Laborfest: Films & Photos on US Schools and Mexico

The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman
(65 min.) 2011
Produced, directed, filmed and edited by; Julie Cavanagh (teacher), Darren Marrelli (school social worker), Norm Scott (retired teacher), Mollie Bruhn (teacher), Lisa Donlan (parent).
It is the antidote to the massive propaganda campaign to push privatization of education in the film “Waiting For Superman” last year. The film was also made by teachers and parents and is an antidote to the pro-privatization propaganda.
The organized coordinated destruction of public education through charter schools and making the schools “profit centers” pushed by the Bill Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation is a critical issue for all those interested in defending public education.
Teachers from San Francisco will join the discussion following the film.
There will be a Photo display by Kilo of the more than 70,000 educators and other members of the Seccion 22 teachers’ movement in Oaxaca, Mexico, who are striking and taking occupation action against privatization and the destruction of public education pushed by US billionaires and Arnie Duncan, Obama’s secretary of Education.
http://www.waitingforsupermantruth.org
(Discussion follows)

7:45
Backyard (el traspatio) (122 min.) (2009)
Directed by Carlos Carrera
Sabina Berman, the most important screenwriter in Mexico has written a powerful screenplay on the conditions and causes of the attacks of women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. In an epidemic of murders, thousands of women workers in Juarez have been kidnapped and killed. We learn about their conditions and the war zone in Mexico, which are the center of this detective mystery. Behind the story is the role of NAFTA and the “Free Trade” zone imposed by the US on Mexico. While promising to “help” Mexico, NAFTA has created a slave labor union free environment for multi-nationals with a militarized drug war that threatens the lives of people throughout the region. Chelis Lopez of Radio Bi-Lingual will participate in a discussion after the film.
On Sabina Berman:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0075843/bio
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0075843/awards
See also:
http://www.laborfest.net/2011/2011Films.htm#5
http://www.laborfest.net/2011/2011schedule.htm#2