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The third part of the Eyes Wide Open Film Series concluded in June 2006.
See the current program for Part XI, running every other Thursday through May 2010.
Eyes Wide Open Film Series, Part III
The USC4P&J documentary films series, Eyes Wide Open, continues with a third series of films every other Wednesday through June 2006.
Films will be screened at Linux Club (Ostiense near the ex Mercati generali - see map and directions) starting at 8pm with a discussion to follow.
There is no charge for the screenings though donations to help cover costs of DVDs and shipping are greatly appreciated. Linux Club requires an annual membership card at 5 Euro/year.
Space is limited - arrive early in order to guarantee a seat.
The program for the series through June is as follows:
Jan 12 - Peace Propaganda and the Promised Land: U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported.
Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how--through the use of language, framing and context--the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied
territories
appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one. The documentary also explores the ways that U.S. journalists, for reasons ranging from intimidation to a lack of thorough investigation, have become complicit in carrying out Israel's PR campaign. At its core, the documentary raises questions about the ethics and role of journalism, and the relationship between media and politics.
Jan 26 - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
An extraordinary documentary by Irish
filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha O’Briain, who by happenstance were able to document the events surrounding the April 2002 coup d’état against democratically elected President Chávez of Venezuela. The filmmakers were able to remain in the presidential palace in Venezuela and document while opposition forces violently overtook the government and dismantled Venezuela’s pillar democratic institutions, including the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, the Constitution and the offices of the Ombudsman and Attorney General. They were also present 48 hours later when, remarkably, he returned to power amid cheering aides. Their film records what was probably history's shortest-lived coup d'état.
It's a unique document about political muscle and an extraordinary portrait of the man The Wall Street Journal credits with making Venezuela "Washington's biggest Latin American headache after the old standby, Cuba." The film also exposes the atrocious human rights violations committed with the purpose of executing the coup successfully.
Feb 09 - Life and Debt
Jamaica — land of sea, sand and sun. And a prime example of the impact economic globalization can have on a developing country. Using conventional and unconventional documentary techniques, this searing film dissects the "mechanism of debt" that is destroying local agriculture and industry while substituting sweatshops and cheap imports. With a voice-over narration written by Jamaica Kincaid, adapted from her book A Small Place, Life and Debt is an unapologetic look at the "new world order," from the point of view of Jamaican workers, farmers, government and policy officials who see the reality of globalization from the ground up.
A woven tapestry of sequences focusing on the stories of individual Jamaicans whose strategies for survival and parameters of day-to-day existence are determined by the U.S. and other foreign economic agendas. By combining traditional documentary telling with a stylized narrative framework, the complexity of international lending, structural adjustment policies and free trade will be understood in the context of the day-to-day realities of the people whose lives they impact.
Director: Stephanie Black Run time: 86 minutes Web site:Life and Debt
Feb 23 - 500 Years Later
Crime, drugs, HIV/AIDS, poor education, inferiority complex, low expectation, poverty, corruption, poor health, and underdevelopment all plague people of African decent globally. Why? 500 years from the onset of slavery and subsequent colonialism, Africans are still struggling for basic freedoms. Why?
Filmed in five continents, 500 Years Later examines the collective atrocities that uprooted Africans from their culture and homeland. 500 Years Later is a timeless and compelling journey, infused with the spirit and music of liberation that chronicles the struggle of a people who have fought and continue to fight for the most essential human right – freedom.
"Until lions tells their tale, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter" -- African proverb
Director/Producer: Owen 'Alik Shahadah Run time: 106 minutes Web site:500 Years Later
Mar 16 - Aristide and the Endless Revolution
One hour away from Miami the elected President of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation was twice removed from office with the complicity of the international community. “Aristide and the Endless Revolution” is a feature documentary that explores through investigative lenses the events that led to the removal of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the democratically elected President of Haiti. Filmmaker Nicolas Rossier takes the viewer into a journey of political intrigues, armed criminals posing as freedom fighters and economic fiascos. What emerges is a young democracy being constantly tested and ultimately destroyed.
The film features renown physician and anthroplogist Paul Farmer, President Aristide himself, actor and UN goodwill ambassador Danny Glover, Political commentator and linguist Noam Chomsky, Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Expert James Dobbins, John Shattuck and many Haitian Voices.
Mar 29 - The Take
In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - The Take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head.
With The Take, director Avi Lewis, one of Canada's most outspoken journalists, and writer Naomi Klein, author of the international bestseller No Logo, champion a radical economic manifesto for the 21st century. But what shines through in the film is the simple drama of workers' lives and their struggle: the demand for dignity and the searing injustice of dignity denied.
Director: Avi Lewis Run time: 87 minutes Web site:The Take
Apr 12 - Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness
The Palestine Hotel was to be a safespace in Baghdad for members of the media who were capturing the essence of war in Iraq through various mediums to inform the people. The Pentagon was told their location coordinates, and the journalists felt secure in the promise that the firing would not be targeted towards their site. But on April 8th, a U.S. tank aimed and fired at the floor where Jose Couso was set up with his camera. The U.S. government continues to tell conflicted stories as to what happened that day.
Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness exposes the truth behind an attack on a media-filled hotel in Iraq. The film was produced by Jose Couso's network, Telecinco, and broadcast on Spanish TV. It includes interviews with numerous journalists who were inside the Palestine Hotel, the AP reporter embedded with US forces at the time of the attack as well as the US tank commander who pulled the trigger.
Apr 26 - Hidden in Plain Sight
This feature-length video documentary sheds light on the nature of U.S. policy in Latin America through the prism of the School of the Americas, the controversial military school that trains Latin soldiers on U.S. ground.
Narrated by Martin Sheen, the documentary features interviews with political thinkers (Noam Chomsky, Christopher Hitchens, Eduardo Galeano), Congresspersons (Barbara Lee, D-CA.), Army officers, victims and social activists (Dianna Ortiz) who tackle the issues of U.S. economic and military policies in Latin America, the war on drugs, and terrorism. The documentary offers an in-depth analysis of these complex issue and tackles them from all different angles.
Directors: John Smihula and Viví Letsou Run time: 71 minutes Web site:Hidden in Plain Sight
May 10 - Brothers and Others
Brothers and Others is a one hour video documentary on the impact of the September 11th tragedy on Muslims and Arabs living in America. This documentary follows a number of immigrants and American families as they struggle in the heightened climate of suspicion, FBI and INS investigations and economic hardships that erupted in America following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In interviews with Arab and Muslim immigrants, government representatives, and a select group of legal and historical experts including Ghazi Khankan, Noam Chomsky and James Zogby, this film explores how America’s fear of terrorism has negatively impacted a substantial portion of the American population.
May 24 - What I've Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against The Third World
Since WWII the U.S. has bombed Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Iraq, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and now currently Iraq, once again killing millions of innocent people. This video compilation is a shocking expose of USA and CIA "interventions" since World War II, featuring Ramsey Clark (former US Attorney General), Bill Moyers (PBS investigative journalist), Amy Goodman (journalist & host of Democracy Now), Martin Luther King Jr., John Stockwell (Ex-CIA Station Chief) and S. Brian Wilson (Vietnam Veteran for Peace).
June 07 - Bush's Brain
An in-depth look at the man many regard as the brains behind George W. Bush's
political career -- Karl Rove, a political strategist who has been described as
having a "junkyard-dog approach to politics." Bush's Brain is a documentary which follows Rove's career from high school (when he was accused of using dirty tricks to win debate competitions) through his guidance of Bush's campaigns for Texas governor and United States president (during which he used aggressive strategies to discredit Bush's opponents) to his role in the Bush White House and his possible links to the scandal in which the status of Valerie Plame as a longtime covert CIA operative was leaked to the press.
Directors: Michael Paradies Shoob and Joseph Mealey Run time: 80 minutes Web site:Bush's Brain
Map and Directions See map of area Closest metro station: Garbatella. Take the exit "Ostiense", cross the tracks via the overpass, walk straight to via Ostiense, turn left and walk a couple of blocks to via Libetta, make another left and look for Linux. By bus, the 23 runs from the Vatican, along the Tiber, through Testaccio and along via Ostiense.
See the ATAC web site for more options.
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Ongoing/Future Events
Our Eyes Wide Open Film Series is suspended; for further information click here.
Upshot of our Nov. 9th group discussion on current politics:
It wasn't the Russians that got us Trump. Or Comey. Or even the massive GOP election fraud. It was the DNC.* *Dem National Committee
To learn how to stop the DNC
from delivering us another Trump, read Autopsy: the Democratic Party in Crisis.
Photo of a school in Yemen bombed by Saudi Arabian jets supplied by the U.S. and fueled in the air by the U.S. Air Force.
Tell Trump to STOP THIS CARNAGE, not fuel it! Click here.
Also participate in the CodePink email and/or phone initiative:
Click here to sign a petition, to put an end to the sanctions against Syria - their only effect is to take a terrible toll on the population, causing them to migrate! And click here to see the video by the Italian Committee to lift sanctions against Syria.
Did someone tell you that U.S. military intervention in Iraq was over? Not true: we're at it again. This time the pretext to drop bombs is "curbing ISIS" (which was created by the U.S. in the first place, to overturn al-Malaki in Iraq and then Assad in Syria, and is now out of hand.
Like what happened to "our" creature al Qaeda in Afghanistan). And the death toll continues to rise...
Write your senators and tell them: "Enough! U.S. out!! Iraq has shown it can curb ISIS by itself!"
