Wars and Peaces: The Global Uprising for Social Justice

The 2004 Why War? Film Series at Swarthmore College

The film series intends to offer a glimpse of the worldwide movements for social justice that have developed in the past decade as well as the historical framework for these movements. We do not expect to be able to provide a complete picture, but rather to promote discussion and awareness of these increasingly relevant and powerful uprisings.

The film screenings are free of charge and open to the college community as well as the general public. Directions are available.

Schedule of Events

Bringing Down a Dictator: Thursday, Oct. 7, 4:15 pm, Scheuer Room, Kohlberg; In the fall of 2000 the Serbian people reclaimed their country from Slobodan Milosevic. Their weapons were not guns and bombs, but ridicule, rock music and massive civil disobedience: Otpor! This is their story.; 2001, 60 mins. Steve York and WETA Washington. More Information; Presented by Jack DuVall, president of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict; Co-sponsored by the Pendle Hill Peace Network and the Program in Peace and Conflict Studies

The Fourth World War: Monday, Oct. 18, 7:30 pm, Science Center 101; The Fourth World War is the untold human story of men and women who resist being annihilated in the current global conflict. While American airwaves are crowded with talk of a new world war, narrated by generals and filmed from the noses of bombs, the human face of war is rarely seen. The Fourth World War weaves together the images and voices of the war on the ground, from the front lines of struggles in Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Palestine, Korea, “the North” from Seattle to Geneva, and the “War on Terror” in New York and Iraq.; 2003, 74 mins. Rick Rowley, Jacqueline Soohen and Big Noise Films. More Information; Presented by Rick Rowley and Jacqueline Soohen, directors; Co-sponsored by the President’s Office, Forum for Free Speech, Swarthmore Progressive Action Committee, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Program in Peace and Conflict Studies

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Thursday, Oct. 28, 7:30 pm, Science Center 183; Hugo Chávez, elected president of Venezuela in 1998, is a colorful, unpredictable folk hero, beloved by his nation’s working class and a tough-as-nails, quixotic opponent to the power structure that would see him deposed. Two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when he was forcibly removed from office. 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.; 2003, 74 mins. Kim Bartley, Donnacha O Briain and the Irish Film Board. More Information [Flyer 1] [Flyer 2]; Preceded by the short film Esmeraldas: Petroleum and Poverty (2003)

Control Room: Friday, Nov. 5, 7:30 pm, Science Center 101; This film provides an opportunity to re-examine what is perhaps the most pressing question of international relations today — Is America radicalizing or stabilizing the Arab world? — without miring itself in shadowy conspiracy theories. It provides a balanced view of Al Jazeera’s presentation of the second Iraq war to their worldwide Arab audience, and in so doing calls into question many of the prevailing images and positions offered up by the U.S. news media.; 2004, 84 mins. Jehane Noujaim and Magnolia Pictures. More Information [Flyer]

The Weather Underground: Thursday, Nov. 11, 4:30 pm, Science Center 101; This feature-length documentary film follows the rise and fall of the Weather Underground, a group of several hundred young women and men who tried to violently overthrow the American government during the late 1960s and ’70s. Presented at the 2003 Sundance film festival and nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary film.; 2003, 92 mins. Sam Green, Bill Siegel, KQED San Francisco and Independent Television Service. More Information [Flyer]; Presented by Sam Green, director; Co-sponsored by the President’s Office, Brandywine Peace Community, the Swarthmore College Peace Collection and the Swarthmore Progressive Action Committee

Zapatista: Saturday, Nov. 20, 7:30 pm, Science Center 199; It is New Year’s night 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect. To the Mayan Indian communities in the Lacandon Jungle of Southeastern Mexico, NAFTA symbolizes the culmination of over 500 years of exploitation. That night, 2,000 Indian soldiers occupy several cities in the state of Chiapas and declare political and economic independence. They call themselves the Zapatista National Liberation Army. The product of over two years of filming and research, the film combines first-hand footage with extensive interviews and testimonies from campesiños, rebel leaders, activists and intellectuals working on both sides of the border. Zapatista locates the struggle in a global and historical context, revealing the ways in which zapatismo grows out of 500 years of indigenous resistance and tracing the connections the Zapatistas have made to movements around the world.; 1999, 56 mins. Benjamin Eichert, Rick Rowley and Big Noise Films. More Information

The Miami Model: Friday, Dec. 3, 7:30 pm, Science Center 199 (note change in location); In November, 2003, trade ministers from 34 countries met in Miami, Florida, to negotiate the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Thousands of union members, environmentalists, feminists, anarchists, students, farm workers, media activists and human rights activists who gathered in Miami to struggle against the FTAA were brutally attacked with rubber bullets, pepper spray, electric guns and shock batons, embedded reporters and information warfare, all coordinated by the new Department of Homeland Security. Against a model of paramilitary oppression, information warfare, and corporate rule, we offered models of grassroots resistance, creative action and solidarity. The event will include a discussion with several students from Swarthmore and Haverford Colleges who were involved in the FTAA protests.; 2004, 91 mins. FTAA Miami Indymedia Video Working Group. More Information [Flyer]; Preceded by the short film Cop Watch (2003)

Tentative Films: Spring 2005; The Take; In the wake of Argentina’s spectacular economic collapse in 2001, Latin America’s most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. 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.; 2004, 87 mins. Avi Lewis, Naomi Klein and the National Film Board of Canada. More Information; Fenced Out; Documenting the fight for the Christopher Street pier — one of the only places in New York City where youth of color, low income, homeless and l/g/b/t/q youth could once hang out. In the summer of 2000, fences were built on the spot where the kids congregated, for construction of a new state park. Not only were city developers interested in “fencing out” the kids, neighbors with apartments overlooking the water want these kids to leave as well. The young producers of the documentary interview pierets about how important the piers are in their lives, as well as older l/g/b/t/q activists about the history of the location and its connection to the gay liberation movement of the ’60s. In turn they become more politicized and see how their struggle to save their public space connects to a larger historical and social movement.; 2001, 28 mins. Paper Tiger Television, The New Neutral Zone and FIERCE. More Information; A Night of Propaganda; Selected government and corporation short films from the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, on such topics as war, anti-communism, labor organizing and race relations.; Prelinger Archives. More Information

why-war.org/film