The Victoria Theatre and Indymedia Present:

Eleven Days of Cracking the Media Monopoly

October 21-31, 2004

Victoria Theatre San Francisco

THE UN-EMBEDDED FILM SERIES will counter the effects of the corporate-government information cartel. For eleven days, October 21-31, radical filmmakers will present little-seen stories, from Iraq to NYC to the Bay Area and beyond, that could effect the outcome of the current presidential campaign. The un-embedded film series will take place at the Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th Street, San Francisco. Several of the filmmakers will be present at the theatre for discussions after the screenings.

Topics of the un-embedded film series include: the Republican National Convention, the War in Iraq, the Miami Model, the use of oil resources, outsourcing, and the war on the poor in the USA.

The Victoria Theatre is located at 2961 16th Street at Capp

Tickets are available at the Victoria Theatre Box Office, 415-863-7576, WWW.VICTORIATHEATRE.ORG or TICKETS.COM.

General Admission tickets $9, students and seniors $5.

Pass for all films $35. (Includes entry to 14 different programs.)

Audio PSAs: http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/10/1699604.php

October 2004

21 (Thu)

• 7pm: Republican National Unconvention (Indymedia, 90min)
• 9pm: Miami Model (Indymedia, 90min)

22 (Fri)

• 7pm: Shocking and Awful - Iraq (Deep Dish, 30min); We Interrupt This Empire (Video Activist Network, 52min)
• 9pm: The Oil Factor (Free Will productions, 93min)

23 (Sat)

• 7pm: Shocking and Awful - Three shorts program 1 (Deep Dish, 90min)
• 9pm: Miami Model (Indymedia, 92min)

24 (Sun)

• 3pm: Battle for Broad (Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, 25min); Surplus (ATMO, 52min)
• 5pm: Republican National Unconvention (Indymedia, 90min)

25 (Mon)

• 7pm: Copy This Tape (Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign - PPEHRC, 17min); The California Freedom Bus Tour (Women's Economic Agenda Project - WEAP & California PPEHRC, 12 min); March for Justice (Community Homeless Alliance Ministry - CHAM, 30min); Extremely Low Income Housing March (CHAM, 30min)
• 9pm: California Freedom Bus Tour (WEAP & California PPEHRC, 12 min); Battle for Broad (PPEHRC, 25 min); Poverty Outlaw (PPERHC, 60 min)

26 (Tue)

• 7pm: End of Suburbia (Electric Wallpaper, 83min)
• 9pm: Republican National Unconvention (Indymedia, 90min)

27 (Wed)

• 7pm: Shocking and Awful - media (Deep Dish, 30min); Spin (Brian Springer, 60min)
• 9pm: Shocking and Awful - capitalism (Deep Dish, 30min); Mardi Gras: Made in China (Calle Media, 62min)

28 (Thu)

• 7pm: Shorts Program (StreetLevelTV, 90min)
• 9pm: Miami Model (Indymedia, 90min)

29 (Fri)

• 7pm: Shocking and Awful - Three shorts program 2 (Deep Dish, 90min)
• 9pm: Miami Model (Indymedia, 90min)

30 (Sat)

• 7pm: Miami Model (Indymedia, 90min)
• 9pm: Republican National Unconvention (Indymedia, 90min)

31 (Sun)

• 3pm: Shocking and Awful - Iraq war (Deep Dish, 30min); We Interrupt This Empire (Video Activist Network, 52min)
• 5pm: Miami Model (Indymedia, 92min)

*More info: http://www.unembedded.org*

Republican National Unconvention NoRNC-Video Collective

This documentary comes to us hot off the harddrives from the media makers of NYC Indymedia, Deep Dish TV, and Paper Tiger Television who organized the NoRNC-Video Collective. They've sent us the first cut of their RNC documentary and selected shorts from Unconventional TV, the nightly television show produced and edited by NoRNC-Video and aired nationwide on Freespeech TV.

More info: http://nyc.indymedia.org

Shorts from the Bay Various

Join the Video Activist Network, Whispered Media, Street Level TV and bay area filmmakers for a program of rapid-fire tactical media.

I chose 1992 as the year to monitor the satellite spectrum because of the national election; feeds are the easiest and cheapest way for the candidates and the networks to teleport their images across the vast landscape of a national election. George Bush began when he hired the former producer of ABC's "Nightline" to orchestrate his satellite re-election bid: Bush was beamed via satellite to many local TV stations to appear in "Nightline"-style interviews with the kinder and gentler local news anchors, and the other candidates followed suit. Larry King held court on satellite as the candidates made over 100 talk-show appearances (they made only 2 in 1988), and LA burned with hundreds of feeds as the networks spun the dissent. I'd trawl the spectrum, starting with the morning TV talk-shows at 6AM and end at midnight with "Nightline". I lost muscle-tone in my stomach, damaged the nerves in my thumb with the remote-control and felt only as good as my last image.

The result of this viewing experiment is a one-hour video documentary called SPIN which uses feeds to unravel the election and the televised events which framed it, such as the L.A. riots, Colombus' 500th anniversary, and the struggle for reproductive and sexual rights. Spin captures the contempt for the public whispered by spin doctors, and the hallucinogenic collusion of the candidates, the press and the technology.

More info: http://100777.com/doc/479

Shocking and Awful Deep Dish Television

ÒShocking and awfulÓ is the way many people view the current situation in Iraq and the United States. The war continues to takes its toll on Iraqi civilians, international aid workers, journalists and U.S. troops. Here at home we are seeing how waging a Òperpetual warÓ is affecting our own lives as well.

Deep Dish TV has collected and produced thirteen programs about the war and the occupation, which are being distributed to communities all over the United States on Free Speech TV and on community access channels. These programs address the implications and consequences of this countryÕs recent military actions. The series also shows how people are mobilizing through art, actions, and international law.

SHOCKING AND AWFUL was produced by independent video activists who do not buy into the lies, who are not cowed by the threats, who believe that building a just world is the way to combat terror. They are speaking out and organizing to counter the waves of propaganda and deceit that continue to dominate the mainstream airwaves.

More info: http://www.deepdishtv.org/pages/shocking.htm

End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream Gregory Greene

Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years, so too the suburban way of life has become embedded in the American consciousness.

Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream.

But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary.

The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Oil Peak mean for North America? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia ?

More info: http://www.endofsuburbia.com/

The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror Gerard Ungerman & Audrey Brohy

In 2004, three years into President Bush's "war-on-terror", is the world a safer place than it was in the Summer of 2001? The war in Afghanistan has turned into a bloody quagmire, the real Iraq war has now begun and Islamist fundamentalist groups are hiring thousands of volunteers poised to carry out the Jihad against Western interests around the world.

When all of Bush's pro-war arguments have been proven wrong, is it a coincidence that Iraq sits on the 2nd largest oil reserves in the world? Is it also a coincidence that Afghanistan is key to controlling the oil reserves of Central Asia at a time when the world's oil is dwindling?

"The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror" examines the link between oil interests and current U.S. military interventions. It includes original footage shot over a four-month period in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as many interviews with a large array of personalities including Bush administration officials. The documentary explores the various underlying motives behind George Bush's so-called "war-on-terror" and offers insights as to why global terrorism is thriving and why the world is becoming a more and more unsafe place. "The Oil Factor" also makes a clear assessment of today's global oil situation with sky-rocketing consumption and declining production.

More info: http://www.theoilfactor.com/

Mardi Gras: Made In China David Redmon

David Redmon follows "The Bead Trail" backwards from the bacchanalia at Mardi Gras to the factories in Fuzhou where the beads are made, to the oil fields in Iraq where American companies mine the petroleum products that go into plastic. When each group is shown images of the other, the cycle of misunderstanding goes a long way to explaining how the unjust system is kept in place.

To quote the filmmaker, David Redmon, "it's a film that involves nudity, war, oil, exploitation of labor, social movements against capitalism, and beads."

Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign Program

The California Freedom Bus Tour Documents the 3000 mile bus tour the Women's Economic Agenda Project sponsored around the state of California to protest, document and educate that poverty is an economic human rights violation. (12 min)

March for Justice Video produced by Community Homeless Alliance Ministry (CHAM) detailing their battle with San Jose City Hall to house the homeless (25min)

Extremely Low Income Housing March The Community Homeless Alliance Ministry (CHAM) battles San Jose City Hall for low-income housing in the land of the dot-com boom. (30 min, CHAM).

Copy This Tape An educational video on the basis of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign -- its aims, goals and precepts. (17 min)

Battle for Broad Skylight Pictures, Media College of the University of the Poor

Battle for Broad is a 25 minute video from Skylight Pictures and the Media College of the University of the Poor. In a dazzling 25 minutes this gem of a documentary captures the tension and excitement of four days in the summer of 2000 leading up to the Republican National Convention. With the eyes of the world upon them poor and homeless people gather to take on the Philadelphia police in a battle to hold an illegal march on the ConventionÕs opening day.

More info: http://www.skylightpictures.com/film_battle.html

Poverty Outlaw Peter Kinoy and Pamela Yates

POVERTY OUTLAW is a story of hard choices posed by living in poverty without society's "safety net." It is told by one woman who descends from middle-class security to welfare, and then to abject poverty. Her fierce and tenacious drive to raise her children has brought this woman up against bureaucrats, politicians, and her own self-doubt. Eventually the choices she must make have put her on the wrong side of the law. As she tells us:

"I'm an outlaw. My crime? Being poor. I, or I should say we, have taken over empty houses to live in, stolen thrown-away food and eaten it, found used clothing and worn it, and for those simple acts of survival the city is out to get us... I never thought I'd be an outlaw, so here's how it happened."

POVERTY OUTLAW was concieved in the grinding poverty in Kensington, North Philadelphia. This once thriving industrial neighborhood provided Yates and Kinoy with a fertile field for their five-year investigation into the future of America's poor. In describing the film, Variety said, "Philly's Kensington area once played host to Rocky Balboa's dreams; these days, however, he'd be lucky to have a roof, let alone a chance at the big time."

POVERTY OUTLAW has a street-level immediacy in its urgent and straight forward realism. Shot over a period of five years in North Philadelphia, "Poverty Outlaw" tells the story of the birth and development of one of the leading poor peoples' organizations in the U.S., the Kensington Welfare Rights Union.

POVERTY OUTLAW was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival, was named "Best Political Film" at the Hawaii International FIlm Festival, awarded the prize for "Right to Communicate" at the Videolympiads in Cape Town, South Africa, and was aired on PBS stations as part of the series "Just Solutions: Campaigning for Human Rights."

"Drawing standing room only crowds at the Sundance Film Festival." - Philadelphia Inquirer

"Results are both inspiring and sobering." - Variety "A kind of 'how-to' film for poor women around the country." - The National Organization of Women (NOW) Times

"...the film gives the viewer a sense of what it's like to be poor. Too bad it's playing at the Film Festival instead of in Congress." - The Philadelphia Weekly

"Critics' Choice." - The AFL-CIO

More info: http://www.skylightpictures.com/film_outlaw.html

Surplus: Terrorized into Being Consumers Erik Gandini

"This Swedish muckraker is another must-see" -Seattle Weekly

"Surplus is an open declaration of war on terror. We are terrorized into being consumers" -Adbusters Magazine

Consumer confidence has been low since September 11. A successful war against Iraq was supposed to be the only way to restore that confidence - and our happiness. But is shopping our salvation? Do we have a choice?

SURPLUS is an intense visual odyssey filmed for over three years in eight different countries. From the explosive riot days in Genoa 2001 to $7000 sex dolls in the US, SURPLUS explores the destructive nature of consumer culture. Stunning editing and breathtaking cinematography turns the notion that 20% of the world is gobbling up 80% of its resources from pure statistics into an overwhelming emotional experience.

The world was shocked when young protesters in Seattle, Genoa and Gothenburg attacked shop windows, cars and banks. SURPLUS sets off on a world journey seeking the answer to the question: why is the lifestyle of consumerism a source of such rage today? Against a familiar backdrop of cynical world leaders, corporate captains and Microsoft fanatics, the film focuses on the controversial anti-globalization guru John Zerzan, whose call for property damage has inspired many to take to the streets.

More info: http://www.atmo.se/zino.aspx?pageID=4&articleID=382

In November, 2003, trade ministers from 34 countries met in Miami, Florida, to negotiate the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The FTAA threatens to devastate workers, the environment, and public services like health care, education, and water, and to destroy indigenous rights and cultural diversity across North, Central, and South America.

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 United States Department of Homeland Security.

Against Capital's model of paramilitary oppression, information warfare, and corporate rule, we offered models of grassroots resistance, creative action and solidarity.

Collectively, Indymedia activists shot hundreds of hours of video footage documenting the FTAA protests in Miami. This footage has been edited by the FTAA Miami Video Working Group into a documentary that cuts through the mass media blackout to reveal the brutal repression and assault on civil liberties that took place, as well as the life-affirming and inspiring alternatives to capitalist globalization that were also in full effect in Miami.

The ftaaaimc.org video working group is proud to present the Bay Area premiere of The Miami Model .

More info: http://www.ftaaimc.org/miamimodel

The San Francisco Video Activist Network presents the story you won't see on Fox News: an unflinching look at the Bay Area's radical resistance to an illegal and horrific war.

"We Interrupt This Empire..." is a collaborative work by many of the Bay Area's independent video activists which documents the direct actions that shut down the financial district of San Francisco in the weeks following the United States' invasion of Iraq. With the audio backdrop including the live broadcasts of SF Indymedia's Enemy Combatant Radio and the SFPD's tactical communications that were picked up by police scanners, the documentary takes a look at the diverse show of resistance from the streets of San Francisco as well as providing a critique of the coporate media coverage of the war and exploring such issues as the Military Industrial Complex, attacks on civil liberties, and the United States' current imperialist drive.

"This is a clear picture of what's left of an American conscience in the midst of this national horror-show--this is the best damn doc I've seen on the local face of what might have been the largest anti-war movement in world history. "

-Craig Baldwin of Other Cinema

More info: http://www.videoactivism.org/empire.html