New College Activism & Social Change Film Festival

All day Saturday, November 29th in the New College of California Cultural Center, the Activism and Social Change Programs at New College will be presenting their 2nd Annual Festival of films focusing on resistance to injustice as well as re-visioning and creating a better world. 11am Velorution (1996) A lively portrait of Havana Cuba during the period shortly after the break up of the Soviet Union, when for lack of oil, Cuba adopted the bicycle as the major means of transportation. Return of the Scorcher (1992) A spirited celebration of the bicycle, which asks why this cheap, clean, quiet, and healthy method of transportation isn’t more widely used in America. Today, most of the world relies on the bicycle for basic transportation, while in America it’s now used primarily for recreation. This creative film raises fundamental questions about the nature of progress and seeks to inspire us to consider the bicycle as a pollution-free – and fun – way to solve some of our transportation problems. 12:05pm Zapatista (1998) January 1, 1994: A few minutes after midnight in Southeastern Mexico and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as just become law. During the night, a small band of Indian rebels rises up in the state of Chiapas demanding local autonomy. They call themselves the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). Combining the raw intensity of footage from the front lines with a hip digital aesthetic, Zapatista is the definitive look at the uprising in Chiapas. Edited and designed by the Media Boutique using the latest non-linear technology, it is the story of how a few thousand Mayan peasants have transformed the political culture of Mexico forever. 1:10pm Aftermath: Unanswered Questions From 9/11 (2003) With the increasing controversy surrounding the federal probe into the September 11 terrorist attacks, Guerrilla News Network decided to pre-empt the government and produce its own version of a 'truth commission'. Aftermath features nine people answering eleven questions that emanate from the terrible and, as yet, unexplained, events of that day. As you will see, these are questions that continue to overshadow and critically challenge the official 'version' of the story. 2:05pm El Che (1998) Extraordinary documentary of Che Guevara, the man in the beret with the star, embodying one of the strongest myths of the 20th century. Using heretofore unseen archival footage, this film chronicles the life of the uncompromising revolutionary from his early life in Argentina through his radicalization in 1950’s Latin America, to his Commandante role in the Cuban revolution, and controversial departure to pursue a broader revolutionary effort - “One, two, many Vietnams . . .” - from Bolivia where he was murdered in a CIA led operation and thus became a permanent and world-wide symbol of the “guerilla heroica”. 3:45pm We Interrupt This Empire (2003) What happens when a trigger-happy cowboy with a pocket full of loot aims his guns on an oil-rich, people-poor nation? The San Francisco Bay Area Video Activist Network presents the story you won't see on Fox News: an eye-popping, jaw-dropping look at the Bay Area's radical resistance to an illegal 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 live broadcasts of Enemy Combatant Radio from the SF Independent Media, 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 corporate media coverage of the war and exploring such issues as the Military Industrial Complex, attack on civil liberties, and the United States' current imperialist drive. 4:55pm Black Panther Party & Beyond (1996) Opening with a montage of four hundred years of race injustice in America, this powerful documentary provides the historical context for the establishment of the 60's civil rights movement. Rare clips of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton and other activists transport one back to those tumultuous times. Organized by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, the Black Panther Party embodied every major element of the civil rights movement which preceded it and inspired the black, brown, yellow, Native American and women's power movements which followed The party struck fear in the hearts of the "establishment" which viewed it as a terrorist group. Interviews with former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, CIA officer Philip Agee, and FBI agents Wes Swearingen and Bill Turner shockingly detail a "secret domestic war" of assassination, imprisonment and torture as the weapons of repression. Yet, the documentary is not a paean to the Panthers, for while it praises their early courage and moral idealism. it exposes their collapse due to megalomania, corruption, drugs, and narcissism 7:00pm Manufacturing Consent (1993) Funny, provocative and surprisingly accessible, Manufacturing Consent explores the political life and ideas of Noam Chomsky, world-renowned linguist, intellectual and political activist. In a dynamic collage of new and original footage, biography, archival gems, imaginative graphics and outrageous illustrations, the film highlights Chomsky's probing analysis of mass media. A mammoth, two-part project, Manufacturing Consent is nonetheless light on its feet, favoring a style that encourages viewers to question its own workings, as Chomsky himself encourages his listeners to extricate themselves from this "web of deceit" by undertaking a course of "intellectual self-defense." Appearing in the film are major journalists and critics, including Bill Moyers, William F. Buckley, Jr., Tom Wolfe, Peter Jennings, philosopher Michel Foucault, Nightline producer Jeff Greenfield, White House reporter Sarah McClendon, New York Times editorial writer Karl E. Meyer and revisionist author Robert Faurisson. All Day Pass: $3 (no one turned away for lack of funds!)