VIDEO CATALOGUE, A-G

13 PUEBLOS:IN DEFENSE OF WATER, AIR AND EARTH
“13 Pueblos: In Defense of Water, Air and Earth” chronicles citizens from 13 Morelos villages and their struggle against environmental degradation from human misuse and industrial and commercial projects brought on by NAFTA.  To keep from plummeting into poverty under this new system they had three choices—joining guerilla forces, drug trafficking or immigration.  Instead, these 13 pueblos, or villages, led by a Council of Elders, joined forces and begun protesting.
“13 Pueblos” was made by award winning Mexican filmmaker Francesco Taboada Tabone.  Taboada sees his films as a platform to instigate a grassroots change throughout the wider community.  “Los pueblos have a strong oral tradition,” he said. “We have to promote this knowledge throughout communities. You will never find this kind of movie in commercial theaters in Mexico or the United States. But you may find it on a small street projected on blankets.”

AMERICA'S IMPACT ON RUSSIA
This video investigates the increasingly negative attitudes of Russians toward America and asks why this is the case. Many Russians blame the U.S. for the economic downfall that came in the wake of brutal "shock therapy" economic reforms designed to open the Commonwealth of Independent States to the free market as rapidly as possible. This informative documentary includes interviews with members of the Russian parliament, American experts, and journalists and authors, who share their insights about the current mood in Russia.
"America's Impact on Russia" (1998) 29 min. America's Defense Monitor
http://www.cdi.org/adm/1141/index.html

THE AMERICAN RULING CLASS
This is a highly entertaining dramatic documentary musical written by Lewis Lapham and directed by John Kirby that "explores our country’s most taboo topic: class, power and privilege in our nominally democratic republic." It seeks to answer the question, "Does America have a ruling class?"
Serving as an oddly Vincent Price-like master of ceremonies, Lapham poses a simple question: Is there a ruling class in America, and, if so, how does one get in? To find the answer, he sends two fictional Yale grads on a series of interviews, some candid and some staged, with such power brokers as former secretary of State James Baker as well as progressive icons, such as Howard Zinn, filmmaker Robert Altman, Barbara Ehrenreich, Kurt Vonnegut, and Pete Seeger.
At bottom “The American Ruling Class” is a morality tale. As Lapham conducts them through the corridors of power: Pentagon press briefings, the World Economic Forum, philanthropic foundations, Washington law firms, corporations, banks, the Council on Foreign Relations, and New York society dinners--our two representative graduates "one rich and the other not so rich" must struggle with their responsibilities in "a world collaterally damaged by the magic of money and the miracles of science." The real-life luminaries they meet on their journey become characters in a story about power, its responsibilities and abuses.
http://theamericanrulingclass.org/home/index.php    2007  89 min.

ARGENTINA: HOPE IN HARD TIMES
We indeed live in hard times.  But few have had it as hard in recent years as the people of Argentina.  Once one of the most prosperous countries of South America, in 2001 its economy collapsed.  Hundreds of thousands, many of them middle class, were thrown out of work.  The government closed the banks and people couldn't get access to their money.  And no one did anything to help.  Government after government fell as housewives, students, factory workers and lawyers burst into the streets of Buenos Aires chanting "Que se vayan todos!" –"Throw them all out!" 
In the face of desperation, the cynical might have expected that people would turn on each other in an effort to survive.  But instead, a remarkable thing happened.  People turned to each other in mutual support.  The documentary film "Argentina: Hope in Hard Times" tells the inspiring stories of ordinary people creating new ways of rebuilding their lives in a resurgence of grassroots democracy and community spirit. 
Film critic Sean Cain has asked: "During a political or economic crisis, what is it that makes one society turn to equality and democracy, such as contemporary Argentina, and others to turn to fear, repression and exploitation, such as 1930s Germany? What would happen if such an economic catastrophe were to strike North America, something which no longer seems that unfeasible. How would we respond? Would people work together to tackle such problems as poverty, unemployment and inequality, or would they turn to xenophobia, immigrant-bashing, leader worship, and the neo-liberal orthodoxy of ‘greed is good'?"
"Argentina: Hope in Hard Times" prompts us to think about such questions.  It also restores a faith in human beings and a hope that we too can find our way through hard times. 
"Argentina: Hope in Hard Times" (2004) 74 min. Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young  DVD or VHS 
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/arg.html

THE AWFUL TRUTH
From acclaimed filmmaker and author Michael Moore comes THE AWFUL TRUTH, the most daring documentary show to hit the American public since Moore's own TV Nation. Now, for the first time, this Emmy nominated series is available in one complete DVD set. In the spirit of his award-winning film Bowling for Columbine, Moore skewers politicians and the public alike, placing himself squarely in the middle of today's most controversial issues and events. Join Moore as he goes on a crusade for justice with Cracker, The Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken, spreads holiday cheer to deserving tobacco executives with the "Voice Box Choir," and brings a street pimp to congress as the answer to campaign finance reform.  Shot in Moore's trademark "guerrilla video" style, each of 24 half-hour episode is filled with scathingly funny observations and humorous rants that boldly and ironically provide valuable commentary on today's cultural landscape.
"The Awful Truth: Seasons One and Two" (1999-2000) Michael Moore, 2 DVD set, 10 hours
http://www.docurama.com/productdetail.html?productid=NV-NVG-9541

BANKING ON LIFE AND DEBT
Banking on Life and Debt, narrated by actor Martin Sheen, presents a highly informative analysis of the origins and development of the Bretton Woods "twins", the IMF and the World Bank. It examines the ways in which these international financial institutions (IFIs) have usurped control of economic and political decision making in Ghana, Brazil, and the Philippines, and it analyzes the disastrous effects of their structural adjustment policies. Even UNICEF holds many IFIs' policies responsible for the deaths of millions of children.
"Banking on Life and Debt" (1995) 30 min. Richter Productions, Maryknoll World Productions
http://www.maryknollmall.org/description2.cfm?ISBN=120

THE BATTLE OF CHILE
The Battle of Chile is an epic chronicle of the bloody 1973 military coup in Chile in which General Augusto Pinochet ousted Sálvador Allende's democratically elected Popular Unity government. The film explores Allende's socialist vision and social experiment, which was enthusiastically supported by a majority of Chileans. During Pinochet's 17-year dictatorship, The Battle of Chile was banned in Chile but was shown around the world and received many awards. Time Out Film Guide calls it, "Not only the best film about Allende and the coup d'etat, but among the best documentary films ever made." (Black & white, in Spanish, with English subtitles)
"The Battle of Chile" (Parts I&II) (1975-76) 205 min. Patricio Guzmán, First Run/Icarus Films
http://www.frif.com/new98/boc.html

BEYOND ELECTIONS: REDEFINING DEMOCRACY IN THE AMERICAS
“Beyond Elections” is an important new documentary film that explores one of the vital questions of our time –What is democracy?  To find an answer it takes us on a journey across the hemisphere from Venezuela’s communal councils to Brazil’s participatory budgeting, from constitutional assemblies to grassroots movements, from recuperated factories to cooperatives. 
A democratic wind is blowing in Latin America that is experimenting with new forms of citizen participation.  Yes, elections are a part of democracy, but they are not the whole of it.  The relationship between ordinary citizens and their government is being redefined.  As the political process is being opened up to include the poor as well as the middle classes, the scope of democracy is being expanded beyond the mere selection of leaders to popular participation in directly making those decisions that affect ones life.
Across the world, 120 countries now have at least the minimum trappings of democracy---the freedom to vote for all citizens. But for many, this is just the beginning not the end. Following decades of US-backed dictatorships, civil wars and devastating structural adjustment policies in the South, and corporate control, electoral corruption, and fraud in the North, representative politics in the Americas is in crisis. Citizens are now choosing to redefine democracy under their own terms: local, direct, and participatory.
In 1989, the Brazilian Worker's Party altered the concept of local government when they installed participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, allowing residents to participate directly in the allocation of city funds. Ten years later, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was swept into power with the promise of granting direct participation to the Venezuelan people; who have now formed tens of thousands of self-organized communal councils. In the Southern Cone, cooperative and recuperated factory numbers have grown, and across the Americas social movements and constitutional assemblies are taking authority away from the ruling elites and putting power into the hands of their members and citizens.
Featuring interviews with: Eduardo Galeano, Amy Goodman, Emir Sader, Martha Harnecker, Ward Churchill, and Leonardo Avritzer as well as cooperative and community members, elected representatives, academics, and activists from Brazil, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, United States, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, and more.
http://www.beyondelections.com/    2008

BEYOND ELECTIONS: REDEFINING DEMOCRACY IN THE AMERICAS
Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas questions the U.S. orthodoxy that defines democracy essentially in terms of electoral politics.  Across Latin America citizens are now choosing to redefine democracy under their own terms: local, direct, and participatory.  In 1989, the Brazilian Worker’s Party altered the concept of local government when they installed participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, allowing residents to participate directly in the allocation of city funds. Ten years later, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was swept into power with the promise of granting direct participation to the Venezuelan people; who have now formed tens of thousands of self-organized communal councils. In the Southern Cone, cooperative and recuperated factory numbers have grown, and across the Americas social movements and constitutional assemblies are taking authority away from the ruling elites and putting power into the hands of their members and citizens.  From the grassroots up, democracy is being reinvented.  As citizens in the US face the challenges of an Obama administration and an economic crisis, this timely documentary shows that the revolution can start today right in your own living room or neighborhood.
“Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas”   (2008) 
http://www.beyondelections.com/2008/08/beyond-elections-documentary-trailer_01.html

THE BIG BUY: TOM DeLAY'S STOLEN CONGRESS
This hard hitting documentary tells the story of one of the most audacious power grabs in American history – and how a local district attorney in Texas turned out to be the biggest threat to the DeLay machine. 
DeLay blatantly funneled banned corporate money to candidates in the 2002 Texas elections in the first phase of a take-no-prisoners plan to ensure a more hard-Right Republican Congress.  With the state legislature in their hands, they were able to carry out a controversial redistricting in Texas that disenfranchised voters, setting off the largest upheaval in modern Texas political history and sending five new hard-Right Republican congressmen to Washington.
But now Texas grand juries have brought 41 indictments against eight corporations, DeLay's political action committee, a business lobby ally, three underlings and Tom DeLay himself.  But while DeLay has given up his leadership post, his Texas takeover is still affecting all Americans daily.
This film is a warning about how easy it is for American democracy to be hijacked by a combination of relentless ambition and corporate millions.  Don't miss this tale of the Grinch who stole Congress. 
"The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress" (2006), 75 min. by Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck
http://tomdelaymovie.com/

BIG SPUDS, LITTLE SPUDS
From Peru to Idaho, climatic change and monoculture have conspired to wreak unpredictable damage to one of the world's staple crops, the potato. Historically, Andean farmers raised more than 5000 varieties of potatoes and practiced crop rotation. But during the U.S.-promoted "Green Revolution" in the 1960s, these farmers were urged to switch to a handful of new, high yielding varieties that required massive amounts of chemicals and water and proved vulnerable to disease, pests, and weather. In 1997, the El Nino weather phenomenon had a devastating impact on the potato crops in both Peru and Idaho. This film contrasts traditional farming methods in the Andes with industrial methods used in Idaho and, increasingly, in Peru. Big Spuds, Little Spuds reveals that there is an emerging pride on the part of Peruvian farmers returning to old varieties and old methods in an effort to preserve genetic diversity and food security.
"Big Spuds, Little Spuds" (1999) 52 min. Christoph Corves and Delia Castiñeira, Bullfrog Films
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/big.html

THE BODY OF WAR
Produced and directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, “The Body of War” is an indictment of the politics that led to the invasion of Iraq and a heartbreaking account of one man’s living with the aftermath.  Tomas Young was a 22 year old from Kansas who decided to enlist in the army after watching President Bush with his bullhorn atop the rubble of the World Trade Center.  Expecting to be sent to Afghanistan, he was instead shipped to Iraq.  There, five days later while riding through Sadr City in an un-armored, uncovered Humvee, a bullet severed his spinal cord leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. 
“Body of War” is the story of Young’s political awakening.  It is also the story of a nation’s awakening to the abuse of the patriotic sentiments of youth by politicians and the human costs of war. 

BORDERTOWN
A dramatization based on the true story of the hundreds of women working in American-owned maquiladoras who have been brutally raped and murdered. When editor of the Chicago Sentinel George Morgan (Martin Sheen) sends ambitious reporter Lauren Adrian (Jennifer Lopez) to Juarez to investigate the murders what she finds is the story of a lifetime. Eva, a young woman who was raped and left for dead in the desert, is the only woman to survive an attack. Unable to go to the police for help she turns to a local newspaper run by Diaz Alfonso (Antonio Banderas), a former friend and colleague of Lauren’s. Hiding Eva is incredibly dangerous but Lauren knows that publishing her story is the only way to expose the truth behind the murders. She is determined to find Eva’s attackers but soon finds herself immersed in a dangerous web of corruption that extends to both sides of the border.
“Bordertown” was never released in U.S. theaters because of political pressure. Instead, it went straight to DVD, and was only finally released in Mexico quite recently.  It is a powerful tale of life on the border between the United States and Mexico.
Bordertown    2007   114 min

BOWLING FOR COMUMBINE
Michael Moore’s "Bowling for Columbine" is an alternately humorous and horrifying film about the United States. It is a film about the state of the Union, about the violent soul of America. Why do 11,000 people die in America each year at the hands of gun violence? The talking heads yelling from every TV camera blame everything from Satan to video games. But are we that much different from many other countries? What sets us apart? How have we become both the master and victim of such enormous amounts of violence? This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi.
http://michaelmoore.com/books-films/bowlingforcolumbine/     2002

BURN!
An epic film of the transition from colonialism to neocolonialism, "Burn!" is Marlon Brando's most political film.  An analysis of Black revolutionary struggle which is part Marx and part Franz Fanon, it maps the historic cycles of white colonialist oppression and Black insurgency.  At the same time, this 1969 Gillo Pontecorvo classic is a political statement against the Vietnam war.  Perhaps that is why United Artists withdrew it from exhibition soon after it opened.
"Burn!" is a political allegory set in a fictional sugar cane-producing Caribbean Island named Quemada.  Marlon Brando is Sir William Walker, the 19th-century English equivalent of a CIA operative who has been sent by the British government to fan the flames of an insurrection of the Black slaves and simultaneously to whisper encouraging words to members of the mixed-race urban classes so that when the Portuguese are routed, they will be ready to seize the reins of power. Not real power, of course, because it is British wealth to which this puppet regime will be permanently indebted. 
The rebellion transformed Quemada from a colony into a neo-colony – nominally independent politically but economically dependent on its new British masters.  And it also transformed slaves into wage slaves, now paid for their labor but little better off than before.  Within a decade there is a new rebellion and Walker is called back this time to put it down.  As Walker muses, "sometimes a single decade can reveal the contradictions of an entire epoch."  The counter insurgency directed by this 19th century CIA precursor  leads to scorched earth scenes reminiscent of Vietnam.  Today's viewer might well ask whether history is now repeating itself once again.
"Burn!" (1969) 112 min. Gillo Pontecorvo
http://www.amazon.com/Burn-Marlon-Brando/dp/B000B6CO3E

BUSH'S BRAIN
Everything you've ever wanted to know about Carl Rove but were afraid to ask.  "Bush's Brain" takes you behind the scenes to the Machiavellian puppet master who made George W. Bush governor of Texas and then president of the U.S.  Cunningly adept at destroying political opponents, this 2004 film documents Rove's dirty tricks in Texas politics and Bush's rise to the presidency in 2000.  Political consultant Rove has since become a force in shaping the administration's domestic policies.  The sordid story that "Bush's Brain" documents is not yet over.  It continues in today's headlines. 
"Bush's Brain" (2004) 88 min. Joseph Mealey and Michael Shoob, Based on the book by James C. Moore and Wayne Slater, Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential.
http://www.bushsbrain.com/

CANCEL THE DEBT NOW!
What is the origin of Third World debt? Is it irresponsible to wipe the financial slate clean for people in the poorest countries? This video, narrated by actress Julie Harris and produced by the Jubilee 2000 Campaign, which is demanding debt cancellation for the world's poorest countries, explores how aggressive lending policies in the 1970s helped create the Third World debt and how, beginning in the 1980s, heavy-handed and misguided World Bank and IMF structural adjustment policies exacerbated poverty. The video explains how the multilateral institutions not only weaken national economies but also undermine governments in developing countries.
"Cancel the Debt Now!" (1999) 24 min. Jubilee 2000/USA
http://www.jubileeusa.org/jubilee.cgi?path=/resources/order_materials

CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY
It was Charles Wilson who famously said “What’s good for General Motors is good for America.”  During the Golden Age of U.S. capitalism in the post-war period, that identification of the national interest and of individual well-being with corporate capitalism was widely believed.  The working class found the key to the American Dream in a good paying job with GM or other such employers.  Workers loved capitalism.  Such was the world that Michael Moore grew up in.  So did most of us and our parents.  The life of entire cities like Moore’s Flint, Michigan, Detroit, Pittsburg –indeed, the industrial heartland of America—was based on corporate capitalism.
But then in the late 1970s and the 80s free market globalization hit.  GM closed its auto plant in Flint and moved those good paying jobs to Mexico, to places like Silao where it didn’t have to pay so much.  Corporate capital abandoned U.S. workers and the industrial heartland became the rust belt.  Michael Moore tells the story of that betrayal in his first hit film Roger and Me and now in his latest film Capitalism: A Love Story. 
Capitalism: A Love Story comes home to the issue Moore has been examining throughout his career: the disastrous impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans. But this time the culprit is much bigger than General Motors, and the crime scene is far wider than Flint, Michigan.  Free market capitalism has not only bankrupted GM, it has also crashed the banks and Wall Street and it takes massive government bailouts to rescue them. The result of free market capitalism is that there is no middle class anymore –– there is only, as one subject of the film puts it, “the people who got nothing and the people who have it all.”  This assesment is confirmed in a leaked Citibank report that enthuses about how America is now a modern-day "plutonomy" where the top 1% of the population control 95% of the wealth. 
This documentary is a tragedy wrapped in an entertaining comedy.  But it is also Moore's call to arms against the robber barons who shamelessly empty our pockets while we do nothing about it.  Perhaps the most poignant moment comes in a 1944 historical film clip of President Roosevelt calling for a “second bill of rights,” asserting that “true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.” The image of this visibly frail president, who died the next year, appealing to our collective conscience — and mapping out an American future that remains elusive — is moving beyond words. And chilling: “People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”
“Capitalism: A Love Story”      Michael Moore
http://www.michaelmoore.com/

CAPITALISM HITS THE FAN
“Capitalism Hits the Fan” breaks down the root causes of today’s economic crisis.  While the media tries to convince us that the worst is over and the economy is on the mend, Professor Rick Wolff argues that it was decades in the making and reflects seismic failures within the very structure of American style capitalism.  Wolff, a renowned economist at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, traces the source of the crisis to the 1970s, when wages began to stagnate and working people were forced into an unsustainable spiral of borrowing and debt that ultimately exploded in the mortgage meltdown.  By placing the crisis within this larger historical and systemic context, Wolff argues convincingly that government bailouts, stimulus packages and increased market regulation will not be enough to address the root causes of the crisis.  Far more fundamental changes will be needed to avoid future catastrophes.  Richly illustrated with motion graphics and charts, this film is a superb introduction designed to help ordinary citizens understand and react to the unraveling economic crisis. 
“Capitalism Hits the Fan”   (2009)    Rick Wolff
http://www.capitalismhitsthefan.com/

UNA CAUSA NOBLE
Shot in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, "Una Causa Noble" (A Noble Cause) tells the tragic story of a young Mexican man who emigrates to the US to join the army based on President Bush's offer of a fast track to citizenship. Told from the point of view of the wife, son and extended family left behind, this short film highlights the human side of migration.
Ignacio and Marina, a young Mexican couple, are at odds over what is best for their young son's future.  Ignacio, who has been working most of the time in the United States, believes that more opportunities exist for them and their young son "en el otro lado" -(on the other side).  Marina feels that their son is better off being raised among family and tradition.  When Ignacio decides to join the U.S. Army in order to expedite their application for citizenship, Marina is faced with some heartrending decisions.
"Una Causa Noble" (A Noble Cause) (2006) 26 min. Miles Merritt
http://www.unacausanoble.com

CHE: EL ARGENTINO  
The legendary revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara lives in Steven Soderberg’s epic film biography “Che”.  Part One titled El Argentino, which chronicles his years with the Cuban Revolution, will be screened by the Center for Global Justice on March 26.  It shows Che (played by Benicio Del Toro) meeting Fidel Castro (played by Demian Bichir) in Mexico in 1955 where they trained, going by boat in 1956 with 80 fighters to start an uprising in Cuba, suffering from his asthma in the jungles of the Sierra Maestra, and finally marching triumphantly into Havana in January 1959. 
The Cuban Revolution changed the political landscape in Latin America, and along with Fidel, Che became the symbol of popular hopes for change throughout the hemisphere.  To this day, the iconic image of Che adorns youthful T shirts everywhere –although one often wonders how much the wearer knows about the ideas of the man whose image they bear.  While the film is not heavy on ideology, hopefully viewers will learn something of what one of the century’s preeminent revolutionaries fought and died for. 

CHENEY´S LAW 
The Bush-Cheney administration will soon be history.  But will the vast expansion of unchecked executive power that Vice President Dick Cheney fashioned fad into the past?  For the last eight years he waged a secretive and often bitter battle to expand the power of the presidency under a dubious reading of the Constitution called The Unitary Executive Theory.  Others call it The Imperial Presidency. 
Over the last 70 years of wars, both hot and cold, there has been a gradual expansion of presidential power.  But nothing like what occurred after 9/11 and the war on terror.  Cheney’s special position as co-president with George W. Bush gave him the opportunity to claim unprecedented powers for the White House –the power to imprison indefinitely and to torture, to wiretap, to render and assassinate, to select which laws to enforce and which to ignore … and who knows what more?  The ways in which this was done are meticulously traced in PBS’s Frontline documentary “Cheney’s Law.”  This look into the behind-closed-doors battle within the administration over the power of the presidency and the rule of law would make the Founding Fathers turn over in their graves.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cheney/     2007  60 min.

CHILDREN OF SHANTILA
The 1982 Sabra-Shatila massacre of more than 500 refugees brought international attention to the Shatila refugee camp near Beirut. This camp is home to some 15,000 displaced Palestinians and Lebanese; its original occupants were Palestinians driven into exile when the Israeli state was founded in 1948. The video tells the story of how the children of Shatila attempt to come to terms with the realities of being refugees in a camp that has endured the horrors of massacre, starvation, and now widespread poverty and unemployment. Against the backdrop of the camp's collective tragedies, filmmaker Mai Masri focuses on the personal stories of two Palestinian children, and articulates the aspirations of a younger generation. (Includes sections in Arabic, with English subtitles)
"Children of Shatila" (1998) 50 min. MaiMasri, Arab Film Distribution
http://www.arabfilm.com/item/32/

LA CIUDAD
"La Ciudad"gives us a realistic picture of the daily life of Latino immigrants in New York City.  Filmed in stunningly gritty black and white, it is comprised of four unforgettable stories: a group of day-laborers scavenge for bricks; two teenagers meet at a party in the projects; a homeless father tries to enroll his daughter in school; and a garment worker seeks justice in the sweatshops.  Set in the present day, "The City" takes us inside the community of newcomers, creating a powerful and incisive drama about the loneliness, displacement, and economic hardship which they face in the new and unfamiliar world of the city.
The director, David Riker, strove for authenticity both in the stories he tells and in the characters he portrays. He spent five years developing the film within the Latin American community, and chose to cast nonactors in almost every role. Because most of the performers are themselves struggling immigrants, they bring a resonant understanding and realism to the film.
Riker hopes that people come away from seeing "The City" with a different and deeper understanding of the Latino immigrant experience. He says, "Unless you are from one of the Indian nations, the vast majority of people in this country has had this experience -- of coming from somewhere else, of arriving here and being treated as an exploited work force, not knowing the language, dealing with the profound dislocation of being uprooted."  To Riker, the story of the people in "The City" is basically the story of Americans. "If your experience has been as an immigrant, you should be able to identify with the newest immigrants. The film, I hope, is a denunciation of xenophobia. But the final sequence in the film is meant to go one step further, when we see all the faces and portraits of this community. I deliberately tried to choose a series of faces that was very diverse, with the hopes that people will see themselves in one of those faces, someone that doesn't look too far removed from themselves, or someone they know. And in the end, I hope that the film creates a solidarity capable of opposing the anti-immigrant fervor that is so rampant."
"La Ciudad" (The City) (1999) B&W, English subtitles, 88 min. David Riker
http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/film.php?directoryname=citylaciudad

CONTROL ROOM
This controversial documentary examines sympathetically the news coverage by the Middle East's most popular news agency, Al-Jazeera.  The film supplies clear evidence where Al-Jazeera is right and the American government is wrong on certain Iraqi events, while Al-Jazeera reporters interviewed admit their bias. They don't make ludicrous Fox News claims of being "fair and balanced."  "Control Room" shows how propaganda works on both sides and how the truth is often somewhere in between.  You may not agree with its point of view, but you need to know what over 40 million Arab viewers are watching.  It's the network George Bush hates almost as much as Michael Moore.
UPDATE: Josh Rushing, a former Marine captain featured in "Control Room", has been hired to work as a host and correspondent for Washington-based Al-Jazeera-International.
"Control Room" (2003) 86 min. Jehane Noujaim
http://www.controlroommovie.com

THE CORPORATION
Next to the nation-state, without a doubt the dominant institution of modern society has been the corporation.  Since it was given the legal status of a person by act of the U.S. Supreme Court in the late 19th century, its rights, powers and wealth has grown immensely to the point where of the 100 richest economic units in the world, only 49 are countries and the other 51 are corporations. 
Provocative, witty and informative, "The Corporation" has won 24 international awards.  Taking the corporation's status as a legal person seriously, this documentary puts the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch and finds it to be a highly anti-social "personality": It is self-interested, inherently amoral, callous and deceitful; it breaches social and legal standards to get its way; it does not suffer from guilt, yet it can mimic the human qualities of empathy, caring and altruism. Four case studies, drawn from a universe of corporate activity, clearly demonstrate harm to workers, human health, animals and the biosphere.  Using the DSM-IV, the standard diagnostic tool of psychiatrists and psychologists, this institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism is found to be a "psychopath."
This disturbing diagnosis is reached through forty interviews with corporate insiders and critics – including Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Michael Moore -- plus true confessions, case studies and anecdotes that  reveal behind-the-scenes tensions and influences in several corporate and anti-corporate dramas. 
While the corporation may be amoral, the human beings are often revealed to share common moral sentiments.  Nevertheless, it is the corporate drive for profit that guides organizational behavior.  A case in point: Sir Mark Moody-Stuart recounts an exchange between himself (at the time Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell), his wife, and a motley crew of Earth First activists who arrived on the doorstep of their country home. The protesters chanted and stretched a banner over their roof that read, "MURDERERS." The response of the surprised couple was not to call the police, but to engage their uninvited guests in a civil dialogue, share concerns about human rights and the environment and eventually serve them tea on their front lawn. Yet, as the Moody-Stuarts apologize for not being able to provide soy milk for their vegan critics' tea, Shell Nigeria is flaring unrivaled amounts of gas, making it one of the world's single worst sources of pollution. And all the professed concerns about the environment do not spare Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other activists from being hanged for opposing Shell's environmental practices in the Niger Delta.
Nevertheless, whistleblowers from within and concerned citizens from without have begun to challenge the corporate behemoth.  Since the landmark WTO protest in Seattle, a rising wave of networked individuals and groups have decided to make their voices heard. Movements to challenge the very foundations of the corporation are afoot: The corporate charter revocation movement tried to bring down oil giant Unocal; a groundbreaking ballot initiative in Arcata, California, put the corporate agenda in the public spotlight in a series of town hall meetings; in Bolivia, the population fought and won a battle against their government's effort to the water system to Bechtel Corporation; in India nearly 99% of the basmati patent of RiceTek was overturned; and W. R. Grace and the U.S. government's patent on Neem was revoked.
As the global justice movement takes back local power, a growing re-invigoration of the concept of citizenship is taking root. It has the power to not only strip the corporation of its seeming omnipotence, but to create a feeling and an ideology of democracy that is much more than its mere institutional version.
"The Corporation" (2003) 145 min., Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott & Joel Bakan. Based on the book THE CORPORATION: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, by Joel Bakan.
http://www.thecorporation.com/

DEADLY EMBRACE: NICARAGUA, WORLD BANK & IMF
Why does Nicaragua have one of the highest foreign debts in the world? At $3000 to $4000 per capita, this debt has spawned the country's worst economic crisis. With powerful cinematography, Deadly Embrace explores how the policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have contributed to Nicaragua's crisis. (Includes sections in Spanish, with English subtitles)
"Deadly Embrace: Nicaragua, the World Bank and the IMF" (1999) 27min. Elizabeth Canner and Ashley Eames, Compas de La Primavera
For more information about the video and activist study guide, see: http://www.theconnextion.com/fsp_video1.cfm?ArtistID=135&NoFrame=Yes
To order by email, contact: lizcanner@hotmail.com
To order by phone, contact Ash Eames at (603) 764-9948.

THE END OF AMERICA
This is a stunning indictment of the sweeping policy changes enacted during the Bush Administration.   This documentary film was made in collaboration with best-selling author Naomi Wolf.  It makes a chilling case that American democracy is under grave threat. Investigating parallels between our current situation and the rise of dictators and fascism in other once-free societies, Wolf uncovers a number of deeply unsettling similarities — from the use of paramilitary groups and secret prisons to the targeted suspension of the rule of law. With this galvanizing call to action based on her recent book “Letters to a Young Patriot,” she urges regular citizens to take back our legacy of freedom and justice.  In November, voters answered the call.  But will the new President be able to undo what is actually a  half century erosion of  the American Constitution? 
http://www.endofamericamovie.com/    2008  71 min.

THE END OF POVERTY?
Poverty is not an accident.  1492 marks the birth of modern times when the conquistadors violently extracted gold and other natural resources.  Colonialism was followed by neo-colonialism and now by globalization.  Throughout , our economic system has been financed by the poor by forcing them to give up their land and access to natural resources, then through unfair trade, debt repayment and unjust taxes on labor and consumption.  This system was carefully built and maintained by the free market policies, resource monopolies and structural adjustment programs of the World Bank and the IMF.
“The End of Poverty?” skillfully interweaves all the disparate issues that go into shaping the activist agenda, not just the extreme, irreparable poverty of the Third World, but also the extreme, burgeoning wealth of the United States and Western Europe, the wars and assassinations that secure that wealth, and the destruction of the environment that accompanies it.  It effectively answers the question “Why are the people living in the richest countries in terms of resources always the poorest people in the world?”  It explains why throwing money (and volunteerism) at the problem is never going to change anything and has, in fact, been making the problem progressively worse.  Those
who want to keep throwing crumbs to the poor while the rest of us dine on cake should just ignore this message and keep doing what you're already doing.
http://theendofpoverty.com/     2008   104 min.

THE END OF SUBURBIA: OIL DEPLETION AND THE END OF AMERICAN DREAM
“The End of Suburbia” raises serious questions about the sustainability of the suburban way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, “The End of Suburbia” explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary.  Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? 
http://www.endofsuburbia.com/       78 min.

THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES
This video, by prominent Canadian filmmaker Magnus Isaacsson, investigates the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by connecting factory closures in Canada with the emergence of sweatshops in Mexico. A group of disgruntled Canadians travel south to see who has "stolen" their jobs, only to find that conditions in the maquilas in Mexico's free trade zone are appalling--despite the promises of NAFTA. Imbued with a new sense of international solidarity, the Canadian workers return home and re-open a paper plant on the premises of the old one. (Includes sections in Spanish, with English subtitles)
"The Emperor's New Clothes" (1995) 53 min. Magnus Isaacsson
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/emper.html

ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM
Based on the best-selling book by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, "Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room" is a true crime story of arrogance, intolerance, and greed by co-conspirators Kenneth Lay, Jeffery Skilling, and CFO Andy Fastnow who perpetrated one of American history's most odious business scandals. It tells the story of how Enron went from 65 billion dollars in assets to total bankruptcy in 24 days, costing investors everything and leaving thousands of employees jobless and stripped of their pension benefits. We see how the villainous powerbrokers worked behind the scenes to divert company profit to personal accounts and manipulated earnings while marketing themselves as the decade's biggest success story.
            Narrated by Peter Coyote, the exposé features insider accounts and incendiary corporate audio and videotapes that will have viewers' blood boiling.  But then it leaves with us the question whether the corruption that infected Enron was just an aberration with this one company or the tip of the corporate iceberg. 
"Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room" (2005) 109 mins. Alex Gibney
http://www.enronmovie.com/

AN ENVIRONMENTAL-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX?
The United States continues to spend vast sums on building new high-tech weapons and maintaining cold war relics, in part because military industries provide jobs in key congressional districts. Yet, as this video shows, there is a growing consensus that public funds would be better spent on finding solutions to global environmental problems. Even at home, environmental problems--from nuclear waste to water contamination--need urgent attention and require government investment.
"An Environmental-Industrial Complex?" (2000) 29 min. America's Defense Monitor
http://www.cdi.org/adm/1327/index.html

THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF WAR
The environment is not often thought of as a casualty of war, but the Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and Yugoslavian wars all left grim legacies of ecological contamination. The Environmental Impact of War shows that environmental contamination carries human costs: e.g., depleted uranium used in Desert Storm and in Yugoslavia threatens to slowly kill survivors of those wars. The defoliation of the Vietnamese jungle in the 1960s and 1970s degraded the soil and has caused flooding. The 1977 Environment Modification Convention, establishing an international protocol to protect the environment during wartime, was ratified by the U.S. in 1979, but as the film explains, the Pentagon has already violated it in the Gulf War, Yugoslavia, and elsewhere.
"The Environmental Impact of War (1999) 29 min. America's Defense Monitor
http://www.cdi.org/adm/1251/index.html

FAHRENHEIT 9/11
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore's searing examination of the Bush administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events of 9/11.  With his characteristic humor and dogged commitment to uncovering the facts, Moore considers the presidency of George W. Bush and where it has led us. He looks at how - and why - Bush and his inner circle avoided pursuing the Saudi connection to 9/11, despite the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis and Saudi money had funded Al Qaeda. Fahrenheit 9/11 shows us a nation kept in constant fear by FBI alerts and lulled into accepting a piece of legislation, the USA Patriot Act, that infringes on basic civil rights. It is in this atmosphere of confusion, suspicion and dread that the Bush Administration makes its headlong rush towards war in Iraq and Fahrenheit 9/11 takes us inside that war to tell the stories we haven't heard, illustrating the awful human cost to U.S. soldiers and their families.
http://www.fahrenheit911.com/     2004

FARMINGVILLE
Immigration has become a major issue in the U.S.  "Farmingville" documents the response of a Long Island suburb to the influx of illegal immigrants from Mexico. Anglos feel threatened by immigrants who take jobs that they don't want anyway. Others come to the defense of the immigrants who themselves seek for positive ways to relate to the larger community.  Charges and counter charges of lawlesness and racism escalate into violence that tears the community apart. This provocative, complex and emotionally charged film was a prize winner at the Sundance Film Festival.
"Farmingville" (2003) 78 min. Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini
 http://www.farmingvillethemovie.com/

FIDEL: The Untold Story
FIDEL covers forty years of the Cuban Revolution and provides a unique opportunity to consider the life of one of the most influential and controversial figures of our time. Director Estela Bravo has obtained original and unusual interviews with Castro and exclusive footage from Cuban State archives. For the first time on film, we see Fidel Castro in a more intimate light, swimming with his bodyguards, visiting his childhood home and school, joking with his friend Nelson Mandela, meeting with Elian Gonzalez, and celebrating his birthday with the Buena Vista Social Club.
     Bravo allows the story to unfold through the words of Alice Walker, Sydney Pollack, Ted Turner, Muhammed Ali, Harry Belafonte, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Congressman Charles Rangel, Ramsey Clark, Wayne Smith, and others. Family and close friends, such as the Nobel Prize winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, also offer a window into the largely unknown private life of Fidel Castro.
     Juxtaposing the personal and the anecdotal with the history of the Cuban Revolution and Castro's fight to survive the post-Soviet period and the continued U.S. embargo, this 91-minute documentary tells a story that has yet to be told on film. Without resorting to polemics, Bravo is able to surprise her audience as she reveals another side to the compelling figure of Fidel.
"Fidel: The Untold Story" (2001) 91 minutes. by Estela Bravo.
http://www.estelabravo.com/fidel/index.html

FOOD, INC.
Not for the faint of heart.
by Molly Blakemore
“You’ll never look at dinner the same way:” that’s the tag line of Food, Inc. and it is particularly true if you live in the US and you shop at a conventional grocery store.  Produced by Eric Schlosser of Fast Food Nation and directed by award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner the film is a sobering, infuriating exposé of the industrial food racket in America. 
Narrated by Schlosser and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) the film’s three parts explore factory animal farming, the consolidation of grain and commodity crops, and the corporate interests that have come to dictate food policy in Washington. 
From the window-less, overcrowded chicken coops contracted by Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods, to the manure-ridden, bacteria-breeding feedlots of Smithfield Farms, we get a horrifying look at the inhumanity and foulness of industrial animal “production”.  Down on the farm, the filmmakers give a tutorial on the market distortions caused by the commodity-heavy US Farm Bill that subsidizes soybean and corn at rates that cause massive overproduction and require ever more ingenious and scientific uses for said crops, and its influence over the American diet. And if you are not already appalled and infuriated every time you hear the word “Monsanto”, a look at what this mega-corp has done to the livelihood of Midwestern farmers and small business owners who have eschewed their “patented seed technologies” should make you run out and join the Organic Consumer’s Association in it’s Millions Against Monsanto campaign.  
At the heart of the film is the central message:  all of this is making us sick.  Whether it’s the rampant presence of E.coli in industrial meats or the high-fructose corn syrup found in everything from Coca-Cola to Salad Dressing, the film reveals the hidden costs of cheap food and the billions of dollars spent each year to conceal them.  A trip to Washington, DC illuminates the corporate control of food policy and the commandeering of such important public agencies as the FDA and the USDA. 
Food Inc. is an important film for anyone concerned with food safety, animal rights, nutrition, health or sustainability.  And it’s a must see for anyone whose New Year’s Resolution is to go veggie (it’s like a nicotine patch for the recovering meat eater).  One warning, though, in the words of Eric Schlosser, "The industry doesn't want you to know the truth about what you're eating - because if you knew, you might not want to eat it.”  You may never be able to shop in your chain grocery store again.
“Food, Inc.”   (2009)  
http://www.foodincmovie.com/

THE FUTURE OF FOOD
There is a revolution happening in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America -- a revolution that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat.
"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 by 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" (2004) 88 mins. Deborah Koons
http://www.thefutureoffood.com

GAP AND NIKE: NO SWEAT?
Nike and Gap both have strict codes of conduct for manufacturing: they claim that they do not use sweatshops or child labor. They also say they routinely "monitor" their factories, to make sure their codes are followed. But when the BBC's Panorama team visits Cambodia, they find severe breeches of these codes within days. By talking with workers and using hidden cameras, they show how one factory, used by both Gap and Nike, has sweatshop conditions and employs children. All the workers interviewed work seven days a week, often up to 16 hours a day. Children as young as 12 are employed. After these findings, Panorama goes back to speak with Gap and Nike, to hear what they have to say. They also show how U.S. companies can use sweatshops and still put "Made in the U.S.A. on the label. An eye-opening view of labor conditions in the third world and unfair industry practices.
"Gap and Nike: No Sweat?" (2000) 39 min. BBC's Panorama

GLOBAL VILLAGE OR GLOBAL PILLAGE?
Critics of globalization see a race to the bottom as corporations pressure governments to reduce laws protecting workers and the environment and poor countries compete with each other to attract transnational corporations by lowering their standards.  The gap widens between rich and poor between nations and within nations.  And who makes the rules affecting free trade?  It isn't governments, but the World Bank, IMF, and World Trade Organization – unelected technocrats who are not accountable to citizens.
These are some of the provocative views presented in the documentary "Global Village, Global Pillage".  Narrated by Ed Asner, the film features Ralph Nader, Charles Kernaghan (an anti-sweatshop activist), Thea Lee, Loretta Ross and Dennis Brutus.  They also talk about how through grassroots organizing, ordinary people can empower themselves to deal with the global economy.  People around the world are challenging corporate globalization as ordinary people empower themselves through grassroots organizing.
"Global Village or Global Pillage?" (1999) 26 min. Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello
http://www.capturedtimeproductions.com/films/global.html

GLOBALIZATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS
A well-rounded examination of globalization, this video by award-winning producers Rory O'Connor and Danny Schechter presents differing perspectives on the relation between free trade and human rights standards and regulations. Among those interviewed are international banker and philanthropist George Soros, U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Ralph Nader. The documentary contrasts the language of international corporate policies with the reality of human rights abuses caused by corporate practices.
"Globalization and Human Rights" (1998) 60 min. Rory O'Connor and Danny Schechter/PBS Frontline
http://www.globalvision.org/program/globalization/index.htm

THE GREENING OF CUBA
When trade relations with the socialist bloc collapsed in 1990, Cuba lost 80 percent of its pesticide and fertilizer imports and half of its petroleum – the mainstays of its highly industrialized agriculture.  Challenged with growing food for 11 million people in the face of the continuing U.S. embargo, Cuba embarked on the largest conversion to organic farming ever attempted.
To understand how this was accomplished, the Center for Global Justice will show the film "The Greening of Cuba."  This Food First documentary profiles Cuban farmers and scientists working to reinvent a sustainable agriculture, based on ecological principles and local knowledge rather than imported agricultural inputs.  In their quest for self sufficiency, Cubans combine time-tested traditional methods with cutting edge technology.
Told in the voices of the campesinos, researchers, and organic gardeners who are leading the organic agriculture movement, "The Greening of Cuba" reminds us that developed and developing nations alike can choose a healthier environment and still feed their people. 
"The Greening of Cuba" (1996) 38 min.  Food First video, DVD or VHS
http://www.foodfirst.org/node/1135