and anticipatory echoes of the real-life Stanford Experiment, Death Race 2000 and even Cool Hand Luke. The crisp voice of a BBC announcer narrates a pseudo-documentary, showing students and dissidents being hauled up in front of a reactionary board of accusers. They are offered a choice of 20 years in jail or four days in Punishment Park. Of course, everyone opts for the park, only to find that this is a sadistic nightmare in the burning Californian desert which can be concluded only by their violent death. The concluding bloodbath is attended by futile shrieks of anger from our British narrator at the ultimate breach of fair play: the good ol' boy in charge contemptuously reminds him that their kind saved his kind in the second world war. Like Watkins's classic The War Game, this is satire of the most intimately powerful sort. -- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Twenty-five years on, Peter Watkins's dystopian nightmare still grips, imagining hippies and radicals getting tortured for quasi-judicial sport by the National Guard, licensed by "internal security" tribunals convened by the US senate. Punishment Park is supposed to have assumed a new and horrible relevance in the era of 9/11 and Guantánamo. So it does, in part. But Watkins's fierce and palpable outrage is very different from our postmodern world, which shrugs at extensively ironised reality TV and fails to be scandalised for very long at photos of giggling soldiers brutalising their prisoners at Abu Ghraib. For me, the movie evoked more potent localised memories and anticipatory echoes of the real-life Stanford Experiment, Death Race 2000 and even Cool Hand Luke. The crisp voice of a BBC announcer narrates a pseudo-documentary, showing students and dissidents being hauled up in front of a reactionary board of accusers. They are offered a choice of 20 years in jail or four days in Punishment Park. Of course, everyone opts for the park, only to find that this is a sadistic nightmare in the burning Californian desert which can be concluded only by their violent death. The concluding bloodbath is attended by futile shrieks of anger from our British narrator at the ultimate breach of fair play: the good ol' boy in charge contemptuously reminds him that their kind saved his kind in the second world war. Like Watkins's classic The War Game, this is satire of the most intimately powerful sort. -- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
9pm-12
am HHH 100
The War Game (Eddy Kaiser, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitator)
1965, 48 Minutes, Directed by
Peter Watkins; UK; produced by BBC, distributed by the Briish Film
Institute.
Intended for broadcast in 1965, writer / director Peter Watkins' nuclear war drama was withheld by the BBC - possibly as a result of political pressure - and remained unshown for nearly twenty years, finally being transmitted on 31st July 1985. Continuing the experiments in blending fiction and documentary techniques which he had begun with his earlier play Culloden (1964), Watkins presented data drawn from his detailed research - encompassing interviews, Civil Defence documents, scientific studies and accounts of the effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts and the non-nuclear devastation of Dresden, Hamburg and other cities during World War II - in the form of charts, quotes and vox-pop style face-to-face interviews with ordinary people. These he embedded into his own imagined scenario of the impact of a blast in Kent following the escalation of an East-West conflict. The result was a controversial and harrowing film which, after the BBC had reluctantly allowed a cinema release (distributed by the British Film Institute), garnered huge critical praise internationally, winning a number of prizes, including an Academy Award (intriguingly in the Best Documentary category). The film had a significant influence on the growing Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Furious after his battle with the BBC, Watkins left the UK, and for more than thirty years has worked largely in Scandinavia. He continues to make highly political work: his La Commune (2000) - a six-hour re-enactment of the 1871 Paris Commune which examined the role of media in the modern global economy and featured a cast of non-professionals - was commissioned for French television channel Arte. -- Mark Duguid, British Film Institute Screenonline
Intended for broadcast in 1965, writer / director Peter Watkins' nuclear war drama was withheld by the BBC - possibly as a result of political pressure - and remained unshown for nearly twenty years, finally being transmitted on 31st July 1985. Continuing the experiments in blending fiction and documentary techniques which he had begun with his earlier play Culloden (1964), Watkins presented data drawn from his detailed research - encompassing interviews, Civil Defence documents, scientific studies and accounts of the effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts and the non-nuclear devastation of Dresden, Hamburg and other cities during World War II - in the form of charts, quotes and vox-pop style face-to-face interviews with ordinary people. These he embedded into his own imagined scenario of the impact of a blast in Kent following the escalation of an East-West conflict. The result was a controversial and harrowing film which, after the BBC had reluctantly allowed a cinema release (distributed by the British Film Institute), garnered huge critical praise internationally, winning a number of prizes, including an Academy Award (intriguingly in the Best Documentary category). The film had a significant influence on the growing Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Furious after his battle with the BBC, Watkins left the UK, and for more than thirty years has worked largely in Scandinavia. He continues to make highly political work: his La Commune (2000) - a six-hour re-enactment of the 1871 Paris Commune which examined the role of media in the modern global economy and featured a cast of non-professionals - was commissioned for French television channel Arte. -- Mark Duguid, British Film Institute Screenonline
Saturday May 6
2-5
pm P 265
No Dumb Questions (Liz Hirschmann, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitator)
24 minutes, 2001, Produced and Directed by Melissa Regan, USA; Distributed by New Day Films.
Uncle Bill is becoming a woman!
This
lighthearted and poignant
documentary profiles three sisters, ages
6, 9 and 11, struggling to understand why and how their Uncle Bill is
becoming
a woman. These
girls love their Uncle Bill, but
will they feel the same way when
he becomes their new Aunt Barbara? With just
weeks until Bill's first visit
as Barbara, the sisters navigate
the complex territories of anatomy, sexuality, personality, gender and
fashion. Their reactions are funny, touching, and distinctly
different. This film
offers a fresh perspective on a
complex situation from a family
that insists there are no dumb questions.
"No Dumb
Questions
addresses some of the real problems someone who is transgendered may
face, but it also shows a world that can be warm, loving, and
accepting. This is an excellent primer for parents whose children are
encountering this type of a situation. These parents and their new aunt
Barbara handle the situation extraordinarily well, encouraging the
children to ask questions, doing their best to answer them, and
acknowledging their own confusion. Again and again, family members
reinforce the reality that Barbara is still the same person she was
when she was Bill. This film is entertaining for almost any audience,
telling a story filled with humanity that may challenge many viewer’s
notions about gender." -- Educational Media Reviews Online
5-8
pm P 265
Knock Off: Revenge of the Logo (Katharine Kolb and Jackie Rose, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitators)
45 Minutes, 2004, A Film by Anette Baldauf & Katharina Weingartner With Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping; USA; Distributed by First Run/Icarus Films.
Knock
Off: Revenge of the Logo is
a reflection on branding and globalization,
framed by a journey up the world's longest shopping strip, Broadway in
New York City, a veritable meridian of counterfeit selling. We begin
in Chinatown, as Canal Street stirs in the morning, then move up
through Soho, and stop for an interlude in Times Square before rolling
uptown for a night in Harlem. Along the way we meet corporate lawyers
and anti-sweatshop activists, girly-girls searching for the perfect
handbag, and immigrants selling knocked off merchandise to make a
living (while staying a step ahead of the police). In the
logo-malls and designer zones, cultural critics sift through the
baffling effects of underwear models who loom seven stories tall, while
anti-shopping preachers testify to street side congregations about
resisting the temptation of "the brand." In Harlem,
we watch as people create and crush selective branding strategies, and
their knock-offs become an attempt to take back the means of cultural
production, which have evaporated from their neighborhood. With
provocative interviews and witty editing and cinematography
illuminating the power logos have on the street, KNOCK OFF documents an
underground economy of people who resist the globalized culture of
brands, by using the science of branding against itself.
"The subject of "knock offs" is usually treated one-dimensionally, similarly to the way that music file-sharing is defined, simply, as a crime. [KNOCK OFF] moves far beyond this simplistic approach, offering a multi-faceted picture of the "knock off" as a complex artifact of contemporary consumer culture. [KNOCK OFF] is an excellent piece of story-telling, approaching knock-off goods as essential components of the economy of urban life; as products produced by the same people who produce the "real thing"; as objects that carry viewers into the business of branding and image-marketing, and as things that are transformed and renegotiated into new and unanticipated forms of creative expression. Excellent work. I found the film very stimulating." - Stuart Ewen, Author, Channels of Desire
"The subject of "knock offs" is usually treated one-dimensionally, similarly to the way that music file-sharing is defined, simply, as a crime. [KNOCK OFF] moves far beyond this simplistic approach, offering a multi-faceted picture of the "knock off" as a complex artifact of contemporary consumer culture. [KNOCK OFF] is an excellent piece of story-telling, approaching knock-off goods as essential components of the economy of urban life; as products produced by the same people who produce the "real thing"; as objects that carry viewers into the business of branding and image-marketing, and as things that are transformed and renegotiated into new and unanticipated forms of creative expression. Excellent work. I found the film very stimulating." - Stuart Ewen, Author, Channels of Desire
8-11pm P 007
My Name is Joe (Maria Boland and
Jeff Kesterson, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitators)
105 minutes, 1998, Directed by Ken Loach,
Written by Paul
Laverty,
Joe is a recovering
alcoholic in
Glasgow Cannes
Sunday May 7
2-5
pm HHH 323
Working Women of the World (Joe Reichert and Andy Wilkins, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitators)
53 minutes, 2000, Marie France Collard, Director; France, Indonesia, The Phillippines, Turkey, Belgium; Produced by C.R.R.A.V.,Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel et des Télédistributeurs Wallons, Latitudes Productions, Movimento Production, Radio Télévision Belge Francofone; WIP; and Arte Belgique; First Run/Icarus Films, Distributor.
Focusing
on Levi Strauss & Co., Working
Women of the World (Ouvrières
du
monde) follows the
relocation of garment production from Western countries to nations such
as Indonesia, the Philippines, and Turkey, where low wages are the rule
and employee rights are nonexistent. The film
introduces us to women like Yanti, a 26-year-old Indonesian who works
ten hours a day, six days a week, for $60 a month (the price of a pair
of Levi's in Jakarta). Conditions at the factory are dreadful. There
are five filthy toilets for 2000 women, and with no ventilation, the
factory is an inferno. Any protest is met with immediate intimidation
and increased surveillance until the offender quits. Working Women of the World also
presents the stories of her western
counterparts who are losing their jobs. Maria Therese worked in the
Levis factory in Yser La Basse, France, and was a union representative
there. In interviews, she describes the work, the wage structure, and
her negotiations with management and the government after the closure
announcement. Behind the
new gospel of free trade are the real lives of women in the North and
South. Filmed in Indonesia, the Philippines, Turkey, France, and
Belgium, Working Women of the World
puts these women's stories into the
larger history and development of globalization.
"Informative... Exposes the treatment of garment production employees. The viewer will learn of the conditions which plague these women daily: low wages, strenuous schedules, ambiguous contracts, and the constant threat of job loss due to company relocation and/or closure." - Educational Media Reviews Online
5-8
pm HHH 323
Medium Cool (Stacy Thompson, Post-Screening Discussion Facilitator)
110 minutes, 1969, Written and directed by Haskell Wexler, US, Distributed by Paramount.
Where is the line between fantasy
and reality? Check out Medium
Cool and you'll have trouble finding it. Robert
Forster smolders as Chicago TV cameraman John Cassellis, jaded but
calmly
professional as he coldly documents car wrecks and generous cab
drivers,
waiting for the Convention to arrive. Meanwhile, he has a few romps in
the hay,
with a sultry nurse named Ruth (Marianna Hill) and a single mother from
Appalachia named Eileen (Verna Bloom), caring for her son in one of the
worst
slums of Chicago.
As Cassellis becomes entwined with Eileen, becoming a surrogate father
for the
boy, he loses his job and apparently his mind as well -- all while the
politically-charged
world he lives in begins to melt. Pioneering
cinematographer Haskell Wexler got the bright idea that the 1968
Democratic
National Convention would be a hotbed of riots (with Vietnam in its
worst years, MLK
recently assassinated, and a growing movement fed up with the
government) and
he was right. Wexler decided to make a (fictional) movie set during all
of this
-- but rather than wait until it was over and done with, he took a
group of
actors to ground zero, tossed them in among the cops and the
protesters, and
had them "act." The result
is one of the most vibrant and eye-opening films ever made, a bit of
fantasy
that seems devastatingly real -- because, in large part, it is.-
Christopher Null, filmcritic.com
8-11 pm
HHH 100
In suburban Buenos
Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle
factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is
to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - "the take" -
threatens to turn the globalization debate on its head. In the
wake of Argentina's spectacular economic collapse in 2001, Latin
America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of
abandoned factories and mass unemployment. The Forja San Martin auto
plant had been dormant until its former employees take action. They're
part of a daring new movement of workers who are occupying bankrupt
businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of the failed
system. But Freddy, the
president of the new worker's co-operative, and Lalo, the political
powerhouse from the Movement of Recovered Companies, know that their
success is far from secure. Like every workplace occupation, they have
to run the gauntlet of courts, cops and politicians who can either give
their project legal protection or violently evict them from the
factory. The story of the workers'
struggle is set against the dramatic backdrop of a crucial presidential
election in Argentina, in which the architect of the economic collapse,
Carlos Menem, is the front-runner. His cronies, the former factory
owners, are circling; if he wins, they'll take back the companies that
the movement has worked so hard to revive. Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in
shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers,
and a legal system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more
than scrap metal for sale. In The Take, director Avi Lewis and
writer Naomi Klein (author of the international best-seller, No Logo)
combine the stories of the workers and their families, stories of their
struggle for jobs and dignity, with comments from factory owners,
politicians and judges, and an examination of the macro-economic
policies of globalization. The result is a compelling political
thriller that pits ordinary workers against the local ruling elite and
the powerful forces of global capitalism.
Amid the current debates over globalization, The Take champions a humane
economic manifesto for the 21st century.
"Stirring!" - The New York Times
"Extraordinary!" - The New Yorker
"[Its] greatest achievement is in personalizing the globalization debate." - New York Post
"Moving! Fierce! Inspiring! Committed and compassionate." - Washington Post
"Excellent! A classic victory for the little guy... If it were shown in U.S. cities hit by factory closures, it might give unemployed Americans ideas." - New York Daily News
"Vitally important...a deeply moving and informative film. Its purpose is to inspire further battles just like the one it portrays-not violent revolution, but small-scale, incremental political progress, the kind that doesn't make news, but does make real change." - Cinema Scope
"Stirring!" - The New York Times
"Extraordinary!" - The New Yorker
"[Its] greatest achievement is in personalizing the globalization debate." - New York Post
"Moving! Fierce! Inspiring! Committed and compassionate." - Washington Post
"Excellent! A classic victory for the little guy... If it were shown in U.S. cities hit by factory closures, it might give unemployed Americans ideas." - New York Daily News
"Vitally important...a deeply moving and informative film. Its purpose is to inspire further battles just like the one it portrays-not violent revolution, but small-scale, incremental political progress, the kind that doesn't make news, but does make real change." - Cinema Scope
ON THE CAMPUS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
WISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE
BOB NOWLAN, FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
JED
MORTENSON, ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR
JACKIE ROSE, PROGRAMMING COORDINATOR
PROGRAMMING TEAM
JACKIE ROSE, PROGRAMMING COORDINATOR
PROGRAMMING TEAM
MARIA BOLAND
JERAD HILL
LIZ HIRSCHMANN
EDDY KAISER
JEFF KESTERSON
KATHARINE KOLB
JOE REICHERT
ANDY WILKINS
JULI PITZER AND DAVID GARDNER, PROMOTION/PUBLICITY COORDINATORS
FUNDRAISING/PROMOTION/PUBLICITY TEAM
ZACH KOSS
JOHN NIKSIC
MATT ROYTEN
RICHARD SLEMBARSKI
KARL THOMALLA
ANDREW WERTHMANN
JERAD HILL
LIZ HIRSCHMANN
EDDY KAISER
JEFF KESTERSON
KATHARINE KOLB
JOE REICHERT
ANDY WILKINS
JULI PITZER AND DAVID GARDNER, PROMOTION/PUBLICITY COORDINATORS
FUNDRAISING/PROMOTION/PUBLICITY TEAM
ZACH KOSS
JOHN NIKSIC
MATT ROYTEN
RICHARD SLEMBARSKI
KARL THOMALLA
ANDREW WERTHMANN