[CIMC-work] [Imc-chicago] A national Take Back Democracy Film Festival (fwd)

Sun Jun 13 21:44:28 PDT 2004

Forward from Los Angeles...

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_ Z  Mitchell Szczepanczyk
  /  http://home.uchicago.edu/~msszczep http://www.chicagomediaaction.org
     http://www.geocities.com/szczepanczyk http://chicago.indymedia.org

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2004 16:26:46 -0700
From: Joan Sekler <sekler at earthlink.net>
To: dick at filmsociety.org
Subject: [Imc-chicago] A national Take Back Democracy Film Festival

Hi,

Many of you have started organizing the Take Back Democracy Film 
Festival in your respective cities and communities but many more need 
to come on board and screen some of these documentaries before the 
November election. As the co-director of the award winning 
documentary "Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election", I am 
urging you to consider organizing this Take Back Democracy Film 
Festival I have put together.  All these political documentaries are 
on video--VHS, DVD, Beta SP.  You can screen a limited number of them 
or many of them. Here's the announcement.

ORGANIZE  A "TAKE BACK DEMOCRACY" FILM FESTIVAL IN YOUR CITY, TOWN, 
COMMUNITY BEFORE THE NOVEMBER PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Curator: Joan Sekler, co-director of "Unprecedented: The 2000 
Presidential Election"
                sekler at earthlink.net         
                cell: 310 968-6566

The "Take Back Democracy" film festival will educate Americans on the 
political, economic and social issues they have been confronted with 
in recent years, as well as how they have the power to control their 
future.  It will serve as an organizing tool to encourage people to 
vote and to become active in the growing movement to recapture 
democracy in America.

Within the past 2 years, several political documentaries have been 
produced which can  serve as  organizing tools to help build a mass 
movement for social change. It is up to grass roots groups, student 
organizations, church groups, peace and justice organizations, 
alternative media, cinema cafes, independent theatres, etc.  to 
organize this festival in the most convenient way for each group. In 
some cases, groups will program screenings once a week, biweekly or 
monthly.  In other cases, groups will organize screenings over 
several weekends. You can select some or all of these documentaries 
for the festival.

Each group will be responsible for contacting the filmmakers to get a 
VHS or DVD or Beta SP copy of the documentary, for handling publicity 
and doing outreach to generate an audience. Since it's an election 
year, there is heightened interest in the war, civil liberties, the 
economy, the election, so getting an audience will not be difficult 
if enough outreach is done.

Below is a list of the documentaries for the "Take Back Democracy" 
Film Festival, including a synopsis and contact information.

The Carlyle Connection  TRT: 49 min
VPRO TV, The Netherlands

This is an in-depth study of the Carlyle Group, one of the largest 
private investment banks in the world which has accumulated its 
capital mainly through investments in the defense industry.  Their 
senior advisors include George H.W. Bush and James Baker III and 
their investors include the Saudi Royal family and the Bin Laden 
family. The activities of this powerful company are revealed as the 
documentary explores the fine line between conflict of interest and a 
new way of doing global business.

Christina Berio
berio at usa.net
805 660-6044

Scenes From An Endless War  TRT: 32 min
Directed by Norman Cowie

This is an experimental video on militarism, globalization, and the 
'war against terrorism'. Part meditation, part commentary, it employs 
recontextualization,  commercial images, rewritten news crawls, and 
original footage and interviews to question received wisdom and 
common sense assumptions about current American policies. This is a 
fast paced collage of images and sounds revealing the smirks, 
distortions and lies about real and imagined enemies.

Norman Cowie
cowie at fordham.edu
212 636-7142

Bush Wars: Afghanistan and Iraq  TRT: (work in progress-ready by July)
Directed and Produced by Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brophy

These 'unembedded' filmmakers, at great risk to their lives, traveled 
to both Afghanistan and Iraq, covering the bombings and invasion by 
U.S. troops.

Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brophy
Freewillprod at freewillprod.com
818 487-2879

Shocking and Awful: A Grassroots response to the War in Iraq
Produced by Deep Dish TV Network

This series is compiled from independent footage shot from many 
locations in the U.S. and around the world. Each 30 minute program 
contains short segments organized around a specific theme.

Empire and Oil: History and power in the Middle East
Destroy, Reconstruct, Own: The economics of war and occupation
Erasing Memory: The cultural destruction of Iraq (looting of museums 
and libraries)
The Real Face of the Occupation: Daily life and frustrations in an 
occupied country
Dance of Death: The plight of U.S. soldiers in Iraq
Channels of War: The Media is the Military
National Insecurities: Stripping of civil liberties, illegal detentions
Code Pink: Women and the Movement (How the war affects the lives of women)
Global Resistance to War: The world's peoples come together to speak 
out against war.

Deep Dish TV             Dee Dee Halleck
deepdish at igc.org        dhalleck at weber.ucsd.edu
212 473-8933              845 679-2756

Independent Media In A Time of War
Produced by Hudson Mokawk Independent Media Center TRT: 29 minutes

Part scathing critique, part call to action, this documentary argues 
that dialogue is vital to a healthy democracy. Independent media has 
a crucial responsibility to go where the silence is, according to 
narrator Amy Goodman, the host of Pacifica Radio's "Democracy Now". 
She makes a compelling argument that the news media failed to 
represent the true face of war, and criticizes the phenomenon of 
"embedded reporters", which resulted in a pro-military bias in the 
U.S. media, stifling the voices of independent reporters in Iraq.

Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center
hmIMC at indymedia.org
518 286-3411

Point of Attack
Directed and Produced by Kathleen Foster TRT  46:21 minutes

This documentary chronicles the post 9/11 racial profiling, large 
scale round-ups, detentions and mass deportations of Arab, Muslim and 
South Asian men as part of the 'War on Terrorism'. The film frames 
the plight of these immigrant communities within the broader context 
of the U.S. government's 'other war' against civil liberties that is 
being waged via the USA Patriot Act.

Kathleen Foster
Pointofattack2004 at yahoo.com
212 633-9469

Unconstitutional  
Directed by Nonny de la Pena TRT  58 minutes
A Production of Public Interest Pictures and Robert Greenwald Productions

Unconstitutional details how civil liberties of American citizens 
have been infringed upon, curtailed and rolled back since 9/11---all 
in the name of National Security.  In the rush to pass the USA 
Patriot Act, the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security Department have 
engendered widespread fear leading to the subjugation of our 
constitutional rights. This film explores how detentions, 
imprisonment and police imfiltration of ordinary American's 
activities have been based on unconstitutional directives from the 
White House and the Justice Department.  The stories of individual 
detainees not only depict the frightening loss of American civil 
liberties,  but they also reveal how these Americans have been 
fighting back, resisting and winning.

Nonny de la Pena                     Earl Katz
Nonnydlp at verizon.net             ekatz123 at aol.com

What America Needs: From Sea to Shining Sea  TRT: 93 minutes
Directed and Produced by Mark Wojahn

Traveling by train from N.Y.C. to Los Angeles post 9/11, a 
documentary filmmaker asks more than 500 people from dozens of 
different communities across America "What Do You Think America 
Needs?"  The sincerity and thoughtfulness with which people responded 
makes this film a thought-provoking look at who Americans are and 
what they instinctively know. Collectively, their answers relate an 
unexpected story of hope.

Mark Wojahn
mark at whatamericaneeds.com
651 487-5375

Before You Don't Vote  TRT: 24 min
Directed and Produced by Larry Litt and Eleanor Heartney

A critical video interviewing over 50 politically involved Americans 
you won't meet everyday.  From widely diverse backgrounds, they 
comment on our democracy's past, present and future. It offers 
realistic advice about why we should participate even though politics 
and politicians are not what we want them to be.

Larry Litt
blameshow at aol.com

Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election:
(The 2004 Campaign Edition) TRT: 57 minutes
Directed and Produced by Richard Ray Perez and Joan Sekler 

This is a riveting account of how the election was stolen in Florida 
in order to capture the White House for George W. Bush. A disturbing 
picture is painted of an election marred by suspicious 
irregularities, electoral injustices, and sinister voter purges in a 
state governed by the winning candidate's brother. A new updated 
version, featuring Danny Glover, discusses the potential for voter 
fraud in November 2004, with the widespread use of computerized touch 
screen voting machines which do not produce a paper receipt.

Joan Sekler
sekler at earthlink.net
310 968-6566

Trouble in Paradise TRT 73 minutes
Directed and Produced by Laurel Greenberg

This documentary presents a real-life drama of Election 2000 and 2002 
within the chaotic landscape of Florida politics. It follows a 
diverse group of Floridians who, compelled by a sense of civic 
responsibility after the election debacle of 2000, become centrally 
involved in political issues. They volunteer on campaigns, run for 
office and sue the state, all while revisiting the unanswered 
questions of the historic election which changed their lives.

Laurel Greenberg
Laurel.Greenberg at verizon.net
617 983-1177

Invisible Ballots  TRT 58 minutes
Directed and Produced by William Gazecki

This is an in-depth expose on the current rise of the all-electronic 
computerized voting. Underneath the radar of public scrutiny, dubious 
election officials and zealous voting machine manufacturers are 
putting into service tens of thousands of touch screen voting 
machines that cannot be relied upon for accuracy or reliability in 
real elections. Voting is swiftly coming under the control of private 
corporations using secret software with little or no state or federal 
oversight. The history of these companies and the people who own them 
are rife with corruption and insider alliances. Mysterious 
unpredictable election upsets are increasing, and verified recounts 
are impossible.

William Gazecki
wgazecki at verizon.net
805 497-0685

We Interrupt This Empire  TRT: 56 min
Produced by Whispered Media

A collaborative work by the Bay Area's independent video activists 
who document the direct actions that shut down the financial district 
of San Francisco in the weeks following the U.S. invasion of Iraq. 
It also provides a critique of the corporate media coverage of the 
war and explores issues such as the military-industrial complex and 
the attack on civil liberties.

Whispered Media
wm at videoactivism.org
415 789-8484

Let My Country Awake TRT: 50 minutes
Directed and Produced by Deb Houston and Janet Fuchs

This is an intimate and moving portrait of American opposition to the 
2003 war on Iraq. Featuring prominent members of Congress, political 
activists, celebrities and concerned citizens, this film reveals 
dramatic predictions of consequences now being felt as a result of 
the Bush administration's rush to war.

Mindgarden Media
jf at mindgardenmedia.com
310 306-8559

Voices From the Movement  TRT 53 minutes
Directed and Produced by Roger Hill

 From the front lines in the anti-war movement, this documentary 
begins in New York City on February 15th, 2003 and ends in Washington 
DC on October 25th at the rally to Bring The Troops Home. It covers 
protests around the country over an 8 months period. It combines 
heartfelt statements from citizens against a backdrop of police 
repression over their first amendment rights.

Roger Hill
Rogerhill4 at hotmail.com
740 707-6611

Just An American Boy  TRT: 90 min
Directed by Amos Poe
Produced by Artemis Records

Steve Earle is of one of the greatest contemporary singer/songwriters 
in America. This concert film portrays a free spirited independent 
thinker who was vilified for his anti-war stance---"The most 
important thing to remember is, no matter what anybody tells you, it 
is never, ever unpatriotic or un-American to question anything in a 
democracy".

Michael Krumper
Artemis Records
212 433-1811

A Night Of Ferocious Joy   TRT: 60 min
Directed by David Zeiger

On May 12, 2002, before an audience of 1,800 people in the legendary 
Palace theater in Los Angeles, a disparate group of hip hop, latin 
funk, spoken word and visual artists created the first anti-war 
concert in the new millennium called ArtSpeaks! Not in Our Name. This 
concert film captures the energy and feel of what happened that night.

David Zeiger
Displaced Films
displaced @mindspring.com
323 906-9249