Saturday, March 15, 2008



EASTERN EUROPE:

'PROJECTILE'- ANTI NATO WEEK PROGRAM BUCHAREST:

Early next month, from April 2 to April 4th the 20th NATO summit will be held in Bucharest, Romania. About 3,000 of the "movers and shakers" of this military alliance, whose claws now reach as far afield from Europe as Afghanistan, will be there to have a good time and to plot further military adventures. But they will not be without opposition ! Anarchists in Romania are planning an "Anti-Nato week" around this summit. Some of them are already on an 'info-tour' throughout Europe to spread the word. The following is their callout. For more information see the Romanian anarchist site Contra-Doxa.


A N T I - N A T O W E E K B U C H A R E S T 2 0 0 8 (critical movies,documentaries,exhibitions and workshops)


"A projectile is any object thrown, shot or otherwise directed to a person or object. It can cause damage to a person or object it hits, depending on factors including size, shape, speed and hardness."Accordingly we also see critical information as weapons/projectiles. Projectile is an invitation to common reflexion, participation and a forum for critical discussion as well as preparation for actions during the anti-NATO week in Bucharest.

20th NATO Summit 2nd till the 4th of April 08 in Bucharest / Romania
This 20th NATO summit will be the largest one in the history of NATO, as all the 23 member states of the NATO Partnership for Peace will attend, besides 26 member states of the alliance. Approximately 3.000 high-ranking officials are expected to participate in the summit.
In the name of security - making their own rules?
Since September 11, 2001 the US declared a "War on Terror", as it had done earlier with regard to poverty, crime and drugs. With this torture has been resurrected as a course of action and subject of debate. The history of torture points to several possible reasons for its resurrection in a more open form since 9/11. The designation of certain peoples as of lesser status, or as not fully human; the priority given to the security of the state; the types of conditions under which evidence is acquired which influences the means adopted for determining guilt; and the necessity to be seen to punish in order to demonstrate overwhelming power and to deter opposition to those in power have all played roles in keeping torture alive over the millennia.
Torture, power and reputation
A new and valued reputation is one of effectiveness in dealing with suspected terrorists, including the ability to pass regulations that strengthen the central authority of the state, police air, sea and land borders, arrest terrorist suspects, focus on their interrogation, and investigate more fully those seeking asylum or to migrate.
Global consequences
There is a growth in this rhetoric and behaviour, on the part of a number of governments. For example, Uzbek security forces in May 2005 used indiscriminate force against civilians in Andijan, killing possibly between 200 and 700 people, on the grounds that these were groups linked with international Islamist terrorism. Torture and other forms of abuse become commonplace in different regions of the world.
Us versus Them’
We hold ourselves to humane standards of treatment of people no matter how evil or terrible they may be. We stand for something more in the world - a moral mission, one of freedom and democracy and human rights at home and abroad . . . The enemy we fight as no respect for human life. They don’t deserve our sympathy.’Such a statement might have one effect in that it reinforces the ’us versus them’ argument. On 6 September Bush acknowledged for the first time the existence of a secret CIA prison network. The same in the case of extraordinary rendition of detainees to locations where not too many questions will be asked about the conditions of their detention and interrogation.
Exhibitions and discussion workshops planned for the counter-summit in Bucharest will focus on several of these sections:
If you want to take part or organize a workshop get in contact:

request@contra-doxa.com



Updates and material can be found under http://www.contra-doxa.com

WORKSHOPS
*Violent Conflict / War
- post cold war NATO
- sexualized violence in war and conflict
*The War on Terrorism
- paragraph 129a, terrorist association and criminalization of the left
- us military bases in Romania- us radar bases in Czech Republic
*Fortress Europe / Migration
- migration / trafficking / ethnicity Deprivation of Rights
- church / state / army
*Fight and Hope
- April 2008 - squat fortress Europe with updates on Berlin and Poland
- unmarked categories and dominance in autonomous spaces
- d.i.y. self-defense for women- d.i.y. electricity out of recycled material
- d.i.y. basic car-repair for women
- indymedia
*Preparation for direct actions
- street theatre play on war- rebel army



OVERVIEW OF MOVIES AND DOCUMENTARIES
*Land of the Blind
2006 / 101 min / UK, USA
Land of the Blind is a satiric political drama about terrorism, assassination, and the power of memory. The film is set in an unnamed place and time, where an idealistic soldier named Joe strikes up an illicit friendship with a political prisoner named Thorne. Through their conversations in the high-security military prison where Thorne is held, Joe slowly begins to question his allegiance to the country’s brutal but clownish dictator and his Machiavellian life. Eventually Thorne succeeds in recruiting Joe to the rebel cause, leading to a bloody coup d’etat with echoes of countless tyrannies, revolutions, and counter-revolutions throughout history. But in the post-revolutionary world, what Thorne asks of Joe leads the two men into bitter conflict, spiraling downward into madness until Joe’s co-conspirators conclude that they must erase him from history.
*No Plan No Peace BBC documentary of Iraq’s descent into chaos
2007 / 108 min / UK
For the first time on British television it is looked at what became of the Bush-Blair dream of turning Iraq into a stable, democratic, human rights-respecting showcase for the Middle East. BBC asks how the American and British Governments undertook the biggest occupation of a foreign country in modern times without a coherent plan. It reveals, with testimony from British and Americans who were there, how the drumbeat to war drowned out the repeated warnings of the "black hole" in American post-war planning. One General, seconded to work with the Americans, recalls their position: "The long-term plan was - we do not need a plan." Almost five years after the occupation began, nearly 4,000 American troops and 170 British soldiers have been killed. Conservative estimates put the total of civilian deaths at 90,000, with four million Iraqis displaced, and the cost so far of trying to win the peace at almost $450b
*Sometimes in April
2005 / 140 min / Rwanda
A clear-eyed look at the Rwandan genocide in 1994 that claimed the slaughter of 800,000 lives upwards. It pieces together the past tragedy from the perspective of a decade-later war-crimes tribunal. It’s hard to know which is less bearable--the depiction of atrocities, such as mass murder at a girls school, or the second-guessing of the international community, which largely stood by while the horror was unfolding. The film zeroes in on the U.S. government’s distinction that "acts of genocide" occurred in Rwanda rather than "genocide".

*Life in Peace
2004 / 45 min / Chechnya
As of December 11, 1994, the war in Chechnya continued. Sultan’s wife was killed and their home was plundered. The husband and the son flee to the Russian countryside, where they are trying to start a new life ...

*Turtles can fly
2004 / 95 min / Iraq
Turtles Can Fly was the first film to be made in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The film is set in a Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi- Turkish border on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq. Thirteen-year-old Kak Satelite is known for his installation of dishes and antennae for local villages who are looking for news of Saddam Hussein. He is also organizing the dangerous but necessary sweeping and clearing of the minefields. The devastation to this land and its inhabitants is revealed in the matter-of-fact perspective of the children and is equally displayed with every poignant detail of its unbearable nature.

*Esma’s secret - Grbavica
2006 / 90 min / Austria, Bosnia, Germany
Esma lives with her 12-year-old daughter Sara in Sarajevo’s Grbavica neighborhood, where life is still being reconstructed after the 1990s Yugoslav wars. They are close, but when Sara’s school requires a certificate to prove her absent father died a hero in the Balkan War, Esma’s avoidance is futile and the increasingly troubled Sara is determined to prise Esma’s secret from her. Painful and brutal yet honest and hopeful, this superbly acted revelation of Esma’s secret re p resents the first step of a damaged nation towards dealing with the profound consequences of war and rebuilding its shattered identity.

*The wind that shakes the barley
2006 / 124 min / France, Ireland, UK
Two brothers are caught on differing sides of the battle for Irish freedom in 1920. While the IRA is a poor and ill-equipped fighting force, their willingness to give their lives for their cause is taken very seriously by the British, who step up their reprisals against the locals; the black and tans even begin directing their violence and torture against women and children. In 1921, Britain attempts to end the violence in Ireland by creating the Irish Free State, a compromise government which will give the Irish greater autonomy while Great Britain still retains final political control of the nation.

*The secret life of words
2005 / 115 min / Spain, Ireland
Hanna works in a plastics factory, talks to no one, lives in a shoe box apartment, and dines on prepared cubes of chicken, packets of white rice, and sliced apples. Her steady, silent presence at the factory causes such discomfort that her manager sends her on a forced vacation. Hanna, however, has no idea how to have a holiday. She goes to the cold, rocky coast of Ireland, and after overhearing a conversation in a restaurant, offers her professional services as a nurse to an injured man who is stranded on an oil rig in Finland. Hanna, a scarred survivor of a forgotten war, finds unexpected camaraderie and reveals her profoundly disturbing history.

*The road to Guantanamo
2006 / 95 min / UK
In September 2001 Asif and three of his friend go to the Punjab to meet the woman Asif is to marry. After an exhausting journey they arrive in Kandahar at night. It is the night of the first US bombing raid on Afghanistan. When they are finally arrested, after weeks of detainment they are flown out to Guantanamo. The secret service believes the young men to be somehow associated with Mohammed Atta and Osama Bin Laden. Although it soon transpires that there is no truth in these allegations, it is two years before Shafiq, Asif and Ruhel are able to return to Tripton. To this day there is still no trace of Monir, whom the friends lost in Afghanistan. This film makes use of archive footage, interviews and dramatised scenes to recreate the authentic story of their odyssey.

*Chechny: The Dirty War
2005 / 48 min / UK
Following the Dispatches on the Beslan school siege, reporters Mariusz Pilis and Marcin Mamon travel to neighbouring Chechnya, one of the most dangerous places on earth, to report on what life is like after more than a decade of Chechen terrorism and Russian repression. Filmed over the course of nine months, the film reveals that what started as a separatist movement in 1994 has now become synonymous with terrorism.

*Taxi to the dark side
2007 / 79 min / USA
The documentary focuses around the controversial death in custody of an Afghan Jitney taxi driver named Dilawar. Dilawar was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extrajudicial detention at the Bagram Airfield. Taxi to the Dark Side also goes on to examine America’s policy on torture and interrogation in general, specifically the CIA’s use of torture and their research into sensory deprivation. There is description of the opposition to the use torture from its political and military opponents, as well as the defence of such methods; the attempts by Congress to uphold the standards of the Geneva Convention forbidding torture; and the popularisation of the use of torture techniques in shows such as 24. An in depth look at the torture practices of the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.

*Fool me twice
2007 / 117 min / Australia
The documentary is exposing the Australian government’s lies about the East Timor massacres, the cover-up of the Bali bombings and finally the subsequent anti-terror laws forced through parliament. "Fool Me Twice" examines well-known examples of False Flag terror, and adds an excellent new sequence about the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that leaves the viewer with no doubt that Emad Salem was a controlled asset. Utilizing audio that features Salem covertly recorded while talking with FBI agent John Anticev, "Fool Me Twice" cuts to the chase regarding the 1993 bombing, and goes deeper, examining the CIA’s links to this milieu. The Bali bombings are dissected with a healthy dose of newly gathered evidence that shows what the real effects of ANFO car bombs are, what they do, and what they don’t do, like leave massive craters. The film argues that this is from high-intensity military-grade explosives, which the authorities declare were not used. At least not anymore. The film closely examines the Jemaah Islamiyah and it’s links to the CIA and other intelligence agencies that used this radical group. This film reveals extensive connections between JI, the Bali Bombings and military and intelligence circles.

*Route Irish
2007 / 88 min / Ireland
This film is firstly an indymedia documentation of the emergence between 2002 and 2004 of a broad popular opposition to the US military use of Shannon Airport in the buildup to, invasion of, and occupation of Iraq. It follows a loose network of politicians, activist groups and individuals through the story of the rise, fracturing and sudden decline and disappearance of this movement and retraces the way in which their combined efforts, energies and strategies served to effectively tear away the Irish States’ veneer of neutrality and non-alignment in the post September 11th era of the ’War on Terror’. Secondly it is a reflection asking, why the international pre-war wave of opposition to the invasion of Iraq appeared so suddenly, peaked so quickly, and failed to sustain itself.

*Showdown with Iran
2007 / 56 min / USA
As the United States and Iran are locked in a battle for power and influence across the Middle East -- with the fear of an Iranian nuclear weapon looming in the background - this FRONTLINE documentary shows Iranian hard-liners shaping government policy. In this report the focus is on the tumultuous U.S.-Iran relations since 9/11, it examines how U.S. invasion in Iraq have served to strengthen Iran’s position as an emerging power in the Middle East.

*Lord of War
2005 / 117 min / USA„
You know who’s going to inherit the world? Arms dealers. Because everyone else is too busy killing each other.“

*In this world The Journey to Freedom has no borders
2004 / 86 min / UK
Inspired by the refugee plight in Europe and the virulent strain of xenophobia that accompanied it, the movie sets out to detail the dangerous journey migrants from the "Third World" make to find a better life in the more prosperous West. The movie narrows its focus to two refugees, but their story is clearly meant to be emblematic of the larger narrative of desperate migration and border crossings of Central Asia, on the run from Pakistan to London.

*Le Heim
2007 / 16 min / Germany
How does Germany welcome refugees? According to the EU’s Reception Directive, EU countries should ensure a dignified and comparable standard of living for asylum seekers in their care. Closely linked to the way in which refugees are received when they first arrive is how soon and in what way they are supported in their integration into their new country. Access to language training, employment and adequate medical care, are some of the factors that can determine whether a person is able to adapt successfully or is alienated from society. The documentary Le Heim shows how refugees have to live hidden and isolated in old barracks in the forests in Brandenburg, on the example of the refugee camp Waldsieversdorf.

*Lilya 4 Ever
2002 / 109 min / Sweden, Denmark
It’s a story of the downward spiral of Lilya, a girl in the former Soviet Union, whose mother abandons her to move to the United States. The story is based on the life of Danguole Rasalaite and examines the issue of trafficking in human beings and sexual slavery.

*Cruel and Unusual
2006 / 66 min / USA Women, transgender women such as Ashley, Linda, Anna, Yolanda and Ophelia, are incarcerated in men’s prisons across the U.S. from Wyoming to New Jersey and Florida. Denied medical and psychological treatment, victims of rape and violence, the documentary Cruel and Unusual asks if the punishment for their crime is indeed cruel and unusual? Prisons decide where to place inmates based on their genitalia, not their gender identity. Shot over three years, this documentary film challenges the basic ideas about gender and justice.

*The Other Side of the Burka
2004 / 52 min / Iran
On the southern Iranian island of Qeshm in the Persian Gulf, women wear a headscarf, but also a "burka," a pinching mask of black bands pressing against the eyebrows and nose, and ending in a point just above the mouth. Interweaving interviews with both men and women of the island, with images of daily life (the island is regularly plagued by draughts and other catastrophes), the documentary shows an extreme examples of face-veiling and makes every effort to give these bullied women a voice back.

*Pretty Dyana
2003 / 45 min / Serbia
An intimate look at Rroma refugees in a Belgrade suburb who make a living by transforming Citroën’s classic 2cv and Dyana cars into Mad Max-like recycling vehicles, which they use to collect cardboard, bottles and scrap metal. These modern horses are much more efficient than the cart-pushing competition, but even more important -- they also mean freedom, hope and style for their crafty owners.

*It’s always late for Freedom
2006 / 53 min / Iran, Iraq
This documentary looks at the social problems of addiction, poverty and violence that face Iranian society, through the stories of three boys in the Teheran House of Correction. These young men, hardly more than boys, seem more like victims than perpetrators. Entirely immersed in the everyday life of the prison, the filmmaker won the young men’s trust, and they hold nothing back of their hurts, frustrations, hopes and confusion.

*Flowers don’t grow here
2006 / 51 min / Ukraine
In Ukraine, an estimated 1,000,000 children are homeless. They form a troubling underworld, governed by their own rules and haunted by crime, prostitution, drug abuse and murder.

*The Source
2005 / 75 min / Czech Republic
Baku in Azerbaijan is once again becoming a focus for foreign investors eager to exploit thecountry’s vast oil riches. "Source" traces the pipeline from our commuter highways back tothis surreal and sinister landscape on which our way of life depends, where cows graze onpolluted land and children play in toxic gunge. With three quarters of the population livingunder the poverty line, the country’s post-Soviet government is promising oil will returnAzerbaijan into a real country, a prosperous and flourishing "New Kuwait". But between bigoil companies like British Petroleum and the corrupt government lining their pockets, whatdoes this mean for ordinary people of Azerbaijan? Is this "liquid gold" more of a curse thana blessing for this troubled country?

*Dead in the WaterHow poverful companies try to privatise a pulic resource around the world
2004 / 51 min / USA
There’s a problem with the world’s water supply. One in four people on earth doesn’t have access to clean drinking water. Water and sanitation infrastructures are crumbling. We keep using more of it, yet continue to degrade and deplete it. Powerful companies spotted a crisis and saw a business opportunity. From Moncton, New Brunswick to Atlanta, Georgia and Buenos Aires, Argentina to Soweto, South Africa, the documentary investigates the results of the effort to privatize what many consider a public trust.

*Power Trip
2006 / 95 min / Georgia
One of the advantages of living in the Soviet Union was that you didn’t have to pay for electricity. The state provided it. When the Soviet republic of Georgia declared independence in 1991 (shortly before the Soviet Union fell), regulated, reliable electricity was one of the first casualties. Freedom meant living in the dark, at least for a while. "Power Trip" tells the story of AES Corp., the American company that came into Georgia in 1999 to provide power to the people and faced myriad problems in doing it. When you’re used to paying utility bills, paying for electricity sounds reasonable. But when it’s always been free before, and when the average residential electrical bill is $24 -- compared to the average Georgian monthly salary of $15-$75 -- you’re probably not going to like it.

*The new rulers of the World
2002 / 53 min / USA
The New Rulers of the World is a 2001-2002 documentary film on the consequences of globalisation, taking Indonesia as the primary example of the serious problems with the new globalization. The central thesis is that the "New Rulers" are, in fact, the old rulers in new clothes. The focus, however, is on the human side, and the victims of violence and injustice, as well as critiques of national policies, along with the media response.

*On The Edge: The Femicide in Ciudad Juárez
2006 / 58 min / Mexico
On The Edge is a documentary covering the brutal murders of hundreds of poor young women in the border town of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, murders that have been repeatedly ignored and unresolved by police and governments since 1993.

*What to do in case of fire?
2002 / 102 min / Germany
It tells the story of six former creative anarchists who lived as house squatters in Berlin during its heyday in the 80s when Berlin was still an island in the middle of the former eastern Germany. At the end of the 80s they went their separate ways with the exception of Tim and Hotte, who have remained true to their ideals and continue to fight the issues they did as a group. In 2000, with Berlin as Germany’s new capital, an event happens forcing the group out of existential reason to reunite and, ultimately, come to grips with the reason they separated 12 years ago.

*Dust Games / Hry Prachu
2000 / 86 min / Czech Republic
A film about coincidences about the Prague IMF and World Bank meeting in September 2000. The organism of the city as a ground of different ideological conceptions and grotesque situations. In September 2000 a meeting of two global financial institutions - the International Monetary Fund (managing international finances - ensuring free trade) and the World Bank (fighting poverty through loans) - took place in the middle of Europe, in Prague. At the same time people were gathering to prepare demonstrations expressing their disagreement with the existence of these two institutions. Dust Games documents these events over the course of 14 days with one film camera and one digital camera.

*Catch a Fire
2006 / 98min / South Africa
Catch a Fire tells the story of Patrick Chamusso, a South African wrongly accused, in 1980, of sabotaging the oil refinery where he worked. After both he and his wife are tortured by agents of the Boer government, Chamusso becomes a radicalized guerilla for the MK, or military wing, of the African National Congress. The story is filmed on the actual locations where its events took place.

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