Asix-week, television-based film festival that kicks off tomorrow hopes to bring awareness to Kaua‘i viewers. Six films, all dealing with military, weapons and human-rights issues, will be shown on community television station Ho‘ike, channel 52 starting tomorrow, Saturday, July 24.
Asix-week, television-based film festival that kicks off tomorrow hopes to bring awareness to Kaua‘i viewers.
Six films, all dealing with military, weapons and human-rights issues, will be shown on community television station Ho‘ike, channel 52 starting tomorrow, Saturday, July 24.
The “Guns, Greed & Human Rights Film Fest 2004” is presented by Kilauea artist and filmmaker Soleille La Fete in partnership with Students United for a Responsible Global Environment (SURGE), a nonviolent network of more than 100 schools and universities throughout North America.
The group is dedicated to achieving social, economic, political and environmental justice through collective education and action.
“These films are relevant to social issues on the table today,” La Fete said. She said she “hopes the community will benefit from this series of powerful and compelling films.” “The ultimate objective is simple: to promote greater strength in numbers and unity,” SURGE organizers stated.
“The goal of this festival (is) to raise public awareness of human-rights issues. Organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Center for Victims of Torture are excellent examples,” La Fete continued.
La Fete says she thinks the most noteworthy film here is “Invisible War: Depleted Uranium and the Politics of War,” because of the longevity of the material described in this film.
“On a humanitarian level it is totally unacceptable that one generation use materials that will kill future generations for 4.5 billion years with the secrecy and nondisclosure that comes hand in hand with military activity.
“The possibility exists that these materials have been used on our island during the RIMPAC exercises and are stored on our island today,” she added.
Another film, “The Killing of an Island: U.S. Military Presence in Vieques, Puerto Rico,” deals with the U.S. Navy’s bombing and tests which in 1999 accidentally killed a civilian.
“While there are certain parallels between two islands with U.S. Navy presence, other similarities are circumstantial.
The benefit to the people of Hawai‘i would be informational so that the possibility is given for a more educated judgment about the presence of the armed forces in a civilian ecological environment,” La Fete said by e-mail.
“There is nothing in the films that would directly prompt people to go out and protest at PMRF.” SURGE was founded in 1998 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, at a vigil to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Ga.
The film festival starts Saturday, July 24 at 8 p.m. Thereafter, films will be shown for six weeks starting at 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Due to explicit and graphic images, adult supervision is advised. For additional viewing times, check the Ho‘ike Web site at www.hoike.org, or see the TV section in the Sunday issue of The Garden Island.
For more information about SURGE, please e-mail to surgenc@yahoo.com or call 1-919-843-6548.
Also on the Net: Amnesty International, www.amnesty.org; Center for Victims of Torture, www.cvt.org; Human Rights Watch, www.hrw.org; Ho‘ike Community Television, www.hoike.org The films º “The Killing of an Island: U.S. Military Presence in Vieques, Puerto Rico.” 49 minutes.
Written and produced by Carlos Haase, 2000.
The island of Vieques, a municipality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is located a few miles off the eastern coast of the main island. In 1941, U.S. Navy leaders expropriated two-thirds of the island and relocated inhabitants. Navy officers have used the base for performing live-ammunition practices using napalm and more recently, depleted uranium. On April 19, 1999, during a routine exercise, a stray Navy warplane bomb killed civilian guard David Sanes. Protesters demanded the Navy’s departure from established camps, forcing the Navy to stop training operations.
º “Vieques: U.S. Navy Out!” 30 minutes.
By Rafael Garcia, Jr.
Presented as a “work in progress,” this documentary is a video montage of nonviolent protests held in New Jersey, Connecticut, Puerto Rico and the United Nations Plaza in New York, as Puerto Rican people united and marched for peace in Vieques. The documentary also includes footage of Women for Peace and Justice in Vieques.
º “SOA: Guns and Greed.” 20 minutes.
Written, directed and produced by Robert Richter, 2000.
The U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) was founded in 1946 at Fort Benning, Ga. and has trained more than 60,000 Latin-American soldiers in commando tactics, psychological warfare and military intelligence.
Rare footage in this documentary shows how SOA graduates protect large corporations and world financial in-stitutions. Soldiers target labor organizers, human-rights advocates, educators, religious leaders and others who speak out against sweatshops and other enterprises.
º “The New Patriots.” 18 minutes.
By Robert Richter Productions, distributed by SOA Watch, 2002.
Five U.S. military veterans, including a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient and a female West Point graduate, speak about terrorism, patriotism and their transformation.
After Sept. 11, the U.S. government called for eradication of terrorist camps. The veterans describe the U.S. Army Schools of the Americas as a school for terrorism.
The SOA has recently changed its name to Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, which trains Latin-American soldiers in counter-insurgency techniques.
“In ‘The New Patriots’ a veteran reminds us that the lives of the tens of thousands of people killed by the SOA- and WHISCtrained terrorists in Latin America are no less precious than the thousands who lost their lives in the U.S. on 9/11,” a film abstract states.
º “Invisible War: Depleted Uranium and the Politics of Radiation.” 64 minutes. Directed by Martin Meissonnier, written and produced by Robert Trilling, 2000.
The U.S. Army’s use of depleted uranium weapons destroyed enemy tanks and armor in Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo, while minimizing casualties among U.S. troops. “Is it true?” this film asks. Depleted uranium has a radioactive half-life of 4.5 billion years. Filmmaker Meissonnier traveled from France to Germany, Dubai, Iraq and Kosovo, and discovered the stakes are enormous for the public and the earth.
º “Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair.” 72 minutes. Produced by Barbara Trent, Gary Meyer and David Kasper, directed by Barbara Trent, written by Eve Goldberg, 1988.
“‘Coverup’ starts where the hearings left off,” said Trent, who received an Academy Award in 1993 for her 1992 film “The Panama Deception.” The former welfare mother and activist has exposed criminal activities in the White House, Pentagon and CIA, and has been the target of CIA counterintelligence operations. She was appointed as an expert senior training specialist for the VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) program under President Jimmy Carter, has been decorated with the Gaspar Octavio Hernandez Award by the Journalists’ Union in Panama, and is a recipient of the American Humanist Association’s Arts Award.
