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VIDEO CATALOGUE, H-Z
HARVEST OF SHAME
Presented by Dan Rather, Edward R. Murrow's HARVEST OF SHAME is among the most famous television documentaries of all time. Richly photographed and arrestingly poignant, this long-acclaimed 1960 exposé on the plight of migrant farm workers resonated deeply for a nation unfamiliar with such brutally honest depictions of living conditions that, as Murrow remarks, "wrong the dignity of man." Smartly televised to millions of Americans the day after Thanksgiving to better tap into their emotions, Murrow's indispensable classic led to permanent changes in the laws protecting workers' rights. Yet, how much have conditions really changed now nearly a half century later?
"Harvest of Shame," (1960) Edward R. Murrow, DVD, 55 min.
http://www.docurama.com/productdetail.html?productid=NV-NVG-9718
HIJACKING CATASTROPHE: 9/11, FEAR AND THE SELLING OF AMERICAN EMPIRE
True or False? The plan to invade Iraq and establish U.S. military dominance in the Middle East was made in the days immediately after September 11.
False! In fact, it was made nearly 10 years earlier at the end of the first Gulf War when the first Bush administration refused to topple the Saddam Hussein regime. It was then that Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and their fellow neocons advocated that the U.S. take advantage of the post Cold War opportunity to flex its military muscle and establish worldwide dominance. They only had to wait until the "new Pearl Harbor" (their phrase) of September 11 gave them the political opportunity they needed to press forward with their agenda.
That is the thesis of the film "Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of American Empire" being shown this week in the Snowbird Symposium. And you don't have to believe in conspiracies to believe that. It's all right there on the neocon's own website at www.newamericancentury.org. It's the smoking gun. There you will find their own documents, their policy recommendations and reports made throughout the years of the Clinton administration. It wasn't until they came back into power with the presidency of Bush the Younger, that they were able to hijack U.S. foreign policy following the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. Now their ideas are embedded in official National Security Strategy doctrine and written in the blood of thousands.
Narrated by Julian Bond, "Hijacking Catastrophe" examines how a radical fringe of the Republican Party used the trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing agenda to radically transform American foreign policy while rolling back civil liberties and social programs at home. Sobering and provocative, this documentary includes interviews with Noam Chomsky, Medea Benjamin, Daniel Ellsberg, Chalmers Johnson, Mark Crispin Miller, Norman Mailer, Benjamin Barber, Scott Ritter, Immanuel Wallerstein and others.
Don't miss this powerful expose of the cabal that now controls the most powerful state in history. You'll never be able to view the Bush administration the same way again.
"Hijacking Catastrophe" (2004), directed by by Jeremy Earp and Sut Jhally, 64 min. DVD or VHS, http://www.hijackingcatastrophe.org/
HOWARD ZINN: YOU CAN'T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN
"I had a modest goal when I became a teacher. I wanted to change the World." - Howard Zinn.
This film documents the life and times of Howard Zinn: historian, activist, and author of several classics including "A Peoples History of the United States". Archival footage, and commentary by friend, colleagues and Zinn himself.
"Howard Zinn: You Can’t be Neutral on a Moving Train" (2004) 78 minutes. By by Deb Ellis & Denis Mueller.
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.
f that sounds like a recipe for serious gloom and doom -- think again. From director Davis Guggenheim comes the Sundance Film Festival hit, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, which offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. That man is former Vice President Al Gore, who, in the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, re-set the course of his life to focus on a last-ditch, all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change. In this eye-opening and poignant portrait of Gore and his "traveling global warming show," Gore also proves himself to be one of the most misunderstood characters in modern American public life. Here he is seen as never before in the media - funny, engaging, open and downright on fire about getting the surprisingly stirring truth about what he calls our "planetary emergency" out to ordinary citizens before it's too late.
Gore pulls no punches in explaining the dire situation. Interspersed with the bracing facts and future predictions is the story of Gore's personal journey: from an idealistic college student who first saw a massive environmental crisis looming; to a young Senator facing a harrowing family tragedy that altered his perspective, to the man who almost became President but instead returned to the most important cause of his life - convinced that there is still time to make a difference.
With wit, smarts and hope, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH ultimately brings home Gore's persuasive argument that we can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue - rather, it is the biggest moral challenges facing our global civilization.
"An Inconvenient Truth " (2006) 100 mins. directed by Davis Guggenheim
http://www.climatecrisis.net/
EL INMIGRANTE
"El Inmigrante" is a documentary film that examines the Mexican and American border crisis by telling the story of Eusebio de Haro a young Mexican migrant who was shot and killed during one of his journeys north. The film presents a distinct humanitarian focus in which story and character take precedent over policy and empiricism. Towards this end "El Inmigrante" examines the perspectives of a diverse cast of players in this border narrative. A cast which includes the de Haro family, the community of Brackettville, Texas–where Eusebio was shot, members of vigilante border militias in Arizona, the horseback border patrol in El Paso, and migrants en route to an uncertain future in the United States.
"El Inmigrante" (2005) 90 mins. Dave Eckenrode John Eckenrode & John Sheedy
http://www.elinmigrantemovie.com
INVISIBLE BALLOTS
Governments are installing computerized voting systems with no paper record to verify accuracy. Elections will be controlled by companies that do not allow voters to inspect their software. If vote counting becomes privatized, there may be no way to get it back. Hightech vote fraud is already a reality.
"Invisible Ballots: A Temptation for Electronic Vote Fraud" (2004) 90 mins. DVD William Gazecki
http://www.invisibleballots.com
IRAQ FOR SALE: THE WAR PROFITEERS
This is the story of what happens to everyday
Americans when corporations go to war. Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald
(Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed and Uncovered) takes you
inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been
changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq.
Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a
killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.
Greenwald’s film exposes the long-time personal connections between the
Bush administration and the profiteers as it investigates Blackwater Security Consulting, a Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, and CACI International, finding
such travesties as truck drivers—told they would be kept out of harm’s
way—forced to drive into battle zones unprotected; the use of mercenaries for
combat operations and interrogations; and soldiers training civilians to,
ultimately, outsource their own jobs at much higher salaries so that friends
of the administration can rake in obscene profits.
"Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers" (2006) 75 mins. Robert Greenwald
http://iraqforsale.org/index.php
LETTERS FROM THE OTHER SIDE (Cartas del Otro Lado) - Spanish with English subtitles
a documentary film by Heather Courtney
"He said he would only go for a year. The morning he left, he hugged and kissed me and the children ... I never heard from him again. We found out through the television."
In May of 2003, Carmela Rico and Laura Almanza Cruz, of Pozos, Guanajuato, watched with horror the news story about the worst smuggling accident in U.S. history - their husbands, along with 17 other undocumented immigrants, suffocated in the back of a semi-trailer truck in Victoria, Texas.
In the film "Letters from the Other Side" director Heather Courtney sensitively interweaves the personal stories of four women left behind in post-NAFTA Mexico by husbands and sons working in the U.S., an aspect of the immigration issue rarely touched upon by the media or in national debates.
"After a few months of filming several families, I was about to drive back to the U.S. for a visit," says Courtney, "when one of the women asked if I would show the videos I filmed of her to her sons, undocumented immigrants working in the U.S. When I offered to shoot and bring back videos of them, I realized how messed up it was - I could visit the sons she couldn't, and shepherd messages over a border she wasn't allowed to cross."
In addition to Carmela and Laura, two other Guanajuato women, Eugenia González and María Yañez send and receive video "letters" via Courtney. The result is a complex portrait of families torn apart by economics; hopes and dreams fulfilled then broken or found empty; communities and traditions dying at the hands of globalization; and governments incapable or unwilling to do anything about it.
Carmela and Laura: The young widows send a "letter" to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security asking: "How many more deaths does it take for the U.S. government to do something? Let it be on your conscience that since our tragedy many more have died and many more will die." The U.S. bureaucrat who replies to their anguished cry delivers the usual political rhetoric. One of the most poignant scenes in the film is when Carmela flies to Houston for the trial of the smuggler, gliding through the clouds in an airplane across the border that cost her husband his life.
In an attempt to make ends meet as single mothers, the two women struggle to start a bakery but they are shell-shocked from their tragedy and frustrated with government band-aid approaches on both sides of the border. Immediately after the accident, the Mexican government donated a large oven and other heavy equipment, but they have no money to invest in supplies, and no training on the use of the machines. In the end, they bake their cakes in their family kitchen "the old-fashioned way," stepping around the hulks of the unused equipment which simply take up space.
Eugenia: Her husband left for the U.S. eight years ago and has never returned; one by one, her sons have left "for the other side," seeking work and their father. Her youngest son, Enrique, reports back that his father is living with another woman, and that he himself is afraid to return because of the increasing danger in crossing the border. At home in Apaseo, Guanajuato with her two daughters, Eugenia has tried to make a new life for herself and her two daughters, making soap and jam from nopal cactus.
In her video letter, Eugenia says to her son: "If you invite your father to watch this video, please tell him that I am very happy to have accomplished everything I have accomplished without having to rely on him at all." When she receives a video response in which he promises to return, she has conflicting feelings. She wonders who will "wear the pants," and how 7-year-old Jessica will react to the father she has never known. Yet she also knows how much it would mean to her teenaged daughter Maricruz, who hopes against hope that her father will return in time for her quinceañera (15th birthday) celebration.
María: like many campesinos, she and her husband eke out a living from their small parcel of land while their sons leave for the U.S. each year. Hers is a relentlessly hard life, made even more precarious by the decreasing prices for farm products due to the influx of cheap imports from the U.S. since NAFTA. As María and her husband grow older, it is more and more difficult for them to do the backbreaking physical labor of planting and harvesting, and they hope to leave their land to their youngest son, Julio, who is in his last year of high-school. But, like so many young men in the campo, he too is drawn by the promise of well-paying work in the U.S.
In order to make a little extra cash, María embroiders pillows which are sold at the Mujeres Productoras cooperative store in San Miguel (in the Center for Global Justice office, Calzada de la Luz #42, between Animas and Loreto). As Yolanda Millan, legal representative of Mujeres Productoras, puts it, "We hope we can create sources of income within the communities through productive projects, so that there is no need to seek work on 'the other side.'" María's video letter begins by following one of her pillows over the border into the U.S. with the American retiree who purchased it.
UPDATE NOTE: One of Maria's sons was robbed and died while crossing the border in August 2006.
"Letters from the Other Side" (2006) 74 mins. Heather Courtney
http://www.sidestreetfilms.com/
LIFE AND DEBT
If you come to Jamaica as a tourist, what you will see is the breathtaking natural beauty of the island. What you might fail to see is how the strategies for survival by individual Jamaicans are conditioned by the structural adjustment lending policies of the IMF and corporate domination through free trade. It is this post-colonial landscape that is revealed to us in the film "Life and Debt." Based on Jamaica Kincaid's award-winning book "A Small Place", the film takes us inside the day-to-day realities of the lives of not only these people on a little Caribbean island, but through them we see the lives of millions throughout the global South.
In a voice-over using lines from Ms. Kincaid's book, a subversive tour guide informs potential tourists in a soothing tone of the things that will be hidden from sight should they visit Jamaica: the sweatshops where workers make garments for the U.S. market for $30 a week and no unions are allowed and small banana farmers are forced to compete with corporate giants like Chiquita and Dole due to a U.S. complaint to the World Trade Organization. Such stories are counterpoised to scenes of overweight American tourists in a beer drinking contest. This is a reality tour that reminds you that you haven't seen a country just because you had a good time as a tourist at a five star hotel.
Yet, this film does not preach to its audience. It simply and in a calm voice shows you the effect of the crushing debt burden that has been imposed on this beautiful island and its vibrant people (there's a lot of Bob Marley music on the soundtrack to prove it). Poverty may be a familiar sight to experiences travelers. But putting it in the context of a globalization directed by the wealthy countries of the North, deepens our understanding of global injustice and why many in the South are looking for an alternative economic order.
"Life and Debt" (2001) 80 mins. Stephanie Black
http://www.lifeanddebt.org/
EL NORTE
''El Norte'' has something of the manner of a wonderful and terrible fable, being a record of the adventures of two young Guatemalan Indians, a brother and sister who must flee their mountain village after their father is murdered for antigovernment activities and their mother is imprisoned. Believing in the pictures they've seen in old copies of Good Housekeeping, which report that even the lowliest United States peons have flush toilets and TV sets and that no one is too poor not to own an automobile, they walk and ride their way north through Mexico to Tijuana and, finally, to Los Angeles.
"El Norte" (1983) 139 mins. Gregory Nava
MADE IN INDIA
Depicting a country fraught with unemployment, poverty, and the perils of liberalizing markets, this video tells the story of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), an Indian project helping poor women organize a trade union, a bank, and social welfare services. This pioneering project, defying India's male-dominated and economically rigid society, has grown into an internationally acclaimed model for rural development and women's empowerment. Plattner's powerful documentary interviews SEWA founder, Ela Bhat, and follows the development of the organization and the women who have joined it. (Includes interviews with English subtitles)
"Made in India" (1998) 52 min. Patricia Plattner
http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c488.shtml
MAQUILA: A TALE OF TWO MEXICOS
A post-NAFTA world of unrestrained economic global liberalization offers tough choices to contemporary Mexican peasants. This film tells of the confrontation in Chiapas between the Mexican army and poor farmers trying to cling to their land and Mayan culture. Some of these besieged peasants, like millions of other poor Mexicans, have migrated to Juarez, Tijuana, and other northern border cities to take low paying jobs in foreign-owned factories. In Juarez, they encounter more than poor working conditions--environmental pollution, a high cost of living, horrifying rapes and murders of young women maquila workers, and the loss of cultural roots, family, and community. This innovative documentary by award-winning filmmaker Saul Landau allows its subjects to speak for themselves, with little narration. (In Spanish, with English subtitles)
"Maquila: A Tale of Two Mexicos" (2000) 55 mins, Saul Landau and Sonia Angulo To order call: Cinema Guild, (800) 723-5522.
http://www.cinemaguild.com/catalog/catalog_latin_caribbean_studies.htm
MAQUILAPOLIS
Maquilapolis tells the story of a border city where it takes an hour of drudgework inside a poisonous factory to earn enough to buy a jug of potable water. Where it takes about two hours to earn a gallon of milk. Where factory workers find bathroom breaks are few, toxins are many, and the pressure — and intimidation — are always on. It's a place where poverty is so deep that workers are expected to be grateful for the high-end $11 a day they might earn, to give up hope of ever earning more or of ever seeking better working conditions. This daily $11 does not buy them the protection and aid of their local and national governments. Under-taxed and under-regulated factories operated by multinational corporations — usually through local middlemen — pollute residential neighborhoods with seeming impunity.
This powerful and unique film brought American and Mexican-American filmmakers together with Tijuana factory workers and community organizers to tell the story of globalization through the eyes and voices of the workers themselves — overwhelmingly women — who have borne the costs but reaped few of the benefits. The workers did not just testify on camera, they became an integral part of creating their stories on film. Two women in particular, Carmen Durán and Lourdes Luján, armed with cameras for video diaries, chronicle their struggles. The result is not only an informative and disturbing film, but also an evocative and poetic one.
"Maquilapolis" (City of Factories), 68 minutes, 2006, by Vicky Funari and Sergio de la Torre, http://www.maquilapolis.com/
MURDER ON A SUNDAY MORNING
Winner of the Academy Award for best documentary, this extraordinary French-made feature concerns a black teenager on trial for a murder he did not commit. In May 2000, Mary Ann Stephens, a sixty-five year old white tourist, was leaving a Ramada Inn in Jacksonville, Florida, with her husband when a black assailant stole her purse and shot her dead. The Jacksonville police picked up the first black youth they saw in the area -- fifteen-year-old Brenton Butler, who was out walking his dog. Everything was against Butler: the grieving husband immediately identified him as the killer, and by that evening Butler had signed a confession. Butler told his court-appointed defense attorneys, Ann Finnell and Patrick McGuinness, that he was innocent and that the confession had literally been beaten out of him by the police. Within a short time, the public defenders discovered their young client was telling the truth, and they proceeded to mount the most vigorous defense they could muster. The prosecutor and police officers who walked into court believing they had an open-and-shut case were in for a surprise. The 111-minute movie is not only riveting -- it would have taken a great dramatist to write the courtroom scenes, particularly the confrontations between police detectives and the brash, chain-smoking McGuinness -- but important. It illustrates how easily innocent people can be indicted for capital crimes, and is essential viewing for anyone interested in the fallibility of American justice.
"Murder on a Sunday Morning" (2001) DVD or VHS, 111 min., Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
http://www.docurama.com/productdetail.html?productid=NV-NVG-5603-NVG-9540
NOAM CHOMSKY: REBEL WITHOUT A PAUSE
Called "the most important intellectual alive" by The New York Times, and "a rebel without a pause" by rock-star Bono, Noam Chomsky is one of the greatest minds of the 20th Century and the world's leading voice of dissent.
In a post 9-11 world, Noam Chomsky speaks openly about the U.S. war on terrorism, media manipulation, and social activism to intimate seminar groups and crowded venues. Chomsky analyzes the roots of anti-American sentiment, defines terrorism in the new millennium, and examines the after-effects of 9-11 in honest and forthright terms, providing a critical voice that many audiences feel is missing in the world today.
Featuring candid interviews with his wife and tour manager, Carol Chomsky, as well as activists, fans, and critics REBEL WITHOUT A PAUSE is a timely, must-see film that offers an alternative voice and explores the truths and myths about the most important intellectual of our time.
"Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without A Pause" (2003) DVD, 75 min. + 40 min. extra Will Pascoe
http://www.docurama.com/productdetail.html?productid=NV-NVG-9699
OUTFOXED
"Outfoxed" examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know.
The film explores Murdoch's burgeoning kingdom and the impact on society when a broad swath of media is controlled by one person.
Media experts, including Jeff Cohen (FAIR) Bob McChesney (Free Press), Chellie Pingree (Common Cause), Jeff Chester (Center for Digital Democracy) and David Brock (Media Matters) provide context and guidance for the story of Fox News and its effect on society.
This documentary also reveals the secrets of Former Fox news producers, reporters, bookers and writers who expose what it's like to work for Fox News. These former Fox employees talk about how they were forced to push a "right-wing" point of view or risk their jobs. Some have even chosen to remain anonymous in order to protect their current livelihoods. As one employee said "There's no sense of integrity as far as having a line that can't be crossed."
"Outfoxed" (2004) 77 min. Robert Greenwald
http://www.outfoxed.org
THE PANAMA DECEPTION
The 1989 invasion of Panama was touted as a swift and successful military action to remove a "narcoterrorist," General Noriega, from power and to restore democracy to this strategically important country. But what was the real U.S. agenda? Winner of the 1993 Academy Award for best documentary, this film recounts the untold story of the invasion, the enormity of death and destruction, and the collaborative efforts by Washington and the mainstream media to suppress information about this foreign policy disaster. The documentary includes never-before-seen footage and brilliantly juxtaposes factual historical analysis with statements by both proponents and opponents. (Includes sections in Spanish, with English subtitles)
"The Panama Deception" (1992) 120 min. Barbara Trent, Empowerment Project
http://www.empowermentproject.org/pages/panama.html
THE POWER OF COMMUNITY: HOW CUBA SURVIVED PEAK OIL
When Cuba lost access to Soviet oil in the early 1990s, the country faced an immediate crisis –feeding the population – and an on-going challenge: how to create a new low-energy society. Cuba transitioned from large, fossil fuel intensive farming to small, less energy-intensive organic farms and urban gardens, and from a highly industrial society to a more sustainable one – a transition we may all have to make as the world reaches peak oil.
"The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" (2006) 53 min., DVD or VHS, Community Solution
www.communitysolution.org/cuba
RISING WATERS: GLOBAL WARMING & THE FATE OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS
The islands of the South Pacific are home to 7 billion people, exotic tropical fish, and many unique ecosystems, including coral reefs. However, over the last few years, these low-lying islands have begun to disappear, as increased global warming causes a rise in both water temperatures and sea levels. The tiny island of Bikeman, part of the Kiribas Federation, was the first to be submerged. Other islands in the Kiribas are threatened, as are the Marshall and the Samoan islands. This outstanding documentary examines how a hundred years of greenhouse gas emissions are now wreaking havoc on our oceans. It depicts the efforts made by people in Fiji and the Marshall Islands to safeguard their land. They confront the fossil fuel lobby, which is fighting both in the U.S. and in international forums to block measures necessary to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"Rising Waters: Global Warming and the Fate of the Pacific Islands" (2000) 56 min. Andrea Torrice/Bullfrog Films
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/rw.html
THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO
"The Road to Guantanamo" is the terrifying first-hand account of three British citizens who were held for two years without charges in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They were eventually returned to Britain and released. Part documentary, part dramatization, this story of their chilling ordeal illustrates the gross violations of human rights that has become a hallmark of the Bush administration.
"The Road to Guantanamo" (2006) Michael Winterbottom
http://www.roadtoguantanamomovie.com/
ROMERO
"Romero" is a true story of Catholic priest Archbishop Oscar Romero (played by Raul Julia in the performance of his life), during the political unrest in El Salvador in the late 1970s. Initially selected by the church as a soft, safe candidate for Archbishop, Romero surprised everyone by speaking out against the violence of the government's terror campaign against the guerillas in an attempt to crush them. This is an intensely moving film that portrays Romero's painful and conflicted transformation to a champion of the poor and the oppressed after seeing his fellow priests murdered and tortured by the country's brutal, repressive government. Eventually, his principled stand for the teachings of Christ led to his assassination in 1980 while blessing the wine during Mass. "Romero" was selected by Arts & Faith as one of the 100 most "Spiritually Significant Films" ever made.
"Romero" (1989) 102 min. John Duigan
http://www.amazon.com/Romero-John-Duigan/dp/B00004W203
SEWING OUR FUTURE
Why has the U.S. government used taxpayers' money to help American companies move overseas? How has this affected American factory workers? This video compares working conditions in El Salvador and the U.S. and argues that U.S. government policies should protect--not export--American workers' jobs. Reflecting the views of the U.S. garment workers unions, this documentary questions the one-sidedness of free trade agreements and gives constructive suggestions for future labor organizing. (Includes sections in Spanish, with English subtitles)
"Sewing Our Future" (1993) 30 min. Rhian Miller and Patrice O'Neill, The Working Group Contact to order via email: wedothework@igc.org or rmiller@theworkinggroup.org
SILENT SENTINELS
1998 was designated "International Year of the Oceans." It turned out to be the year that coral reefs--the jewels of the ocean--began to die. This film, produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, documents the unprecedented mass bleaching of coral reefs now occurring in the world's tropical oceans. It shows how slight rises in sea temperatures have severely damaged hundreds of miles of coral coastline. This bleaching is widely viewed as unequivocal proof that global warming has begun and that its impact will be greater than had been previously predicted. Rafe Pomerance, a key U.S. global warming negotiator, has called Silent Sentinels "the most important movie on global warming to date."
"Silent Sentinels" (1999) 57 min. Richard Smith, Bullfrog Films
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/ssppso.html
SIR! NO SIR!
Sir! No Sir! energetically reveals the untold story of the GI movement to end the war in Vietnam. This is the story of one of the most vibrant and widespread upheavals of the 1960s – one that had a profound impact on American society, yet has been virtually obliterated from the collective memory of that time.
By the Pentagon's own figures, 503,926 "incidents of desertion" occurred between 1966 and 1971; officers were being "fragged"(killed with fragmentation grenades by their own troops) at an alarming rate; and by 1971 entire units were refusing to go into battle in unprecedented numbers. In the course of a few short years, over 200 underground newspapers were published by soldiers around the world; local and national antiwar GI organizations were joined by thousands; thousands more demonstrated against the war at every major base in the world in 1970 and 1971, including in Vietnam itself. This hidden history combines fast-paced archival footage with thoughtful interviews, "perfectly timed with new doubts about the Iraq War"
"Sir! No Sir!" (2005) David Zeiger
http://www.sirnosir.com/
THE SIXTH SUN: MAYAN UPRISING IN CHIAPAS
This award-winning documentary by IPS fellow Saul Landau interweaves Mayan and Mexican history with the contemporary struggle of the Zapatista Liberation Army in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Through the voices of the movement's leaders, supporters, and negotiators--including subcomandantes Marcos and Elise and Bishop Samuel Ruiz, (dubbed "The Red Bishop")--this film chronicles the major events since the Zapatista uprising began on January 1, 1994. It also traces the history of how, beginning in the 1980s, Zapatista guerrillas organized in the mountains of Chiapas, consolidating their ideology and physical strength in preparation for their New Years' Day uprising that shook the world. This peasant uprising has challenged both the Mexican government's revocation of indigenous communal land rights and its joining the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Following the movement with footage from the initial San Cristobal attack to the arrival of government troops in Chiapas and an international convention held in the heart of the jungle, this dramatic and at times humorous documentary traces the growth of a tiny regional movement into an internationally influential struggle for economic, political, and social rights. (English subtitles for Spanish interviews)
"The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas" (1997) 60 min. Saul Landau and Meredith Burch, To order call: Cinema Guild, (800) 723-5522.
http://www.cinemaguild.com/catalog/catalog_latin_caribbean_studies.htm
SWEATING FOR A T-SHIRT
Do you know where your clothes are made? Do you bother to look at the label when you buy merchandise at a store? This video shows the journey of one UCLA student to Honduras, where she soon learns exactly where her college clothing is being made, and the conditions that prevail among the sweatshops. She speaks with local workers and human rights activists, who tell of the unhealthy conditions and unfair labor practices the workers live with. These workers earn only $3.50 a day in countries where the basic cost of living is $8 a day. At the end, we see Brown students who have just forced their administration to adopt fair labor standards for the production of clothing bearing their university logo. A great video to show students that something can and must be done.
"Sweating for a T-shirt" (1998) 23 min. Global Exchange
http://store.gxonlinestore.org/sweating.html
THIRST
Water: commodity or human right?
Water is one of the most precious sources of life. But is it part of a shared "commons," a human right for all people? Or is it a commodity to be bought, sold, and traded in a global marketplace? Water is becoming "blue gold," the oil of the 21st century. Global corporations are rushing to gain control of this dwindling natural resource, producing intense conflict in the US and worldwide where people are dying in battles over control of water.
The documentary film "Thirst" opens with politicians, international bankers, and corporate executives deciding who will control global fresh water supplies. Their consensus for large dams and privatized, corporate water systems is challenged by experts and activists who assert that water is a human right, not a commodity to be traded on the open market.
The people of Cochabamba, Bolivia fought successfully to reverse the privatization of their water after the government had sold it to Bechtel Corporation. The struggle even toppled the national government in 2003 and helped set the stage for the election of Bolivia's first indigenous President, Evo Morales.
The central story in "Thirst" takes place in Stockton, California, where the mayor proposed giving control of the water system to a consortium of global water corporations. Worried about price hikes, water quality, and layoffs of public employees, who tend to be women or people of color, Stockton residents created a new grassroots coalition to demand a say in the decision.
Meanwhile, across the United States, multinational water companies continue to campaign for new contracts, but have been put on the defensive by the collapse of contracts in Atlanta and Puerto Rico and popular challenges in many other cities.
In Rajasthan, India, a charismatic local "Gandhi" is leading a poor people's movement for water conservation that has revived rural life. But it's an achievement that would be swept away by government plans, under pressure from the World Bank, to build large hydroelectric dams and privatize communal water sources, selling them to Coke and Pepsi.
In Uruguay voters headed off any privatization efforts by voting last fall to amend their constitution, making water a human right.
"Thirst" (2004) 62 min. DVD Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman
http://www.thirstthemovie.org/order.html
TIME-BOMB: AMERICA'S DEBT CRISIS
Time-Bomb is a powerful new documentary that exposes George W. Bush's faith-based, supply-side economics for what it is: nothing more than pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking that threatens to bring down the U.S. economy in a pile of dust. It shows how Bush squandered a $5 trillion government surplus and now runs record deficits in one of the greatest miscalculations in human history. A distinguished array of economic experts, activists, statesmen, and business executives explain why the threat to the nation is more real than most of us have dared imagine.
Produced by the American Fiscal Responsibility Campaign, a bipartisan effort designed to raise awareness of America's debt crises and put pressure on our leaders to address these crises.
"Time-Bomb: America's Debt Crisis" DVD, 30 min. John F. Ince, The American Fiscal Responsibility Campaign
http://www.time-bomb.org/
TRADING DEMOCRACY
Bill Moyers, one of the world's most respected journalists, reveals how NAFTA'S Chapter Eleven clause can cost U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars when multinational corporations sue the government over environmental and health laws that threaten their profits.
Speaking with legislators, public policy experts, community leaders, and citizens about the lawsuits filed under NAFTA's Chapter Eleven, Moyers unravels the hidden repercussions of a treaty that was supposed to promote democracy through free trade, but now appears to have given deep-pocketed corporations the means to undermine democracy across international borders.
The program explores the case of Methanex, a Canadian company that is the world's largest producer of the key ingredient in the gasoline additive MTBE, which was found to be a carcinogen. In 1995 MTBE began turning up in wells throughout California, and by 1999 had contaminated thirty public water systems. The state ordered that the additive be phased out. Methanex filed suit under NAFTA's Chapter Eleven, seeking $970 million in compensation for loss of market share and future profits. Environmental attorney Martin Wagner tells Moyers, "they're saying that California either can't implement this protection or that they get a billion dollars. People should be outraged by that."
Moyers also takes his investigation to the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí, where an American company called Metalclad tried to bulldoze over the protests of both state and local governments to reopen a toxic waste dump that many citizens feared was making them sick. When Metalclad was stopped by the local town council the company invoked Chapter Eleven and was awarded $16 million in compensation.
"Bill Moyers Reports: Trading Democracy"
http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/tradingdemocracy.html
transcript at http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_tdfull.html
TURNING DOWN THE HEAT: THE NEW ENERGY REVOLUTION
Global warming is no longer a debatable issue: the world must stop using fossil fuels that destroy the environment. This film looks at new sources of energy that are already being effectively used around the world, from Holland to Japan, to India and beyond. This film shows the many energy alternatives out there, and how they could quickly pay for themselves, saving governments money and rescuing our environment. All that is needed is the political will.
"Turning Down the Heat: The New Energy Revolution" (1999) 46 min. Jim Hamm Productions
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/tdth.html
TWO TREVORS GO TO WASHINGTON
Two South Africans with very different economic views meet at the IMF/World Bank meetings and protests in April 2000. One Trevor is an official inside the IMF and World Bank. The other is a government official from Johannesburg who has joined the protests in the streets. Through the eyes of these two Trevors, both elected officials of the South African government, we see the debate over "structural adjustment programs" of the IMF and World Bank at an international level. The film then goes on to show the devastating social and economic effects of these policies in South Africa. It is not hard to see why the people are beginning to rise up to protest against these international institutions.
"Two Trevors go to Washington" (2000) 20min. Ben Cashdan
http://www.gxonlinestore.org/twotrevors.html
Viva Zapata!
Nearly a century after the Mexican Revolution, the turmoil that so transformed this country still reverberates. But of all those whose deeds made history, none is more alive today than Emiliano Zapata. This campesino from Morelos fought for land and liberty –a cry still heard today from those who have resurrected his name to struggle against neo-liberalism and for indigenous rights.
Marlon Brando received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Zapata and Anthony Quinn received an Oscar for his supporting role. John Steinbeck also got an Oscar nomination for the screenplay. Directed by Elia Kazan and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, this 1952 film may take some liberties with the facts in romanticizing Zapata, but it does focus on the corruptive influence of power.
"Viva Zapata!" (1952) 113 min. black & white, Elia Kazan
http://www.amazon.com
VOICES FROM THE FIELDS
This video describes how changes in agricultural production are driving many Mexican peasants to the cities or to the United States in search of work. The introduction of tractors, credit, and cattle are only some of the "modernizations" that are eroding traditional campesino economic activities, while increasing use of chemicals, insecticides, and fertilizers are harming both humans and the environment. Voices from the Fields showcases a new method of farming--agroecology--that attempts to find a balance between nature and production. (In Spanish with English subtitles)
"Voices from the Fields" (1997) 45 min. Selena Jaramillo and Ulla Nilsen, Cinema Guild
To order, call: Cinema Guild, (800) 723-5522.
http://www.cinemaguild.com/catalog/catalog_latin_caribbean_studies.htm
WAL-MART: THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE
When has a single private company driven scores of small stores out of business and turned main streets into ghost towns? When has an employer encouraged its employees to go on public assistance for their health care? When has a single store so sapped the tax base of a whole town that it can no longer provide essential services? When has a single company added so much to an entire nation's foreign indebtedness by importing cheap goods from abroad? The answer is –when it is Wal-Mart.
Here's another question. When has a single documentary movie so effectively exposed such a company that scores of state legislatures are discussing new laws to make it more socially responsible? When has a film caused such a public stir that the largest company in the world spends millions and millions of dollars in publicity to patch up its image? When has a film moved people from coast to coast (and even here in Mexico) to mount picket lines protesting the building of a new store in their community? When has a film done so much to change the world? The answer is –when it's Robert Greenwald's documentary "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price."
While we knew the story of Sam Walton's small business growing into the number one retailer on the globe, we probably didn't know how much it violated the basic American values that he professed. "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" lays it all out to us through the personal stories of Wal-Mart employees –"Associates" – who face retaliation for speaking out, stories of businessmen driven into bankruptcy, former Wal-Mart managers who reveal company practices, local leaders struggling to grapple with the impact of Wal-Mart on their community. It will make you want to ask, what would happen if a Wal-Mart, or a Wal-Mart clone, were to come to San Miguel de Allende?
Director/producer Robert Greenwald has a number of other hard-hitting documentaries to his credit: "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdock's War on Journalism" (2004), "Unconstitutional" (2004), "Uncovered: The Iraq War" (2003), and "Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election" (2002). Where there is an important social issue, Greenwald will have his cameras there. Most recently he has done two series: "The ACLU Freedom Files" and "The Sierra Club Chronicles." Greenwald is an activist filmmaker of the first order.
"Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" (2005) 98 min. Robert Greenwald, Brave New Films
http://www.walmartmovie.com/
WHAT I'VE LEARNED ABOUT U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
In this video, ten segments from a range of documentary and media sources are brought together to unravel the atrocities committed upon the Third World by the U.S., via the CIA, the Pentagon, America's corporate culture, and the mainstream press. Frank Dorrel's montage takes an in-depth look at some of the most heinous crimes of U.S. foreign policy through the eyes of some of the most important and influential figures in contemporary history. Included in his video are speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Stockwell, the former CIA chief in Angola in the 1970's; clips from documentaries such as Bill Moyers' 1987 PBS documentary "The Secret Government," an overview of CIA covert ops, and "School of Assassins" a film on the SOA narrated by Susan Sarandon; and many more insightful segments on U.S. government conspiracies, from the Iran-Contras affair and sanctions in Iraq, to our invasion of Panama and the CIA's involvement in the deaths of some six million people in the Third World.
"What I've Leaned About U.S. Foreign Policy" (2002) 2 hours, Frank Dorrel
Available for $10.00 on http://www.addictedtowar.com
WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A Requiem in Four Acts
As the world watched in horror, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Like many who watched the unfolding drama on television news, director Spike Lee was shocked not only by the scale of the disaster, but by the slow, inept and disorganized response of the emergency and recovery effort. Lee was moved to document this modern American tragedy, a morality play witnessed by people all around the world. This intimate, heart-rending portrait of New Orleans in the wake of the destruction tells the heartbreaking personal stories of those who endured this harrowing ordeal and survived to tell the tale of misery, despair and triumph.
The film also looks at a community that has been through hell and back, surviving death, devastation and disease at every turn. Yet, somehow, amidst the ruins, the people of New Orleans are finding new hope and strength as the city rises from the ashes, buoyed by their own resilience and a rich cultural legacy.
To make the film, Lee visited the Gulf Coast region nine times and interviewed more than 100 people, including the mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana, Sean Penn, Soledad O'Brien, Kanye West, engineers, historians, journalists, radio DJs—even the guy who spotted the vice president during a post-Katrina photo-op and told him, "Go f--- yourself, Mr. Cheney." Critics have called When the Levees Broke the most essential work of Lee’s 20-year career.
Act I covers the storm's arrival; Act II chronicles the failure of the emergency response; Act III follows an abandoned community coming to grips with all that it lost, and Act IV addresses the halting, haphazard effort to begin again. But images and ideas echo through each act like a fugue. Lee's voice is rarely heard; he lets the people of New Orleans and Terence Blanchard's thundering brass score, dizzy with grief, do the speaking for him. We all know that our government failed us when Katrina hit. What Lee most importantly reveals is how it continues to fail fellow Americans in the Gulf Coast — race be damned — to this day.
"When the Levees Broke", 4 hours and 36 minutes, 2006, by Spike Lee. Available via Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/When-Levees-Broke-Spike-Lee/dp/B000J10F14
WHEN THE MOUNTAINS TREMBLE
The film that shook audiences and critics alike upon its original theatrical release, this revolutionary tour-de-force and Sundance Film Festival winner is now available for the first time on DVD. Digitally remastered to commemorate its 20th Anniversary, this special edition chronicles the astonishing story of one woman who stood up for her people and helped wage a rebellion in the wake of seemingly unconquerable oppression.
Shot at the height of a heated battle between the heavily-armed Guatemalan Military and a nearly defenseless Mayan population, filmmakers Pamela Yates and Newton Thomas Sigel threw themselves into the center of a storm to capture live combat footage with a surprisingly robust passion and exhilarating flair. As the first film to depict this previously unreported war, it is firmly anchored by the firsthand accounts of Rigoberta Menchú, a Quiché Indian woman known around the world for her humanitarian efforts. Throughout the imminent chaos and danger, Menchú provides courage and optimism in a time where death squads kill without conscience and an oppressive dictator seizes power.
Updated after Menchú was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, WHEN THE MOUNTAINS TREMBLE includes a compelling filmmaker commentary as well as a never-before-seen forward from Susan Sarandon and an illuminating epilogue reflecting on the country's events a decade later.
"When the Mountains Tremble" DVD, 90 min.
http://www.docurama.com/productdetail.html?productid=NV-NVG-9618
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?
In 1996, electric cars began to appear on roads all over California. They were quiet and fast, produced no exhaust and ran without gasoline...........Ten years later, these cars were gone. EV1 was a well-intentioned soul that was in the right place at the right time, but was surrounded by the wrong people. So, who killed the electric car? Possible suspects include consumers, oil companies, car manufacturers, government and even the Hydrogen Fuel Cell car. Chris Paine's who-done-it tells the whole tale with humor. It's a dirty story about a clean car.
"Who Killed the Electric Car?" (2006) 92 min.
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/
WHY WE FIGHT
"Why We Fight" is a compelling documentary about the U.S. war machine. Directed by Eugene Jarecki, the film examines the extent to which the "military-industrial complex" (a term coined by President Dwight Eisenhower in his 1961 farewell speech warning about the permanent establishment of an arms industry) not only profits from war, but also becomes a force that makes war happen. With the use of graphic war footage, a visit to a weapons trade show, and interviews with politicians, ordinary citizens, and retired military officers, Jarecki dispels the notion advanced by Presidents Johnson, Reagan, and Bush, that America has been a force for peace in the world. Instead what we see is a militaristic nation in which capitalism is at war with democracy—and capitalism is winning.
"Why We Fight" was selected as the Best American Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.
"Why We Fight" (2005) 98 min., DVD
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/main.html
WINTER SOLDIER
In February 1971, one month after the revelations of the My Lai massacre, an astonishing public inquiry into war crimes committed by American forces in Vietnam was held at a Howard Johnson motel in Detroit. The Vietnam Veterans Against the War organized this event called the Winter Soldier Investigation. More than 125 veterans spoke of atrocities they had witnessed and committed.
Though the event was attended by press and television news crews, almost nothing was reported to the American public. Yet, this unprecedented forum marked a turning point in the anti-war movement. It was a pivotal moment in the lives of young vets from around the country who participated, including the young John Kerry. The Winter Soldier Investigation changed him and his comrades forever. Their courage in testifying, their desire to prevent further atrocities and to regain their own humanity, provide a dramatic intensity that makes seeing Winter Soldier an unforgettable experience.
The fact that this process of truth-telling was not respected and honored as a part of the experience of these soldiers is one of the reasons that the subject of the war in Vietnam continues to be misunderstood and misrepresented. This is a very disturbing film about the making of war, the making of young men into killers, the bringing of our society into acceptance of a war against people of a different color, a different culture, all the way around the globe. It brings to the surface of consciousness questions that must be confronted and asked again as our country is again sending off soldiers to die and to kill."
“Winter Soldier”, Milestone Film & Video, 96 minutes http://www.wintersoldierfilm.com/
WTO: IN WHOSE HANDS?
This video examines--from a feminist and humanist perspective--the inequalities caused by WTO policies. It proposes that women around the world must not only protest the inequalities to which they bear witness but must also learn the fundamentals of economics in order to help their local communities fight the devastating effects of "free" trade.
"WTO: In Whose Hands?" (2000) 20 min. /United Methodist Women/Service Center. For more information about the video and study guide, see: http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/wto.html and http://www.gbgm-umc.org/umw/service.html
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