September 2004

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Highlights from the AFSC Film & Video Library

Penny Adams is a social worker and a volunteer with the AFSC Film and Video Library. Peacework intern and Oberlin -student Sarah Klinkenberg assisted by further digesting Penny's concise reviews.

The AFSC Video and Film Lending Library has been providing audio-visual programs for almost 40 years. Our collection of over 1000 films, videos, and slide shows makes us perhaps the largest lending library of programs on peace and social justice issues in the country. The video library is open to all, and is housed at the AFSC office in Cambridge, MA. A small donation is requested from borrowers, plus shipping costs. To see our full catalogue and order programs on line, visit www.afsc.org/resources/video-film.htm. You can also place your order at 617/497-5273.

The director Paul Greenwald documents, and distributes to large audiences, several remarkable videos. His newest release, Out Foxed, uncovering the deliberate bias of Fox TV news, was released too late to review in this issue. Yet his earlier work is well worth seeing.

Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election, 2002, 50 min. This program details and documents the irregularities of the Florida election crisis of 2000. The film details the deliberate conspiracy by Florida's Secretary of State Katherine Harris and the administration of Governor Jeb Bush to illegally strike thousands of African-Americans from the voter lists just prior to the election, an action which contributed significantly to Bush's presidential "victory."

Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War, 2003, 50 min. This video focuses on rebuttals to the Bush Administration's "Weapons of Mass Destruction" rationale for invading Iraq. Former CIA analysts, veterans of the diplomatic service, and arms inspectors are all shown disputing the claims made by President Bush and his administration at the UN. The film ends with members of non-governmental organizations emphasizing dissent as central to the meaning of patriotism.

Many will remember the huge -demonstrations in New York City and around the world on February 15, 2003 against the anticipated invasion of Iraq. However, even if you were in New York, because of the police blockades, you might not have made it within hearing distance of the speeches. The World Says NO to War, 2003, 55 min. is a great chance to revisit the demonstration. The film begins with segments from the demonstrations in London, Tokyo, Paris, Warsaw and Rome, before settling into its primary focus on the New York rally. The film includes interviews with a diverse array of protesters, including Harry Belafonte and Dennis Kucinich, and captures segments of speeches made by Desmond Tutu, Angela Davis, and Al Sharpton. Some footage of the tense interactions between protesters and police are included, and the film ends with speeches given by Hans Blix and Dominique de Villepin at the UN on Feb. 14, 2003.

Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death, 2003, 45 min. The search for truth and justice about the horrors of war was the engine that drove this courageous production. Why is the world court not involved?

At great risk to their lives, the filmmakers investigated the deaths of 3000 of the 8000 Taliban prisoners captured by the Northern Alliance and the US Special Forces in November 2001. The film contains footage of a fierce uprising of thousands of Taliban and their subsequent defeat. Taliban prisoners were then forced into containers without air holes. The filmmakers traveled to several mass graves, capturing haunting images of pits surrounded by bullets and scattered clothing. The Pentagon refused to be interviewed for this film. The US government has no interest in looking into this story, and international investigation is difficult due to security concerns. The grim footage, moving interviews, and intense information converge to make an excellent film.

The bad news about the war in Colombia, one of the largest recipients of US military aid, must be circulated before the situation degenerates further.

The Hidden Story: Confronting Colombia's Dirty War, 2001, 30 min presents a very different picture of the war in Colombia than you'll get on NPR or anywhere else in the mainstream US media. Here is the frightening story of the US-backed war in Colombia as of 2001, focusing on the paramilitary death squads' targeting of labor organizers, students, and peace activists, and the death squads' connections with the Colombian military. Important footage is included of the US-financed chemical spraying program which kills not only coca plants but also food crops, and creates health problems and forced displacement of farmers.

To end with a positive message, A Force More Powerful, 2000, 180 min. is an extraordinary series of 30-minute documentary films which tell 20th-century stories of how nonviolent power overcame oppression and authoritarian rule. Subjects include Gandhi's leadership of the 1930 campaign for Indian self-determination; nonviolent direct action training fueling the civil rights movement in Nashville, TN in 1960; Chile's campaign to overthrow the dictator, Pinochet, in 1983; the 1980 struggle of Solidarity in Poland for union rights and democracy; the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa in 1984; and Denmark's resistance to the Nazi occupiers in 1940.

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