Upcoming Events at New College and in the East Bay

The New College Center for Education and Social Change (CESA) listing of upcoming peace and social justice events is emailed about once each week. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a request: [mailto:jongarf [at] speakeasy.org].
Summary of events appears above, details below. Events are grouped by area and by dates within each area.

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IRAQ AND VIETNAM
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(1) Wednesday July 16, 7:30 PM - New College Cultural Center, 766 Valencia St, SF
MEDEA BENJAMIN: "REPORT BACK FROM IRAQ"

(2) Thursday July 17, 7:00 PM - New College Cultural Center, 766 Valencia St, SF
TALK BY REESE ERLICH - AND SCREENING OF "THE FRIENDSHIP VILLAGE"

(3) Friday, Jul 25, 7:30 PM
NADYA CONNOLLY WILLIAMS: "VIETNAM TODAY" (in Oakland)
Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street (between Telegraph Avenue & Broadway), Oakland

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LABORFEST EVENTS AT NEW COLLEGE
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(4) Wednesday July 16, 7:00 PM - New College Theater, 777 Valencia, SF
First US/International Labor Short Competition (3 minute labor videos) & Labor Videos From Argentina. Also Molotov Mouths Word Troupe.

(5) Tuesday July 29, 7:00 PM - New College Theater, 777 Valencia, SF
San Francisco Premier Screening of "Bitter Sweat" or "Sudo Amargo" 2002 by Alba Nydia Diaz & Sonia Valenin of Copelar Productions 120 minutes.
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(6) ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE FILM FESTIVAL
Friday, July 25 - Saturday, Jul 26 - New College Theater, 777 Valencia, SF
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(7) BLACK AUGUST INTERNATIONAL (in Berkeley)
Saturday, August 30th, 6:30 PM
Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way, Berkeley
And Broadcast Live on KPFA, 94.1 FM

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IRAQ AND VIETNAM
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(1) Wednesday, July 16, 7:30 PM

MEDEA BENJAMIN: "REPORT BACK FROM IRAQ"

New College Cultural Center, 766 Valencia Street, San Francisco

What's the situation on the ground in Iraq? Join Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Global Exchange and CodePink: Women for Peace, for a report-back from her recent trip to Iraq to establish an International Occupation Watch Center in Baghdad. The center will monitor the military occupation forces and foreign corporations, host international delegations, and keep the international community updated about the occupation forces? activities through a new website, http://www.occupationwatch.org. Medea will also give an update on the global peace movement, having recently attended the United for Peace and Justice conference in Chicago and the Jakarta International Peace Conference. Sponsored by Global Exchange and New College of California. Donations benefit the Iraq Occupation Watch Center. $10 requested donation benefits international Occupational Center.
For more information contact: Global Exchange, 415-575-5555, http://www.occupationwatch.org

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(2) Thursday July 17, 7:00 PM

TALK by REESE ERLICH, co-author with Normon Solomon of "Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You."
Also "THE FRIENDSHIP VILLAGE" - A documentary film about an inspiring project in Vietnam

New College Cultural Center, 766 Valencia Street, San Francisco

Join us for a talk by REESE ERLICH, award-winning correspondent and co-author with Normon Solomon of "Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You." We will also have a screening of "THE FRIENDSHIP VILLAGE" - an award-winning 50-minute documentary by Canadian filmmaker Michelle Mason about an international group of veterans who are building a village in Vietnam for children with Agent Orange-related disabilities. Built on a former rice paddy near Hanoi, the Friendship Village stands not only as a symbol of peace and reconciliation, but as a testament to the potential for all people to come to terms with the past, heal the wounds of war, and create a better world. Following the story of the village's founder, American veteran George Mizo, THE FRIENDSHIP VILLAGE takes us through his experiences of war's horror to the personal transformation that led to the birth of his remarkable village. Working alongside the Vietnamese general responsible for killing his entire platoon in 1968, George and other veterans from the USA, Vietnam, France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain and Australia are attempting to mitigate the ongoing effects of the toxic herbicide sprayed during the war. Their efforts are a powerful example of how average people can still make a profound difference in our increasingly globalized world. As such, the Vietnam Friendship Village has the potential to change not only the lives of the children who live in it and the men who build it, but all who come to understand its mission. WINNER: Silver Hugo for Best Social/Political Documentary from the 2003 Chicago International Television Awards; Best Documentary and Best Director of a Documentary at the 2003 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.

CONFRONTING DISINFORMATION FILM & SPEAKER SERIES - This event is part of a remarkable film and speaker series we're co-sponsoring this summer. The films, which document events in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Mexico and the US, will be shown in SF at New College and in Berkeley at the Fellowship Hall. Sponsored by the Network against Disinformation, the Social Justice Committee of Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, and New College Media Studies MA Program. Donations requested. For more information: Cynthia, 510-528-5403.
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(3) Friday, Jul 25, 7:30 PM (in Oakland)

NADYA CONNOLLY WILLIAMS: "VIETNAM TODAY"

Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street (between Telegraph Avenue & Broadway), Oakland

Report Back and Slide Show of a recent Global Exchange Reality Tour to Vietnam By Nadya Connolly Williams Global Exchange Tour Coordinator for Vietnam, India, the north of Ireland and Jamaica. (free)
For more information contact: 510-393-5685, HumanistHall [at] yahoo.com

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LABORFEST 10th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
Complete LaborFest 2003 Schedule: http://www.laborfest.net
We are pleased to co-sponsor LaborFest and to host the following LaborFest events:
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(4) July 16 Wednesday, 7:00 PM - New College Theater, 777 Valencia, SF ($7-10 sliding Scale benefits Right to a Roof)

International Working Class Film & Video Festival: First US/International Labor Short Competition (3 minute labor videos) & Labor Videos From Argentina Worker-Occupations by Ojo Obrero. Also Molotov Mouths Outspoken Word Troupe. As the national housing crisis continues despite the dot.com bust, building links between housing organizing and labor organizing becomes all the more crucial. Come learn about efforts to build these alliances, enjoy some political poetry from the Molotov Mouths Outspoken Word Troupe along with a few musical surprises and a film screenings. Partial proceeds will benefit the defense fund of Camilo Vivieros, a housing organizer with the National Alliance of HUD Tenants, who is the only protester still facing charges stemming from the Republican National Convention in 2000. To learn more about his case visit http://www.friendsofcamilo.org.


(5) Tuesday July 29, 7:00 PM - New College Theater, 777 Valencia, SF ($7-10 sliding scale benefits SF Day Laborers Program)

International Working Class Film & Video Festival: SF Premier Screening of "Bitter Sweat" or "Sudo Amargo" 2002 by Alba Nydia Diaz & Sonia Valenin of Copelar Productions (120 minutes). Are you ready to leave your job? You are face to face with women workers in a Puerto Rican fish factory when they are told that their plant will shutdown to move to an even lower wage country. This is the bitter face of the WTO/IMF "Globalization" It is based on the real story of a group of women that work in a Star Kist Caribbean tuna Plant in Western Puerto Rico and whose lives are drastically changed with the announcement of it's closure. The boss is murdered and this tests the strength and courage of the workers who come under investigation.
http://www.terra.com.do/arte/articulo/html/art7790.htm
Also we will screen a short about San Francisco Day Workers.

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(6) Friday, Jul 25 - Saturday, Jul 26
ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE FILM FESTIVAL - Free!
New College of California Theater, 777 Valencia Street, San Francisco
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Friday, July 25th 7pm -9:30pm Saturday, July 26th 11am - 9:30pm. All films are free, but audience members are encouraged to generously support Hunters Point Community Youth Park, Video Activist Network and Whispered Media.

Friday, July 25th, 7pm - 9:30pm WE INTERRUPT THIS EMPIRE (2003), a collaborative work by Bay Area independent video activists, documents the direct actions that shut down the financial district of San Francisco in the weeks following the US invasion of Iraq. With an audio backdrop that includes the live broadcasts of Enemy Combatant Radio from the SF Independent Media Center to SFPD tactical communications that were picked up by police scanners, We Interrupt This Empire looks at the diverse show of resistance from the streets of San Francisco, provides a critique of the corporate media's war coverage and explores such issues as the Military Industrial Complex, attack on civil liberties, and the US's current imperialist drive.

Also showing selected shorts by video activist including War Signs, by Eric Waterman, Iraq and I Roll, by Urban Elf, Police Family Values, by Jay Finneburgh, Meatheadus Supremus, by A. Mark Liiv and Fellowship of the Ring of Free Trade, by Jino Choi. Members of the Video Activist Network will be on hand to introduce the film and to host a post-film discussion.

Saturday, July 26th, 11am - 1pm FREEDOM ON MY MIND (1994) Nominated for an Academy Award, winner of both the American Historical Association and the Organization of American awards for best documentary, this landmark film tells the story of the Mississippi freedom movements in the early 1960‚s when a handful of young activists changed history.

Saturday, July 26th, 1:30pm - 3:30pm REBELS WITH A CAUSE (2000) chronicles the movements for social change of the Sixties that began with the civil rights movement and culminated with the angry protests against the US war in Vietnam. Told through the eyes of SDS members, the film is about far more than SDS. It's about the values, motivations, and actions of a generation that lost its innocence but gained a sense of power and purpose. It's about a decade that changed America.

Saturday, July 26th, 4pm - 6pm THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE (2000) captures the events of the 1999 anti-WTO protests in Seattle. Cut from the footage of over 100 media activists, the film marks a turning point in collaborative filmmaking and achieves a scope and vision possible only through the lenses of over 100 cameras. With a driving soundtrack including Rage Against the Machine, DJ Shadow, and Anne Feeney, and narration by Susan Sarandon and Michael Franti, This is What Democracy Looks Like is an intense political and emotional account of a week that changed the world. More than a film, This is What Democracy Looks Like is used by the same grassroots network that celebrated victory in Seattle to mobilize activists and initiate a dialog about new ways to organize across our differences in communities around the world.

Saturday, July 26th, 7pm - 9:30pm STRAIGHT OUTTA HUNTER'S POINT (2003) is a raw, gripping film that depicts a neighborhood transformed from a once thriving area into a toxic dumping ground and Super Fund site. Director Kevin Epps explores conditions in the Hunter's Point projects where he grew up. In this insider portrait of a community in crises persevering despite the odds Epps examines a litany of urban woes from alleged gang related "Rap Wars" to racism, economic redlining, and a vital underground hip-hop scene that provides hope and escape for Hunter's Point youth. Director Kevin Epps will be on hand to present the film and to answer questions. Limited edition signed SOHP DVDs will be available for donations of $25-$50 to benefit Aunt Bea's Park Foundation.

For more information contact: Michael McAvoy, 415 437-3465, mailto:mmcavoy [at] newcollege.edu; http://www.newcollege.edu

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(7) BLACK AUGUST INTERNATIONAL

Saturday, August 30th, 6:30 PM
Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way, Berkeley
And Broadcast Live on KPFA, 94.1 FM

New College CESA is pleased to join dozens of speakers, performers and organizations participating in this extraodinary gathering. Details will be provided in future messages. C/o Haiti Action Committee P.O. Box 2218, Berkeley, CA 94702. For more information: Kiilu: 415-391-3844.

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Jon Garfield, 415-437-3425, [mailto:jongarf [at] speakeasy.org]
New College Center for Education & Social Action
http://www.newcollege.edu/cesa
Media Studies MA Program
http://www.newcollege.edu/media_studies/index.html
Activism & Social Change MA Program
http://www.newcollege.edu/activismchange/actsocma.html