[CIMC-work] Re: Argentina screenings & video update

[matt]

OK, we *definitely* have to collaborate with these 'eye of the storm'
folks.  I've seen 'La Bisagra de Historia' & one of the piquetero
videos.  they are exactly the kind of stuff I was scrambling to get in
Chicago for us & which must must must be shown in the US.  we should
work on promoting this bilingually across the city, especially in
Wicker Park, Humboldt Park, Logan Square, & Pilsen.

and when these Argentine filmmakers come to Chi we also gotta be sure
to get copies of every tape in their library:

*******
Video Library:
This is a list of what we have right now and will be bringing with us.
Hopefully the list will grow.

-Indymedia Argentina Compilation One *120 min
 9 short videos from several different video collectives. Subjects
range from Zannon- South America's largest tile factory- (worker 
occupied and controlled) to the uprisings of last year.

-Indymedia Argentina Compilation Two *52 min
 Three shorts documenting the movements of the Unemployed- including 
an in-depth piece which documents the assassination of two piqueteros 
during a demonstration in June of 2002. (With Subtitles)

-Vente Veo Video Compilation *60 min
 A Very creative and interesting series of shorts. Startling footage 
of the 19th and 20th, to a two part docu-drama involving street 
theater clowns intent on blowing up the Pink House with a paper-mache
bomb. (Partially subtitled)

- Contra Imagen *60 min
Various works which look at the rise of worker controlled factories 
in the country.

- Indymedia Brazil *30 min
Two shorts.  One documents the anti-FTAA demonstrations in Sao Paulo 
and the repression that followed. The other is a short about a 
autonomous settlement in the outskirts of San Paulo by 8,000 homeless 
families.

--Indymedia Belo Horizonte
A video about the work of a CMI Porto Alegre [Brazil], who does media 
workshops with the MST and poor people of local favelas. 
12 minutes (English subtitles)
********


in other video news...


1) CrimethInc. has a 2.5 hour tape on that Cascadia crew & the Eugene
scene which we can order post-paid for $12
http://www.crimethinc.com/fmp/


2) the BBC-banned documentary about nuclear war that I mentioned is
available at Facets.  a whopping $30 to purchase {that's over 60 cents
a minute...}, but if someone has a membership we could just rent it.  
"War Game" directed by Peter Watkins, 1965/6. 
here's what the Brits have to say-
http://www.bfi.org.uk/videocat/more/wargame/

and here's what Watkins has to say himself about the banning-
"The BBC [who had funded & arranged the project originally] panicked
when they first saw the film, and sought government consultation re
showing it. They subsequently denied this, but the sad fact remains
that the BBC violated their own Charter of Independence, and on
September 24, 1965, secretly showed ‘The War Game’ to senior members of
the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Post Office (in charge of
telecommunications), a representative of the Military Chiefs of Staff,
and Sir Burke Trend, Secretary to Harold Wilson’s Cabinet.
Approximately six weeks later, the BBC announced that they were not
going to broadcast the film on TV - and denied that their decision had
anything to do with the secret screening to the government. To this
day, the BBC formally deny that the banning of ‘The War Game’ was due
to pressure by the government, but a review of now available documents
reveals that there was (is) much more to this affair than was admitted
publicly."

Watkins ended up being hounded out of the English film industry & spent
the next 35 years working around the world.  He lived in Lithuania
until recently moving to Canada to retire from filmmaking after
fighting tooth and nail all his life -

<<"I have no doubt," Watkins continued, "that had TV taken an
alternative direction during the 1960s and 1970s and worked in a more
open way, global society today would be vastly more humane and just." 

His thesis, which few honest citizens can quarrel with, is that there
has been an "accumulation of global media power with no accountability
that is not only not being challenged but is not even being debated".
>>


3) I've emailed a couple of groups in Australia & one 'labour'
organization in England inquiring about obtaining copies of the
infamous "Woomera video".  I've seen this twice & it's an incredible 40
minutes.  In March or April of 2002 roughly 1,000 activists surrounded
a "detention center" for refugees out in the baking middle of the
Australian desert & *literally* pulled the chain-link & razor-wire
fence down, allowing a handful of prisoners to escape in the crowd. 
these individuals were smuggled back to Australian cities where they
finally had a chance to tell their 'Camp X-Ray'-style story to the
public.  the issues raised - Borders, the construction of
race/refugee/citizen, all very much apply, in my mind, to the USA & I
really think it needs to be shown in Chicago.
[here's a still - http://www.antimedia.net/nooneisillegal/ ]


4) I realize everything's crazy right now with the war footing, but I
have a tentative proposal for a massive Haymarket May Days screening:

 5+ hours of revolutionary cinema on the Paris Commune of 1871.  and I
do not use that adjective lightly.  trust me, this is not some dry
ISO/Trokysist etc etc bullshit.  this is instead quite simply one of
the most powerful experiments in film I have ever experienced, & it's a
remarkably appropriate fit for an IMC benefit screening.  indymedia.nl
showed it in Amsterdam & sold out every seat in the theater after
putting up posters in a few squats & university stairwells.  you screen
it in 2 parts, but we'd still need a venue with comfy chairs.  serving
beer/wine & making a potluck / Food Not Bombs 'halftime' chowdown would
also be good ideas.  

would anyone be interested in doing this?  if so I'll post a message
with more detail on the movie.  
[I'm already working on obtaining an NTSC-VHS copy for myself, so
availability should be cool]


sorry for the long post,
matt

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