1

2 3

Almost a century ago, the world witnessed a historic event — one that can never be forgotten —when the oppressed people of one nation stood up, fought and won against tyranny, injustice and oppression. It was the October revolution that founded the former Soviet Union. It was a genuine revolution. It was radical and it changed a whole system in one nation and even influenced others.

Immediately after the October Revolution, cinema, as well as theatre and other art forms, played a role in educating the mostly illiterate Russian masses. The films were carried to the masses by the Agit-Prop trains. Cinema then played a significant role in the political mobilization of the masses and not just for simple entertainment.

Such a victorious revolution of the oppressed may seem unimaginable right now, perhaps for many of us. How can we imagine such a thing to even happen right now?

How could we, when most of us probably grew up being taught and told that radical-ism, leftism, socialism, communism or any isms in that side of the political hemisphere is bad, especially in a country like the Philippines where backward-conservatism had been inculcated by centuries of colonial and semi-colonial rule. “Be contented and thankful for what you have, this is God’s will”, my teacher used to tell me.

However, I am not here to debate you on religion. Neither will I discuss the merits of socialism or communism. Let us save that for another time. I will tell you though that the “unimaginable” idea of the oppressed people rising up, making a true revolution happen, changing a whole society for the betterment of the majority of the people is RIGHT. What is WRONG is how we imagine the world today, or rather, how we are made to imagine our world.

Here in the Philippines, the notion of a revolution by perhaps most people is that of the “peaceful uprisings” in EDSA that toppled the Marcos dictatorship in 1986 and the Estrada regime in 2001. Tyrants and corrupt leaders may have fallen during those events, but it did not change the ruling system in the country. The 1896 anti-colonial revolution of the Katipunan on the other hand, is more likely to be abstract especially to the young generation of Filipinos today. To many, an armed revolution such as that may probably seem “a thing of the past”. It is not the fault of this generation though because, again, there is something wrong with how we are made to imagine the world today.

What is wrong is that the popular modes of culture, arts, communication, including the mainstream media are controlled and dominated by those who perpetrate the injustices and oppression against the people of the world. They are those who would not want the workers to ask for better wages and benefits because it would mean less profit for them. They are those who would not want peasants to call for land

reform because it is their own land that will be “reformed.” They are those who would not want the young generation to learn about human rights, justice and democracy because they are afraid that those young people might rise up against them one day. They are those who would want the people to remain subservient to their own dic-tates and would tell you that socialism is bad, communism is bad or resistance is bad.

They are the ruling elites. They are those who occupy the seats of power; those who make laws, those who own giant corporations and vast lands and wealth. They are the big corporations, financial-aristocrats that make up the imperialist power, with the United States at its epicenter. They dominate and control the big media, the main-stream film industry, education, etc. How then can we imagine the world differently?

This is where cinema literally and figuratively enters the picture. Cinema is an undeni-ably powerful tool for shaping one’s notions of reality and the big Hollywood compa-nies have capitalized on this, not only for profit, but to promote the imperialist agenda. Cinema has been an extension of US political hegemony.

But at the same time, we can also mobilize cinema to present counter discourses as what has been done by the Soviets. Through the Agit-Prop trains, cinema’s potential to educate and empower the masses had been realized. It has effectively shown that cinema as a mass medium has limitless potential to create avenues for alternative imaginings in which struggle, justice and a humane society is possible.

Cinema became a form for countering the dominant notions during that time. It be-came an alternative. This is what the AGITPROP film festival is aiming to do— to give us an alternative way of imagining our world today. Through the films about genuine peoples struggles, we aim to ignite a collective imagination of a society that stands up against oppression and exploitation. We want to introduce to everyone’s imagination the possibility of a more just and humane society. We hope to send out a message that it is right to rise up and resist injustices, oppression and exploitation. It is right to fight for human rights, for the environment, against discrimination, for freedom and liberation.

Gil Scott-Heron once cautioned that the revolution will not be televised and he is right. But until that happens, it wouldn’t hurt if we, together, witness on the silver screen how parts of revolutions from various places around the world come together.

REEL FREEDOM, REAL CHANGE.RJ MabilinST eXposureAGITPROP Festival Director

4 5

It makes total sense that in the Philippines you have film fest called AGITPROP – in a country where there is a powerful people’s movement to inspire and channel the energies and creative efforts of filmmakers who have taken the side of the people and want to advance social change and support an anti-imperialist and even a socialist perspective.

Activism and filmmaking do not need to be separate life choices. In our experience, filmmakers who want to make films that will contribute to fundamental social and political change should be activists too. Of course such artists have to be ready to accept sacrifice and not expect fame and fortune.

With the AGITPROP Festival you have rightly chosen to celebrate and applaud the efforts of these filmmakers and the creative collectives and teams they create with. Because in the end, the best agit-prop cinema is a collective creative process, the result of contact building, many months if not years of preparation, fund raising, research, recording, editing, graphics, music, sound and graphic design, translation, new media input, distributors of all descriptions, support of family, friends and community, and last but not least… a lot of hard, often grinding work.

It’s clear that making progressive and agit-prop films is not about simply translating a line or a policy into film. It is using the creative capacities of artists who know the medium to multiply the message in a way that others would not think of. A way to touch the heart, the emotions, to stimulate and to arouse to action, in ways involving sight, sound and movement that words on paper or other forms of art cannot.

The term agit-prop comes from a long tradition of agitation and propaganda. Agit-prop was used to describe a highly political theatre popular during the 1920’s and embodied in the plays of Bertolt Brecht, for example. We have come to understand that agitation acts primarily on the emotions, with propaganda acting primarily on the mind to fill in the blanks and bring about that “Eureka” moment when it all suddenly makes sense and we are moved to action. As a result, we have tried in our films to touch the mind through the heart.

Throughout history, knowledge is something that has been guarded jealously by those in power, ensuring that the education of slaves and workers are only prepared to work hard in their fields, factories and offices.

Of course in the 21st Century under modern industrialized production, workers must be educated to a certain degree. But then the question arises: what is the ideology and political outlook they are educated with, what is the most common world view they are steeped in? Inevitably, it’s those of the ruling elite. Of course this class bias is hidden under an unending barrage of information and sound and image bites in our world of iPhones, YouTubes, FBs and Twits.

AGITPROP Festival is an attempt to counter that… to offer another perspective from the point of view of the working and toiling people, from the forces on the ground, from the forces working to topple the system of exploitation, wars of aggression and oppression. We salute your initiative and the fine films and filmmakers you are honouring and wish many more years of success to the AGITPROP Festival.

Malcolm Guy and Marie BotiProductions Multi-Monde

There is a great need for human rights advocates around the world to unite, a need for workers for social justice to join forces together to promote peoples’ struggles for justice and liberation.

It is in the light of this call that ST Exposure has prepared and now offers to us a film festival entitled “AGITPROP” to make us aware that the struggle of the Filipino people for justice and liberation is not an isolated one. The basic masses from their respective countries are also waging the same struggles for rights and welfare.

We salute and give thanks to ST Exposure for bringing us together to view and witness how people around the world demonstrate the exploitation, harassment and torture of the powerful upon the powerless poor, as well as the option of asserting the peoples’ strug-gles to claim justice and freedom.

We also recognize the participation of those who shared their time, talents and resources for AGITPROP to become a reality.

Let us promote the peoples’ struggles around the world.

Bishop Arturo R. AsiUCCP Bishop assigned to SLJA

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST IN THE PHILIPPINES South Luzon Juridictional Area

6 7

I join the organizers of AGITPROP in welcoming the participants and the public to this groundbreaking international film festival. That AGITPROP being held in the Philippines gives Filipino filmmakers and artists a distinct honor and inspiration to persevere in the movement for people’s democratic rights and genuine social liberation.

AGITPROP, through its outstanding entries, exemplifies the power of film and its new technology not merely to interpret the world but to change it. Such a commitment, however, could only find meaning and force if artists, filmmakers included, persist in being one with the people in their vision and course of action. Having said that, I wish that filmmakers forge ahead in creating what AGITPROP seeks – an enduring solidarity among people’s artists and people’s cultural organizations, the better to make films to change the world.

Bonifacio P. IlaganChair, First Quarter Storm MovementFilmmaker

For story tellers, being heard and watched is a very good start. AGITPROP is one of the very few screening events that curate films that aren't necessarily produced with the highest of production cost; as long as stories are well told and significant issues are presented clearly with strong evidence to back them up, and if you've reasonably decent production skills why shouldn't your work be screened?

With that kind of opportunity, producers who have to make do with anything they can get their hands on, have more just the internet to ensure their works reach wider audiences and that's just what EngageMedia have done with AGITPROP. You'll find an hour’s worth of curated short-format documentaries from EngageMedia that tell meaningful stories regardless of the resources available to produce them.

We are deeply grateful for this opprtuniy to work with the organizers of AGITPROP. We congratulate everyone who have worked tirelessly for the success of the festival!

Enrico AditjondroSoutheast Asia EditorEngageMedia.org

First Quarter Storm Movement

Office of the Chairperson

On behalf of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, I wish to express warmest greetings of solidarity to the organizers, the film makers and all participants in the AGITPROP International Film Festival.

For their success in organizing the festival, we congratulate the Southern Tagalog eXposure, Mayday Multimedia, Tudla productions, KODAO productions and all the cooperating multimedia and cultural groups.

We welcome and appreciate the AGITPROP film festival as a highly significant contribution to the growing international solidarity movement of the people along the anti-imperialist and democratic line. It provides a venue for a wide range of films that present the dismal social realities and the aspirations of the people of the world for greater freedom, democracy, social justice and all-round development.

Today, the movies that dominate the international film industry conceal or obscure the realities that are laid bare by the films in AGITPROP. They serve only as a tool to distract and bend the consciousness of the people towards subservience to the dictates of imperialism and reaction. This is also true in the case of other cultural art forms that inundate the mainstream media.

Since more than a century ago, US imperialism has used culture, the arts and the mass media to help maintain and expand its power, to manipulate the consciousness of the people and draw them away from resistance. For this purpose, it has propagated decadent bourgeois culture and values that are distinctively colonial, feudal, patriarchal, selfish, racist and fascist.

In recent decades, the US imperialists have systematically generated a culture of greed under the policy of neoliberal globalization and a culture of repression and aggression under the policy of global war of terror. They have misrepresented the forces and people that oppose and fight against imperialist plunder and war as terrorists, enemies of democracy and development and have targeted them for suppression.

US imperialism is the No. 1 terrorist, exploiter and oppressor of the world. The global economic and financial crisis that is ravaging the world today is rooted in the drive of the monopoly capitalists for superprofits at the expense of the people. We can expect the crisis to become worse, inflict more suffering on the people and incite them to struggle for their own national and social liberation.

In this context, the AGITPROP festival plays an important role. It shows us the way to counter cultural imperialism with revolutionary cultural work and advance the people’s struggle with the use of films and other art forms. These do not merely expose the bitter realities but they also constitute a direct action against imperialism and all the social ills that come with it.

We must have more AGITPROP festivals to inspire the artists, the cultural workers and the entire people to take the road of revolutionary resistance against imperialism and reaction.

Prof. Jose Maria SisonChairpersonInternational League of Peoples’ Struggle

8 9

BACKGROUND | Throughout the world, living conditions of majority of people remain difficult. Workers still do not receive livable wages, farmers and peasants remain enslaved by feudal relations, indigenous peoples are driven away from their ancestral lands. Similarly, human rights violations are widespread even in so-called democratic societies. For these reasons, people have learned to stand up and fight. Unfortunately, however, the brave struggles of people oftentimes fail to reach their much-needed popular support because they do not figure prominently in mainstream and commercial mass media. Nevertheless, there is a growing number of filmmakers and media activists who go out of their way to film these peoples’ struggles in the hope of spreading information and ideas that will lead to mobilizing people to support the plight of the oppressed. Through their works, we are able to hear and see social realities silenced and confused by the dominant modes and channels of information and imagination.

It is within this context that a festival of films about genuine peoples’ struggles is organized. Through this festival, we seek to present alternatives to popular modes of imagining the nation and the world. Featured in the festival are films about struggles in different countries. Through these films, we aim to cover the battles in two fronts: the reel and real. The name of the festival borrows the title of the educational campaign launched in Russia in the 1920s. It takes inspiration from Agit-prop’s position of promoting counter discourses through cinema, which is widely recognized for its crucial role in collective political mobilization. Ultimately, it recognizes that the visual is a critical site of struggle where the truth about our collective aspiration for a just and humane society is at stake.

Furthermore, the festival will be a venue where we can consolidate global efforts to produce a kind of cinema that is not only independent but also liberating. We have learned and validated from the history of our struggle that victories are won through committed collective action and this very much applies to cultural battles. As we drumbeat pressing issues such as human rights, welfare of the working class, and freedom from oppression among others, we also champion the cause of progressive artists and filmmakers who are encumbered by limited exhibition spaces for works teeming with artistic brilliance and social value and conscience. We seek to give them the audience they deserve in this festival. The screenings will be free of charge to accommodate more people. Simultaneously, we also provide filmmakers an opportunity to reach out to one another in the hope of forging unity in issues and concerns in their sector.

AGITPROP is an international festival of films that promote genuine peoples’ struggles all over the world. It takes the role of giving a much needed venue for films and filmmakers that dare present social realities, often silenced and confused by the dominant modes and channels of information. It is for films that take on the issue of imperialism and neoliberal globalization, resistance and liberation struggles, genuine democracy, human rights, and social justice among others.

THE FIRST AGITPROP FILM FESTIVAL 2011 | METRO MANILA, PHILIPPINES

AGITPROP FILM FESTIVAL 2011 is organized alongside two historic occasions – the 1st International Festival on People’s Rights and Struggles (IFPRS) and the 4th International Assembly of the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS).

The ILPS is an international organization which at present includes more than 350 member organizations from over 40 countries. The IFPRS, on the other hand, is an initiative of ILPS member organizations to give venue for the exchanges between sectoral groups around the world on issues of human rights, migrants’ rights, livelihood, welfare, women’s rights, culture and the arts, environment and social justice, among others.

Both events seek to forge a stronger and broader solidarity among organizations and individuals, including artists and cultural workers, in the struggle to advance and defend the people’s genuine democratic rights and aspirations throughout the world.

The festival is held on July 2-4 at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Metro Manila. After the launching, it will tour different parts of the country, especially universities. It is open to anyone or any organization from any country willing to promote and mount the festival outside of the Philippines.

AGITPROP 2011 will feature a total of 30 entries including award winning films such as “Cultures of Resistance” (U.S.), “Mirage of El Dorado” (Canada), “The Yes Men Fix the World” (U.S.) and “DUKOT/Disappeared” (Philippines).

Proponents of the 1st AGITPROP Film Festival 2011 Organizers:

ST EXPOSUREin cooperation with

MAYDAY MULTIMEDIA

TUDLA PRODUCTIONS

CONCERNED ARTISTS OF THE PHILIPPINES

FREE JONAS BURGOS MOVEMENT

ARTISTS’ ARREST

KODAO PRODUCTIONS

Program partner:

EngageMedia

Sponsors:

UCCP SOUTH LUZON JURISDICTIONAL AREAKARAPATAN - SOUTHERN TAGALOG

10 11

Acknowledgements:

Our co-presentors at the July 2--4, 2011 UP Diliman screening:CONTEND-UP

University Student Council–UP DilimanSTAND UP College of Mass Communication

UP Film InstituteUP College of Mass Communication

UCCP Middle Luzon JurisdictionInternational Festival on People’s Rights and Struggles

International Conference on Progressive Culture

Special thanks to:International League of Peoples’ Struggle

Kalikasan-Southern Tagalog Environmental Action MovementKalikasan People’s Network

Health Alliance for DemocracyUPLB Zoom Out

Ugnayan ng Nagkakaisang Artista-UP DilimanBAYAN-Southern TagalogProductions Multi-Mondeculturesofresistance.org

International RiversThe Freedom Archives

Cutcutcut filmsInternational Action for Liberation

Red Room ProductionsUCCP Shalom Center

Red Leaf Printing PressGuerilla Wear

ClicktheCity.com

All our family and friends

12

MAIN FEATURECATEGORY | Resistance, Liberation, Revolution

Cultures of ResistanceDirected by Iara Lee | Caipirinha Productions | Documentary | 73 mins | 2010 | International

Does each gesture really make a difference? Can music and dance be weapons of peace? In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, director Iara Lee embarked on a journey to better understand a world increasingly embroiled in conflict and, as she saw it, heading for self-destruction. After several years, travelling over five continents, Iara encountered growing numbers of people who committed their lives to promoting change. This is their story. From IRAN, where graffiti and rap became tools in fighting government repression, to BURMA, where monks acting in the tradition of Gandhi take on a dictatorship, moving on to BRAZIL, where musicians reach out to slum kids and transform guns into guitars, and ending in PALESTINIAN refugee camps in LEBANON, where photography, music, and film have given a voice to those rarely heard, CULTURES OF RESISTANCE explores how art and creativity can be ammunition in the battle for peace and justice.

Featuring: Medellín poets for peace, Capoeira masters from Brazil, Niger Delta militants, Iranian graffiti artists, women’s movement leaders in Rwanda, Lebanon’s refugee filmmakers, U.S. political pranksters, indigenous Kayapó activists from the Xingu River, Israeli dissidents, hip-hop artists from Palestine, and many more...

Festivals and AwardsBest Documentary, Tiburon International Film FestivalGreen Rose Award, Jaipur International Film FestivalPython Audience Prize, Jury Special Mentions, Ouidah International Film FestivalBest Documentary on Human Rights, Steps International Film FestivalIDFA/DOC FEST, Amsterdam 2010Hawaii International Film Festival 2010Rio De Janeiro International Film Festival 2010

Iara Lee, a Brazilian of Korean descent, is an activist, filmmaker, and founder of the Caipirinha Foundation, an organization that promotes global solidarity and supports peace with justice projects. Iara is currently working on a variety of initiatives, grouped under the umbrella of CULTURES OF RESISTANCE, an activist network that brings together artists and changemakers from around the world. At the center of these initiatives is a feature-length documentary film entitled CULTURES OF RESISTANCE, which explores how creative action contributes to conflict prevention and resolution.

As an activist, Iara has collaborated with numerous grassroots efforts, including the International Campaign to Ban Cluster Munitions, the New York Philharmonic’s groundbreaking 2008 music-for-diplomacy concert in North Korea and creative resistance projects in Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine. In May 2010, Iara was a passenger on the MV Mavi Marmara, a passenger vessel in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla which was attacked in international waters by the Israeli navy, leading to the murder of nine humanitarian aid workers. Among the many people who recorded the events on that ship, her crew was the only one to successfully hide and retain most of the raid footage, which she later released to the world after a screening at the UN. Iara is very dedicated to the support of Gazan civilians who have been victims of war crimes committed by the Israeli military during “Operation Cast Lead” and who suffer from the Israeli government’s ongoing acts of collective punishment.

At the onset of the Iraq war in 2003, Iara, eager to understand the conflict better, decided to travel and live in the MENA region (Middle East & North Africa). While residing in Lebanon in 2006, Iara experienced firsthand the 34-day Israeli bombardment of that country. Since then, moved by that experience, she has dedicated herself to the pursuit of a just peace in the region, and is an enthusiastic supporter of those initiatives which strengthen adherence to international law in enforcing human rights.

FEATURED FILMMAKER |

www.culturesofresistance.org13

CATEGORY | Resistance, Liberation, RevolutionThe Yes Men Fix the WorldDirected by Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno | Documentary | 96 mins | 2009 | U.S.

THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world’s most outrageous pranks.

From New Orleans to India to New York City, armed with little more than cheap thrift-store suits, the Yes Men squeeze raucous comedy out of all the ways that corporate greed is destroying the planet.

Brüno meets Michael Moore in this gut-busting wake-up call that proves a little imagination can go a long way towards vanquishing the Cult of Greed.

Who knew fixing the world could be so much fun?

Festivals and AwardsSundance Film Festival 2009

Audience Award, Berkshire International Film Festival 2009Audience Award, Berlin International Film Festival 2009

Audience Award, Planet Doc Festival, Warsaw, 2009

determiNATION songsDirected by Michelle Smith and Paul Rickard | Productions Multi-Monde | Documentary | 78 mins | 2009 | Canada

In determiNATION songs three native artists use voice, rhythms, samples and guitar riffs to cut through big ‘P’ politics to reveal a vibrant native music scene while exposing the realities and struggles in their communities. As resistance grows across Indian country, this film about music, art and politics pulls aboriginal stories from the back pages and puts them squarely at the front of the stage.

Directed by Michelle Smith and Paul Rickards, determiNATION songs interweaves the stories of three talented native singer/songwriters - Samian, Cheri Maracle and CerAmony – through the artists’ creative process, inspiration, commitment and involvement with the resistance movements in their communities.

14

Sounds of a New HopeDirected by Eric Tandoc | Documentary | 40 mins | 2009 | U.S. / Philippines

A documentary film about the life of Filipino-American MC Kiwi and the growing use of hip-hop as an organizing tool in the people’s movement for national liberation and democracy in the Philippines.

Ates Cemberinde Gül Yüzler / Smiling Face in the Circle of FireDirected by Mustafa Kilinc | Documentary | 60 mins | 2010 | Germany / Philippines

This film tells the story of the history, poverty and the ongoing peoples war, happening in the Philippines . The film shows the life of the guerillas and their fight against the root problems of society. It also shows poverty in the urban centers of the country.

In Search of LiberationDirected by Linde Moriau | Documentary | 26 mins | 2008| Belgium/Philippines

In 2008, 7 members of Intal, a Belgian solidarity movement, went to the Philippines on an exposure trip. They met with activists from different sectors (farmers, women, trade unionists, human rights activists). The documentary reflects the story of Filipinos who tell about their resolve to keep fighting for their rights.

Ang Sandaling Sadya ni Lire and Isa / Lire and Isa’s Unforgettable EncounterDirected by Francis Losaria | Fiction | 28 mins | 2010 | Philippines

Lire is on a special delivery errand for his father. Isa, meanwhile, is armed with a grocery list and a message. Their paths cross on the way to the barrio. In any other place, it would be a normal afternoon where children meet, share songs and toys and stories, maybe even take a liking to each other. But it is Christmas time in the Philippine countryside, amidst a long-standing guerilla war. Here, boys and girls have no choice but to grow up fast, because in a place like this, even kids cannot be so innocent.

Festivals and AwardsBreakthrough Film Award, 2nd Pandayang Lino Brocka Political Film and New Media Festival 20103rd Best Short Narrative Film, 22nd Gawad CCP for Alternative Film and VideoNominee, Best Short Film, 34th Gawad Urian, 2011

15

CATEGORY | Resistance, Liberation, Revolution

FestivalsRencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM)International Festival of Audiovisual Programs - Biarritz (FIPA)Les Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois (RVCQ)

Montreal Human Rights Film Festival (FFDPM)Dreamspeakers Film Festival, Edmonton, CanadaMontreal First Peoples Festival 2010, QuebecAmerican Indian Film Festival, San Francisco

Dukot (Desaparecidos) / DisappearedDirected by Joel Lamangan | Political Drama | 2009 | 100 mins | Philippines

The film takes off from the abduction of Junix who is listed in the so-called Order of Battle of the military, actually a death list. A student leader, he left school to devote his full time to organizing peasants and the indigenous community in the hills. On the early morning that he disappears, he meets up with his girlfriend Maricel who works in a call center. She used to be a student activist, too, but had abandoned the movement for family reasons.

The parents of Junix team up with Sonia, Maricel’s widowed mother, to search for the missing. Ably assisted by a human rights group, they go to military camps, morgues, and common graves. They, too, seek the intervention of the court of justice. The quest leads them nowhere – until a damning piece of evidence against the military establishment surfaces. Meanwhile, Junix and Maricel undergo untold torture in the course of their interrogation.

In this horrid sojourn in search of the missing, the story of Junix and Maricel – and the seething unrest and its consequent social movement in the Philippines – unravels.

“Dukot” is based on true stories. All incidents in it have actually happened.

16

Operation 8 : Deep in the ForestDirected by Errol Wright and Abi King-Jones| Cutcutcut Films | Documentary | 110 mins | 2011 | New Zealand

Operation 8 examines the so-called ‘anti-terror’ raids that took place around New Zealand / Aotearoa on October 15, 2007 – asking how and why they took place, and at what cost to those targeted.

On October 15th 2007, activists around New Zealand woke to guns in their faces. Black-clad police smashed down doors, dragging families out onto roads and detaining some without food or water. In the village of Ruatoki, helicopters hovered while locals were stopped at roadblocks. Operation 8 involved 18 months of invasive surveillance of Maori sovereignty and peace activists accused of attending terrorist training camps in the Urewera ranges – homeland of the Tuhoe people. Operation 8 asks why and how the raids took place. How did the War on Terror become a global witch-hunt of political dissenters reaching even to the South Pacific?

Festivals2011 World Cinema Showcase (New Zealand)2011 Melbourne International Film Festival (Australia)

Help stop human rights violations in the Philippines, visit www.karapatan.org

COINTELPRO 101The Freedom Archives | Documentary | 56 mins | 2010 | U.S.

COINTELPRO may not be a well-understood acronym but its meaning and continuing impact are absolutely central to understanding the US government’s wars and repression against progressive movements. COINTELPRO is both a formal program of the FBI and a term frequently used to describe a conspiracy among government agencies—local, state, and federal—to destroy movements for self-determination and liberation for Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous struggles.

AwardBest Documentary | 2011 North Carolina Black Film Festival

UCCP: Sa Hamon ng PanahonDirected by Bonifacio Ilagan | Kodao Productions and UCCP |55 mins | 2009 | Philippines

“O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure.”

- Psalm 7:9

“Sa Hamon ng Panahon” is a documentary drama about human rights and the oppression against activist church workers in the Philippines. It tackles the issue of human rights and investigates the alleged state-sponsored murders of UCCP church members and human rights activist Joel Baclao and Rev. Edison Lapuz, and abduction and torture of Rev. Berlin Guerrero.

Listen To Our VoiceThe Secretariat for Peace and Justice (SKP) Papua & Witness | Documentary | 15mins | 2011 | Indonesia

Stories told by torture survivors in West Papua. The film was screened for the member of the UN Committee Against Torture during its session on reviewing the situation of torture in Indonesia on May 5-7, 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland.

EngageMediacurated film

17

Festivals and Awards2009 Montreal World Film Festival Best Picture, 58th Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) Awards

Best Story, Best Film, Best Actor, Best Director, 8th Gawad TanglawBest Film, Best Film Story, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematographer, Best Editor, 4th Gawad Genio Awards

CATEGORY | Justice and Human Rights

Feature on JUSTICE and HUMAN RIGHTS

19

‘Wag Kang Titingin / Look AwayDirected by Pam Miras | Digital Cheese | Fiction | 8 mins | 2010 | Philippines

A father and his two young daughters travel through a war-torn area. The father explains to his eldest why they needed to shield the youngest from what’s really happening around them. The eldest finally understands and vows to protect her sister. But how far will she go to keep her promise?

Festivals and AwardsBest Short, 6th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Competition 2010Best Short Film, 34th Gawad Urian 2011World Film Festival Bangkok 2010

43ST eXposure and Anino Shadowplay Collective | Documentary | 14 mins | 2010 | Philippines

On February 6, 2010, 43 health workers conducting a medical training in Morong, Rizal were arrested and wrongfully accused of being members of the communist New People’s Army. They suffered physical and psychological torture while in military custody.

“43” is a short documentary on the plight of the arrested health workers. It uses shadowplay to dramatize their experience in the hands of their captors.

AwardsBest Film, Best Director, Audience Choice - Dcumentary Category, PELIKULTURA: 1st Calabarzon Film Festival 2011

The Torture of Tunaliwor KiwoEngageMedia | Public Service Advertisment | 2 mins | 2010 | Indonesia

West Papuan farmer Tunaliwor Kiwo recounts the details of his torture by Indonesian soldiers on 30 May 2010. Join the struggle to end violence against all peoples.

Eksenang Tahimik / A Quiet SceneDirected by JL Burgos | Poetry in motion | 10 mins | 2009 | Philippines

Eksenang Tahimik poignantly depicts the human rights situation of the Philippines through the eyes of the victims’ families. It exposes the horrors of a regime that silences at all cost those who are critical of their policies. It takes the audience along the agonizing search, for many always yielding to nothing.

EngageMediacurated film

CATEGORY | Justice and Human Rights

Feature on ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM

Mirage of El DoradoDirected by Martin Frigon | Productions Multi-Monde | Documentary | 75 mins | 2008 | Canada/Chile

Mirage of El Dorado leads us into the mountains of northern Chile, where the devastating operations of Canadian mining companies threaten a fragile ecosystem in one of the driest parts of the globe.

Our political cowboy flick follows the pitched battle between a farming community in the Huasco valley and Canada’s mining giant Barrick Gold with its sidekick Noranda (now part of the Suisse corporation Xstrata). It’s a battle fought high in the Cordilleran Andes where farmers and local representatives fear the ravages of open pit mining operations in a place where a fragile system of glaciers feeds the rivers that flow into the farmlands built out of the advancing Atacama desert.

The camera reveals a Chilean government impotent in the face of unprecedented, potentially devastating, mining projects. The film also exposes the hypocrisy of the Canadian government towards its own mining companies and which corrupt foreign governments weaken the process of environmental assessments. The permissive legislation enjoyed by the Canadian transnationals was imposed under the Pinochet dictatorship and carried over by successive transition governments, bowing to the dictates of neoliberal economics.

Productions Multi-Monde is an independent film company that creates and produces social and political documentaries as well as fiction and animation films. Founded by Malcolm Guy and Marie Boti in 1987, Productions Multi-Monde (PMM) work is directly linked to their work in social movements at home and abroad. Their aim, to create a collaborative filmmaking community, where new filmmakers can work on their projects in a supportive environment. Based entirely out of Montreal, Quebec, their films have taken them around the world, exploring and exposing world issues and their impacts at a local level.

Malcolm and Marie are both veteran documentary filmmakers. Their films look at a variety of local and international issues, with a particular interest in the Philippines. Malcolm is one of the founders of the Centre for Philippine Concerns in Montreal where Marie is also a long standing member.

Festivals and AwardsGrand Prize, 26th Festival International du Film d’Environnement 2008 in Paris.Grand Prize, 7th Festival Internacional de Cine Digital de Vina del Mar 2009Festival des Films du Monde de Montréal 2008Festival du film de Sept-Îles 2009Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois 2009

Festival de films de Portneuf sur l’environnementGreen Film Festival in SeoulDOXA Documentary Film FestivalFestival RésistancesCinemaissi 2009, Festival de cine latinoamericano y caribeño - FinlandiaFIDADOC, Agadir, Morocco

18

20

Sarawak GoneDirected by Andrew Garton | Documentary | 2010 | Australia/Malaysia

Sarawak Gone is a micro-documentary series raising awareness to the persistent decline of indigenous life and culture in Sarawak, the native land titles and human rights that remain at stake and the rapidly diminishing habitats that remain.

Sarawak is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo and is home to more than 40 unique sub-ethnic groups, or Dayaks. These include the Penan, Iban, Bidayuh, Kenyah and Kelabit.

The Dam seriesDams are big business in Sarawak. No less than 12 dams are proposed for construction. Described as Malaysia’s Renewable Energy Corridor, and claims that the program responds to dwindling energy resources and climate change, has already seen the relocation of more than 10,000 indigenous peoples as the first dam, the infamous Bakun Dam, gets under way.

It is alleged that the construction of these dams will increase the wealth and power of Sarawak’s Chief Minister’s family and their operatives. In doing so, this internationally condemned project will see relocation of the last of Sarawak’s forest communities and the inundation of precious primary forest and native habit.

The Headman SeriesOn the 23 October 2007 Kelesau Naan, the Headman of the Penan village, Long Kerong, left his wife at a rest area in the forest to check on his traps. He never returned. Two months later his remains were found scattered across the Segita River.

Presented by his son, Nick Kelesau, The Headman explores the events leading up to his disappearance. Kelesau Naan sought only to protect his people and their native customary right to the land they have lived in for centuries. His struggles may well had been his peril, but as Nick and his fellow Penan explain, his legacy endures.

visit toysatellite.org/sarawak-gone/

A River Runs Through UsDirected by Carla Pataky | Documentary | 22 mins | 2011 | International

A River Runs Through Us offers a personal and hopeful introduction to the issue of the impacts of large dams on the world’s rivers, as told by the activists at the forefront of the global movement to stop destructive dams.

FestivalsColumbia Gorge International Film Festival 2011Geography of Hope Film Festival 2011

Bikpela Bagarap / Big DamageDirected by David Fedele | Documentary | 46 mins | 2011 | Australia/Papua New Guinea

The story is told through the voice of villagers. It is a tale of exploitation and broken promises, where local people are treated as second-rate citizens in their own country by Malaysian logging companies and corrupt politicians. Customary landowners are forced into signing documents they don’t understand, for the promise of “development” – fresh water, roads, health and education, but these essential services are rarely provided. Instead, their traditional hunting ground is destroyed, and their traditional way of life is ruined forever.

Filmmaker David Fedele spent almost three months traveling solo in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea, in order to film Bikpela Bagarap. Based in Vanimo town, David traveled extensively into the jungle visiting local villages and exploring current and past logging operations. A lot of time was also spent in two of the main logging camps in Sandaun Province – Maka Basecamp and Amanab 56 Basecamp.

Carteret Islands : Documenting Culture onIslands Disappearing under the Sea

Directed by Tara Jones | Documentary | 18 mins | 2011| Australia / Papua New Guinea

The Carteret Islands, low lying atolls east of Bouganville and Papua New Guinea, are being threatened by a rapidly advancing ocean. This has caused its population to become one of the first indigenous cultures forced to prepare for and implement measures for the permanent resettlement of their entire community. This film was a cultural documentation project carried out to assist the Carteret Islanders with preserving cultural knowledge and continuity across community fragmentation and resettlement.

EngageMediacurated film

Bunker 0 : Sumirib PlusDirected by Jan Philippe V. Carpio | Documentary | 11 mins | 2006 | Philippines

The film focuses on the lives, thoughts, feelings and coping mechanisms of the people of Sitio Sumirib, Guimaras province, as they face difficult times brought about by a man-made ecological disaster caused by a massive oil spill from the sunken tanker Solar 1 chartered by the Petron Oil Corporation.

Festivals20th Gawad CCP for Alternative Film and Video 2007In Competition, 10th ECO-ETNO-FOLK Film Festival, Slătioara, Romania 20081st Pandayang Lino Brocka Political Film and New Media Festival 20091st Festival Internacional de Cinema Independente, Rio Claro, Brazil 2009

Gaharu: Selamatkan Manusia dan Hutan Papua /Save the People and Forests of Papua

Directed by Andre Rimbayana | Sec’t for Justice and Peace (SKP) Merauke, Papua | Documentary | 16 mins | 2010 | Indonesia

The documentary explains the multidimensional impacts of the gaharu trade on the environment and indigenous Auwyu dan Wiyaghar, in Assue District, Mappi, in the South of Papua Province. The film then explores the new hopes that emerged with the deployment of a government fact finding team to resolve the issues, which produced some solutions, suggestions, and reduced disagreement.

EngageMediacurated film

CATEGORY | Environmental Activism CATEGORY | Environmental Activism

21

Ka BelMayday Multimedia | Documentary-drama | 60 mins | 2010 | Philippines

An inspiring documentary on the extraordinary life and struggle of Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran, a Filipino working class hero and internationalist. The documentary attempts to capture through portrayals and stories of people close to him, how a poor peasant child came to be a revered leader who championed workers’ rights from the factory gates up to the halls of parliament, until he breath his last in his humble abode.

Feature on PLIGHT of the OPPRESSED

Diagnosing Poverty, Building CommunityDirected by Ron Magbuhos Papag and Bedette Libres | Kodao Pruductions and Intal| Documentary | 33 mins | Philippines

“All our achievements are fruit of the people’s unity. Without, we would have been defeated. That’s how we were able to survive.”

This is how Manang Anita, Filipino community health worker, summarizes the essence of her community’s struggle for health.

Diagnosing Poverty, Building Community tells the story of Filipinos who take their health and their future into their own hands like the poor peasant in Bukidnon, Mindanao, And Gene and Julie, two young doctors from Manila.

It is the story of Baby Jessie, a child from a remote indigenous community, who almost died because of his government’s neglect and wrong priorities. Most of all, it is the story of ordinary people’s courage to organized them.

The Oak Park Story Directed by Valerie Soe and Russell Jeung | Documentary | 22 mins | Color | 2010 | U.S.

Facing unsanitary housing conditions that led to the hospitalization of several children, 44 households of Oak Park banded together to sue and eventually won a landmark settlement, against their landlord. Despite the victory, this too brought about some surprising, unintended consequences.

Hingalo / BreathlessDirected by Anna Isabelle Matutina | Fiction |10 mins | 2010 | Philippines

A desperate man tries to save his wife and the life of his unborn child in what seems to be the longest ride of his life.

Kinulayang Kiti / Hand-painted FeathersDirected by Richard Legaspi | Red Room Productions | Fiction | 24 mins | 2009 | Philippines

A young boy learns to have his own painted chick believing that it can bring back to life the father who was shot to death in a picketline.

A Step Back In TimeDirected by Indiriani Kopal | Documentary | 10 mins | 2010 | Malaysia

Batu Arang, a small town in a Malaysia - was the birthplace of many radical unions. The Coal Workers Union had a leading role in some of the largest strikes of the period when they protested over their working conditions and poor wages.

Let’s Not Be AfraidTransAsia Sisters Association, Taiwan | Documentary | 44 mins | 2010 | Taiwan

More than 430,000 foreign spouses from China and Southeast Asian countries marry to Taiwanese. Many of them are women from poor families in rural areas in their native countries. Like everyone else, they dream for a happy marriage and a better future. However, only when they arrive in Taiwan, they realize that they are treated as “others” who are strangled by discriminative policies.

CATEGORY | Plight of the Oppressed

2322

24