Films/Videos
Foreign Policy In Focus in early 2001 is concentrating on the U.S.-backed
war in Colombia. Below are listed films and videos related to the war,
U.S. drug policy, or related subjects, such as the Andean nations. If
you are interested, please contact them directly.
America's War on Drugs
1997/28 minutes/America's Defense Monitor
The U.S. spends about $20 billion a year on antinarcotics efforts. This
video examines how America spends huge sums trying to stop the production
of drugs in Latin America, while doing comparatively little to curb domestic
demand through treatment and education. Despite the heavy investment in
crop eradication, interdiction, and counternarcotics military aid in "source"
countries such as Colombia, more illegal drugs--of higher quality and
at cheaper prices--are entering the U.S. today. In its effort to wage
a war on drugs, the U.S. subsidizes exports of weapons to Latin America,
contributing to human rights abuses and the militarization of already-violent
and unstable countries.
http://www.cdi.org/adm/1038
Coca Mama: The War on Drugs
2001/52 minutes/Jan Thielen production
The U.S. recently launched another billion dollar aid package to intensify
its "War on Drugs." But some analysts fear that this war may
become another Vietnam. Filmed over the course of a year in four countries,
this documentary brings us coca-growing peasants, anti-narcotic patrols,
and U.S. law-makers, and gains unique access to the Colombian rebels who
stand accused of protecting the drug trade. Drug production is inspired
by poverty and poverty is catalyzed by war. This powerful documentary
makes it clear that until the U.S. stops giving military aid to countries
like Colombia, the War on Drugs will rumble interminably and expensively
on.
http://www.journeyman.co.uk/srchres3.asp?txtRefNo=926
Email: info@journeyman.co.uk
Colombia in Crisis
1999/29 minutes/America's Defense Monitor
Colombia's civil war has decimated much of the economy, leaving many people
little choice but to engage in growing and processing cocaine and, increasingly,
heroin. All sides of the conflict--from the FARC and ELN guerrillas, to
the right-wing paramilitaries aligned with the army--are involved in the
lucrative, illegal drug trade. The United States, instead of attacking
the problem at its social and economic root, has embarked on a protracted
military aid program in the hope that anti-insurgency training and weapons
proliferation will resolve the situation.
http://www.cdi.org/adm/1315
Dealing with the Demon
1997/First Run/Icarus Films
After 75 years of a concerted global fight to restrict the supply of addictive
drugs, the world is currently facing unprecedented levels of illicit drug
production, with ten times more heroin being produced now than during
the last "plague" in the 1970s. "Dealing with the Demon"
examines how we find ourselves in this situation despite the massive international
war on drugs, and what can possibly be done about it. Filmed in fifteen
different countries (in Asia, North America, Australia, and Europe) at
considerable risk to the filmmakers, "Dealing with the Demon"
is a compelling view of one of the darkest aspects of recent history.
Each film in the series interweaves contemporary human stories with crucial
scenes from the history of the drug trade, providing a provocative and
timely commentary from which to view the ongoing debate.
Episode I--The Seeds of War traces the growth of the international
drug trade and the failure of the U.S.-led process of international prohibition
to contain it.
Episode II--An Unholy Alliance examines the relationship between
the drug trade and war, detailing the involvement of the CIA in Vietnam
and Afghanistan during the Cold War.
Episode III--Containing the Fallout investigates the spread of
heroin use, its role in fueling the AIDS epidemic, and explores the most
effective means of dealing with illicit drugs. The film examines the historical
evolution of a "harm reduction strategy" and how it operates.
Harm reduction, with its goals for public health as a whole rather than
the elimination of drug use per se, is exemplified best by free needle
and syringe exchange programs.
First Run/Icarus Films, (718) 488-8900
http://www.frif.com/new97/dealing_w.html
Drying the Waters: Colombia's Civil War
1999/52 minutes/Latin America Productions
There is a saying in Spanish that in order to catch fish, you must first
drain the water. This strategy lies at the heart of Colombia's dirty war,
where the peasants are "the water" and the guerrillas are "the
fish." Under the pretext of counternarcotics assistance, Congress
and the Clinton administration sent Colombia more than a billion dollars
in emergency assistance, ostensibly to fight the drug war. However, there
is growing concern that the aid will be used to help the Colombian military
wage its counterinsurgency war against guerrilla forces that control large
parts of the country. This documentary explores the history of both Colombia's
civil war and the drug trade, providing a much-needed antidote to the
"drug-centered" Colombia debate in the United States. It warns
that just as in the 1960s anti-communism distorted America's perception
in Vietnam, the so-called drug war is drawing the U.S. into its next quagmire.
(Includes sections in Spanish, with English subtitles.)
To order by email: thielen@internet.siscotel.com
http://www.ssdnet.com.ar/documentaries/docu.htm
The Drug Dilemma: War or Peace
1995/Cronkite Productions Inc.
In "The Drug Dilemma: War or Peace?" veteran TV anchorman and
journalist Walter Cronkite examines the dilemma and abject failure of
the War on Drugs. The drug war has cost the United States taxpayer $150
billion over the past decade, and created the second largest prison population
globally (only Russia has a bigger proportion of its citizens in jail).
Yet although casual drug use is down, hard core drug usage--the biggest
part of the equation--remains steady. More troublesome, drug use among
children, after dipping briefly, is now on the rise. The Cronkite Report
looks at the corrosive situation in the United States and questions whether
continuing the "war" is the most effective way to battle drug
usage.
Featured interviews: federal judge Robert Sweet; director of the foundation
"Drug Strategies" Matheo Falco; and federal coordinator of the
federal drug war Lee Brown.
Email: info@cronkite.com
Tel: (212) 765-1200; Fax: (212) 765-3824
http://cronkite.com/
The Legacy
1998/86 minutes/PBS
Shocking murders, massive manhunts, and win-at-all-cost political campaigns
propel this extraordinary story behind the enactment of California's "Three
Strikes and You're Out" initiative, which in 1994 became the nation's
toughest mandatory sentencing law. Filmmaker Michael J. Moore follows
the turbulent relationship of two grief-stricken fathers whose daughters'
senseless murders sparked a political firestorm and media frenzy that
would change the face of criminal justice in America. A chilling commentary
on life in the age of sound-bite democracy, the film reveals the controversy
behind laws of this kind, and examines how the two men most responsible
for "Three Strikes" went from being fervent allies to bitter
rivals.
http://www.pbs.org/pov/legacy/
Sex, Drugs and Democracy
1994/87 minutes/Red Hat Productions
"Sex, Drugs and Democracy" provides an uncensored exploration
of the world's freest society--Holland. Dutch society tolerates a legalized
sex industry, the open sale of marijuana and hashish, total equality for
gays, distribution of clean syringes and methadone to addicts, and government
financed abortion, euthanasia, and sex education for schoolchildren. But
in Holland rates of drug use, addiction, and AIDS transmission are extremely
low, and the Dutch have the lowest rates of abortion, teenage pregnancy,
and imprisonment in the world.
Filmed in Holland by writer/director Jonathan Blank and producer Barclay
Powers, the provocative documentary has revealing interviews with everyone
from government officials, police, clergy, and scientists to club owners,
drug dealers, and prostitutes, and features outrageous scenes from hash
bars, brothels, nightclubs, prisons, and rallies.
Available by calling (888) 311-9333 or online at http://www.anarchytv.com/sdd.
Snitch
1999/PBS/Frontline
America's war on drugs has created a new breed of witness--the informant.
With the prospect of mandatory life sentences for drug-related crimes,
the only option to escape such a fate is to render assistance to federal
prosecutors. FRONTLINE takes a critical look at how the federal government
uses informants in drug prosecution and the effect it has had on the U.S.
judicial system. "Snitch" investigates how a fundamental shift
in the country's anti-drug laws--including federal mandatory minimum sentencing
and conspiracy provisions--has bred a culture of snitching that is in
many cases rewarding the guiltiest and punishing those less guilty.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/snitch/
Societies Under the Influence
1998/52 minutes/National Film Board of Canada
"Societies Under the Influence" sheds light on several unusual
people who are fighting to expose the epidemic repression surrounding
drugs and the drug trade. Exploited Colombian field workers explain how
little money they make compared to the amount U.S. dealers make. A hit
man for influential drug lords details the pervasive corruption in the
U.S. legal system. And a retired U.S. federal government agent suggests
that if America stopped buying drugs, there would be a national banking
crisis. This film argues that the "morally and politically correct"
drug war we read about in our newspapers everyday is a corrupt and pernicious
front that protects our judicial system, big business, organized crime,
and American foreign agendas. With heady proposals and daring testimony,
"Societies Under the Influence" reveals the real story that
the media dare not tell.
First Run/Icarus Films, (718) 488-8900
http://www.frif.com/new99/socunder.html
The War on Drugs
A VPRO TV production (Holland)
"The War on Drugs" touches on increasingly familiar aspects
of this far-reaching trade. The fact is that most of the victims of this
war are the users, small-time dealers, and others caught in its web, rather
than those who really benefit: the cartels, the big-time dealers, the
banks, the government agents, the prison guards who smuggle drugs into
prison, aspects of the judicial system, and the private prisons systems
now listed on stock exchanges as a great growth industry to invest in.
The film differs from the more sensational approach taken by most U.S.
media by offering a thoughtful, methodical, and serious analysis. It takes
you from the cops on the beat chasing small-time street dealers, seizing
the cars of people who purchase powdered flour from police posing as drug
dealers, to the new private prison industrial complex reaping profits
from it, to the terrible waste and havoc this war creates in poor communities.
For further information please contact: Cristina Berio (818) 889-7978;
email: berio@usa.net.
http://home.labridge.com/~change-links/warondrugs.htm
Women of Substance
1994/60 minutes/Video Action Fund
With passion and clarity, "Women of Substance" opens the door
on the struggles and triumphs of women overcoming addiction during pregnancy
and motherhood. More than five million women in the United States are
affected by drug and alcohol addiction and one thousand babies are born
each day with drugs and alcohol in their systems. While prenatal alcohol
and drug exposure is believed to be the single most preventable cause
of birth defects, nine out of ten pregnant addicts who want treatment
never receive it. Following the stories of three diverse women, "Women
of Substance" is a comprehensive portrait of the legal, moral, and
health battles being waged to improve treatment opportunities for pregnant
addicts and women with children. Joanne Woodward narrates this powerful
film. "Women of Substance" goes to the heart of the problems
faced by substance-abusing women and offers sensible alternatives. A 30-minute
version is also available.
http://www.wmm.com/catalog/pages/c144.htm
or
http://www.vaf.org/tapes_for_sale.htm
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