Notes from the AFSC Film Library

For catalogue listings and ordering information, call Paul Shannon, 617/497-5273; www.afsc.org/nero/nevlib.htm

Where are the movies with depth and meaning? In my persistent search I am frequently disappointed on Saturday nights at commercial theaters. In contrast, I am often gripped by the documentaries I watch at the AFSC video library where weekly I have been reviewing new arrivals for the past six months. After certain viewings, excited by added knowledge and perspective, I share my intensive experience with Paul Shannon, the library director, and wonder how these films for $2 a night can get wider circulation. Several films stood out:

"Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War" A powerful, compacted, and intense analysis of the civil war (1990-1995) prior to the Kosovo intervention. Maps and commentary attempt to present the complicated political events that escalated, fueled by outside powers, especially Germany and the US, to make a "brush fire" turn into a civil war. Numerous interviews with reporters, researchers, politicians, and negotiators add perspective on the brutal history. Grim war footage includes the sieges of Sarajevo and Mostar. The viewer learns how the war machine uses manipulation of the media to distort information and create propaganda. (90 mins)

"The Day After Trinity" (1980) This 88-minute video focuses on Oppenheimer's crucial role in the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, his post-war career in Washington as he advocates for international control of nuclear weapons, and finally his fall from hero to victim of the McCarthy Era. Vivid footage of the secret scientific community including testimony of his colleagues as they reflect on the meaning of their own and Oppenheimer's work which in the end created the nuclear nightmare.

"At the River I Stand" (1993) An hour-long focus on the 1968 Sanitation Worker's strike in Memphis where the demand for economic and civil rights drew national attention after violence erupted. Martin Luther King is assassinated there before a second attempt at a nonviolent march. The footage and the songs of the times are compelling. We are back in the midst of the tension, the terror, and the courage of those fighting injustice.

"Star Wars: New Hope or Phantom Menace?" (2000) A 35-minute history of the Strategic Defense Initiative, how it works(or doesn't) and political and economic(corporate controls) factors influencing its development. Questions are raised about the unrealistic and irresponsible aspects of the program. Fascinating computer diagrams of the operation make the weapon accessible in the context of the controversial opinions surrounding it.

"From Swastika to Jim Crow" (2000) A moving, hour-long tribute to the German refugee professors in the late 1930s who immigrated to the US and found jobs at black southern universities. The story is told mostly through interviews focusing on five teachers and their reminiscing on the meaningful relationships between the mentor and student.

"Snitch" (1999) Frontline 90-minute look at the permanent consequences of tough drug penalties passed in the 1980s. Because sentences can be reduced if a prisoner becomes an informer (a snitch), many with minor misdemeanors or questionable guilt are arrested by a law-enforcement apparatus bent on obtaining informers and convictions. Raises important questions concerning the swell of the prison population and the altered nature of justice. How can you tell when informants are lying?

"Star Wars Returns" (2001) Karl Grossman's report on the dangerous intent of the Bush-Cheney Administration to militarize and dominate space in order to protect US interests and investment. US Space Command Bulletins and the 2001 Rumsfield Space Commission Report assert the right of the US, as winner of the Cold War, to conduct operations in space and to deploy nuclear weapons to keep the "have nots" in line. The video emphasizes the close link between space contractors and the military, NASA, and the Pentagon, as well as Rumsfield's and Cheney's board ties to specific corporations. Detailing international opposition, the video asserts that the initiative violates the 1967 UN treaty on the demilitarization of space as well as the 1972 ABM Treaty which Pentagon spokespeople call a "relic." Commentators--who include Bruce Gagnon of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll (USN, ret.), Dennis Kucinich, Vandana Shiva, and physicist Michio Kaku--cite the dangers of the political imbalance, a new arms race, eventual war, and--with nuclear power plants in space--the probable destruction of the planet and the cosmos. (37 mins)

--Penny Adams is a social worker who volunteers weekly at the AFSC Film Library.

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