Gap and Nike: No Sweat?
2000/39 mins/BBC's Panorama
Nike and Gap both have strict codes of conduct for manufacturing: they
claim that they do not use sweatshops or child labor. They also say
they routinely "monitor" their factories, to make sure their
codes are followed. But when the BBC's Panorama team visits Cambodia,
they find severe breeches of these codes within days. By talking with
workers and using hidden cameras, they show how one factory, used by
both Gap and Nike, has sweatshop conditions and employs children. All
the workers interviewed work seven days a week, often up to 16 hours
a day. Children as young as 12 are employed. After these findings, Panorama
goes back to speak with Gap and Nike, to hear what they have to say.
They also show how U.S. companies can use sweatshops and still put "Made
in the U.S.A. on the label. An eye-opening view of labor conditions
in the third world and unfair industry practices.
http://store.globalexchange.org/tapes.html
Is China a Military Threat?
2000/29 mins/Center for Defense Information
The United States has increasingly seen China as a military threat,
especially in terms of nuclear power. How did this rivalry begin? Are
we heading towards another cold war? Perhaps most importantly, this
production shows why we need to turn China into an economic ally before
our policies make it a military adversary.
http://www.cdi.org/adm/1340/
Made in India
1998/52 mins/Patricia Plattner/Women Make Movies
Depicting a country fraught with unemployment, poverty, and the perils
of liberalizing markets, this video tells the story of the Self-Employed
Women's Association (SEWA), an Indian project helping poor women organize
a trade union, a bank, and social welfare services. This pioneering
project, defying India's male-dominated and economically rigid society,
has grown into an internationally acclaimed model for rural development
and women's empowerment. Plattner's powerful documentary interviews
SEWA founder, Ela Bhat, and follows the development of the organization
and the women who have joined it. (Includes interviews with English
subtitles)
http://www.wmm.com/advscripts/ctmnfrm.asp
Made in Thailand
1993/33 mins/Eve-Laure Moros and Linzy Emery/Women Makes Movies
In 1993, there was a fire at the Kader Toy Factory in an industrial
area of Bangkok. Instead of evacuating the factory, the guards locked
the doors, causing the deaths of over a hundred women workers. The guards
said later that management had told them to bolt the doors in order
to prevent workers from stealing any of the toys. Despite subsequent
pledges by the Kader company, no improvements in working conditions
have been made. Such accidents have helped to create a growing solidarity
movement amongst women factory workers to fight for better conditions
and more regulation of multinational corporations that have, in recent
years, set up plants in Thailand in order to take advantage of the cheap
labor costs. (Includes sections with English subtitles)
http://www.wmm.com/advscripts/ctmnfrm.asp
Nuclear War Between India and Pakistan?
1998/29 mins/America's Defense Monitor
Why have both India and Pakistan built and tested nuclear bombs? Is
nuclear war in South Asia a serious possibility? This video looks at
the causes for hostility between these two long-time adversaries, the
reasons why they sought to join the nuclear power club, and what actions
could be taken to prevent a war between them.
http://www.cdi.org/adm/1214/
School of Assassins
1994/18 mins/Maryknoll World Productions
For half a century, the U.S. Army's School of the Americas (SOA), located
since the 1980s at Fort Benning, Georgia, has trained Latin American
military officers. Its graduates include dictators, coup orchestrators,
and human rights abusers from Haiti, Argentina, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama,
Peru, and Nicaragua. This 1995 Academy Award Nominee is narrated by
Susan Sarandon and chronicles the growing opposition within the U.S.
to using taxpayer funds for this "School of Assassins." (English
and Spanish versions available)
http://www.maryknoll.org/MALL/VIDEO/vpeacejusticej.htm
Sweating for a T-shirt
1998/23 mins/Global Exchange
Do you know where your clothes are made? Do you bother to look at the
label when you buy merchandise at a store? This video shows the journey
of one UCLA student to Honduras, where she soon learns exactly where
her college clothing is being made, and the conditions that prevail
among the sweatshops. She speaks with local workers and human rights
activists, who tell of the unhealthy conditions and unfair labor practices
the workers live with. These workers earn only $3.50 a day in countries
where the basic cost of living is $8 a day. At the end, we see Brown
students who have just forced their administration to adopt fair labor
standards for the production of clothing bearing their university logo.
A great video to show students that something can and must be done.
http://store.globalexchange.org/tapes.html
Brazil
Banking on Disaster
1990/78 mins/Bullfrog Films
In the 1980s, settlers arrived in the province of Rondonia, Brazil in
vast numbers, facilitated by the new "penetration road" financed
by the World Bank. This video depicts the tragic story of those "colonists"
who failed to get much yield from their crops and abandoned their land,
leaving enormous swaths of forest destroyed. The consequences for the
environment have been disastrous, spawning dust storms and contributing
to global warming. (Includes sections in Portuguese, with English subtitles)
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/bank.html
Chile
The Battle of Chile (Parts I&II)
1975-76/205 mins/Patricio Guzmán/First Run/Icarus Films
The Battle of Chile is an epic chronicle of the bloody 1973 military
coup in Chile in which General Augusto Pinochet ousted Sálvador
Allende's democratically-elected Popular Unity government. The film
explores Allende's socialist vision and social experiment, which was
enthusiastically supported by a majority of Chileans. During Pinochet's
17-year dictatorship, The Battle of Chile was banned in Chile but was
shown around the world and received many awards. Time Out Film Guide
calls it, "Not only the best film about Allende and the coup d'etat,
but among the best documentary films ever made." (Black & white,
in Spanish, with English subtitles)
http://www.frif.com/new98/boc.html
Chile, Obstinate Memory
1997/58 mins/Patricio Guzmán/First Run/Icarus Films
Returning to Chile for the first time since he shot The Battle of Chile
which chronicles General Pinochet's bloody 1973 coup, filmmaker Patricio
Guzmán tracks down some of the people who had appeared in it.
Survivors reminisce as they watch the film that had been banned during
Pinochet's 17-year dictatorship, recognizing lost comrades and recalling
their courage, gaiety, and love of life. To observe their reactions,
Guzmán also shows The Battle to young Chileans who grew up with
little knowledge of the historical facts surrounding the overthrow of
Sálvador Allende's democratically-elected socialist government.
With exquisite cinematography, Guzman's artistry thoughtfully explores
the elusive themes of collective memory and personal loss. His award-winning
work stands as a eulogy to a shattered dream of socialism and bears
witness to the machinery that tried to destroy its memory. (In Spanish
with English subtitles.)
http://www.frif.com/new97/chile__ob.html
Colombia
Colombia in Crisis
1999/29 mins/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 EZL 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
Drying the Waters: Colombia's Civil War
1999/52 mins/Jan Thielen/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 are sending 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, anticommunism
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
Cuba
Cuba at the Crossroads
1996/29 mins/America's Defense Monitor
The growing tourist industry in Cuba has led to an influx of hard currency
and has created a situation where a taxi driver can earn many times
more than a doctor, teacher, or other professional. In its rhetoric,
Washington calls for peaceful democratic change in Cuba. But in reality,
by tightening the economic squeeze and supporting political dissidents,
the U.S. foments hardships and instability that could lead to violence
on the island. The economic and social changes taking place as Cuba
adjusts to the post-Soviet era are framed against a historical background
of ongoing confrontation with the United States.
http://www.cdi.org/adm/932
The Greening of Cuba
1996/38 mins/Jaime Kibben/Food First
In the early 1990s, the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of its
subsidized trade and generous aid to Cuba combined with the decades-old
U.S. blockade to throw Fidel Castro's government into its worst ever
economic crisis. Dubbed the "special period," this time of
unprecedented economic hardship and rising political tensions did have
a silver lining: it forced Cubans to seek self-sufficiency by returning
to farming methods of older generations. Without imported spare parts,
oil, fertilizers, seeds, or pesticides, "modern farming" quickly
became impossible. Through the voices of the island's campesinos, researchers,
and organic gardeners, this video shows how Cubans have successfully
converted to natural farming techniques and have built, in the process,
a healthier way of life.
http://216.178.158.37/pubs/other/index.html
Talking with Cuba
1998/29 mins/America's Defense Monitor
Despite official hostility between the U.S. and Cuba, many Americans
are making contact with their Cuban counterparts. Should such dialogue
with Cuba be considered taboo? This video looks at the possibility of
a more open relationship between Cuba and the United States and the
advantages that this would bring for both sides. It argues that since
the U.S. no longer considers Cuba a military threat, the time has come
to reconsider the relationship.
http://www.cdi.org/adm/1127
Ecuador
Trinkets and Beads
1996/52 mins/Christopher Walker/First Run/Icarus Films
This award-winning documentary traces the struggle of a remote Amazonian
people, the Huaorani, to preserve their environment and culture in the
face of incursions by oil companies and evangelical missionaries. The
story begins in 1957, with the Huaorani massacre of five American missionaries,
and continues through the evangelization of part of the tribe, the pollution
of Huaorani lands by Texaco and Shell, and the manipulation and bribing
of Huaorani leaders by the Texas-based oil company, MAXUS. Filmed over
two years, Trinkets and Beads reveals the heartbreaking and thrilling
story of the battle waged by a small band of forest dwellers to preserve
their way of life. (Includes sections with English subtitles)
http://www.frif.com/cat97/t-z/trinkets.html
El Salvador
El Salvador: Not for Sale!
1996/28 Minutes/CISPES
From 1980 to 1992, the United States gave El Salvador's right-wing military
dictatorship $6 million in aid. Although this country's brutal civil
war officially ended with the 1992 signing of peace accords, the agreement
has done nothing to alleviate the social and economic problems caused
by the legacy of the war and by more recent U.S.-endorsed policies of
structural adjustment. This video shows how El Salvador's free trade
zones have created jobs, whose appalling working conditions and low
wages have not improved the well-being of Salvadorans. (Includes sections
in Spanish, with English subtitles)
To order, email: cispesnatl@people-link.net
or telephone: (212) 229-1290.
Mexico
Maquila: A Tale of Two Mexicos
2000/55 mins/Saul Landau and Sonia Angulo/Cinema Guild
A post-NAFTA world of unrestrained economic global liberalization offers
tough choices to contemporary Mexican peasants. This film tells of the
confrontation in Chiapas between the Mexican army and poor farmers trying
to cling to their land and Mayan culture. Some of these besieged peasants,
like millions of other poor Mexicans, have migrated to Juarez, Tijuana,
and other northern border cities to take low paying jobs in foreign-owned
factories. In Juarez, they encounter more than poor working conditions
- environmental pollution, a high cost of living, horrifying rapes and
murders of young women maquila workers, and the loss of cultural roots,
family, and community. This innovative documentary by award-winning
filmmaker Saul Landau allows its subjects to speak for themselves, with
little narration. (In Spanish, with English subtitles)
To order call: Cinema Guild, (800) 723-5522.
http://www.cinemaguild.com/docs/new.html
Performing the Border
1999/42 mins/Ursula Biemann/Women Make Movies
Swiss filmmaker Ursula Biemann documents the economic and social changes
that are occurring along the Mexican border with the United States by
focusing on the exploitation of and violence against women in the border
city of Juarez. Through interviews with women factory workers, prostitutes,
activists, and journalists, this documentary explores the links between
the "sexualization" of the border region and the forces of
economic globalization that are buffeting Mexico. (Includes sections
in Spanish, with English subtitles)
http://www.wmm.com/advscripts/ctmnfrm.asp
A Place Called Chiapas
1998/93 mins/Nettie Wild/Zeitgeist Films
Passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was the last
straw for the disaffected campesinos in the Mexican province of Chiapas.
In January 1994, the Zapatista Liberation Army, led by the charismatic
guerrilla-poet Subcomandante Marcos, erupted in response to worsening
conditions for the peasants of Chiapas, with many Mayan Indians taking
to the hills to join the struggle. Following the uprising, Mexican government
troops moved in, trying to regain control. Their presence has militarized
the region, endangering the lives of the peasants and their negotiators
alike. This extraordinarily film, which won the 1999 Genie Award for
best Canadian documentary, examines the origins, methods, and leaders
of the Zapatista movement and the reactions of Chiapas's economically
powerful mestizo elite. (Includes sections in Spanish, with English
subtitles)
http://www.zeitgeistfilm.com/current/chiapas/chiapas.html
The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas
1997/60 mins/Saul Landau and Meredith Burch/Cinema Guild
This award-winning documentary by IPS fellow Saul Landau interweaves
Mayan and Mexican history with the contemporary struggle of the Zapatista
Liberation Army in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Through the
voices of the movement's leaders, supporters, and negotiators--including
subcomandantes Marcos and Elise and Bishop Samuel Ruiz, (dubbed "The
Red Bishop")--this film chronicles the major events since the
Zapatista uprising began on January 1, 1994. It also traces the history
of how, beginning in the 1980s, Zapatista guerrillas organized in the
mountains of Chiapas, consolidating their ideology and physical strength
in preparation for their New Years' Day uprising that shook the world.
This peasant uprising has challenged both the Mexican government's revocation
of indigenous communal land rights and its joining the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Following the movement with footage from
the initial San Cristobal attack to the arrival of government troops
in Chiapas and an international convention held in the heart of the
jungle, this dramatic and at times humorous documentary traces the growth
of a tiny regional movement into an internationally influential struggle
for economic, political, and social rights. (English subtitles for Spanish
interviews)
To order call: Cinema Guild, (800) 723-5522
http://www.cinemaguild.com/docs/new.html
Voices From The Fields
1997/45 mins/Selena Jaramillo and Ulla Nilsen/Cinema Guild
This video describes how changes in agricultural production are driving
many Mexican peasants to the cities or to the United States in search
of work. The introduction of tractors, credit, and cattle are only some
of the "modernizations" that are eroding traditional campesino
economic activities, while increasing use of chemicals, insecticides,
and fertilizers are harming both humans and the environment. Voices
from the Fields showcases a new method of farming--agroecology--that
attempts to find a balance between nature and production. (In Spanish
with English subtitles)
To order, call: Cinema Guild, (800) 723-5522
http://www.cinemaguild.com/docs/new.html
Nicaragua
Deadly Embrace: Nicaragua, the World Bank and the IMF
1999/27mins/Elizabeth Canner and Ashley Eames/Compas de La Primavera
Why does Nicaragua have one of the highest foreign debts in the world?
At $3000 to $4000 per capita, this debt has spawned the country's worst
economic crisis. With powerful cinematography, Deadly Embrace explores
how the policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
have contributed to Nicaragua's crisis. (Includes sections in Spanish,
with English subtitles)
For more information about the video and activist study guide, see:
http://www.freespeech.org/lizcanner/
To order by email, contact: lizcanner@hotmail.com.
To order by phone, contact Ash Eames at (603) 764-9948.
Panama
The Panama Deception
1992/120 mins/Barbara Trent/Empowerment Project
The 1989 invasion of Panama was touted as a swift and successful military
action to remove a "narcoterrorist," General Noriega, from
power and to restore democracy to this strategically important country.
But what was the real U.S. agenda? Winner of the 1993 Academy Award
for best documentary, this film recounts the untold story of the invasion,
the enormity of death and destruction, and the collaborative efforts
by Washington and the mainstream media to suppress information about
this foreign policy disaster. The documentary includes never-before
seen footage and brilliantly juxtaposes factual historical analysis
with statements by both proponents and opponents. (Includes sections
in Spanish, with English subtitles)
http://www.empowermentproject.org/panama.htm
Children of Shatila
1998/50 mins/MaiMasri/Arab Film Distribution
The 1982 Sabra-Shatila massacre of more than 500 refugees brought international
attention to the Shatila refugee camp near Beirut. This camp is home
to some 15,000 displaced Palestinians and Lebanese; its original occupants
were Palestinians driven into exile when the Israeli state was founded
in 1948. The video tells the story of how the children of Shatila attempt
to come to terms with the realities of being refugees in a camp that
has endured the horrors of massacre, starvation, and now widespread
poverty and unemployment. Against the backdrop of the camp's collective
tragedies, filmmaker Mai Masri focuses on the personal stories of two
Palestinian children, and articulates the aspirations of a younger generation.
(Includes sections in Arabic, with English subtitles)
http://www.arabfilm.com/films/lebanon/children_shatila/children_shatila.htm
Hidden Wars of Desert Storm
2000/64 mins/Free-Will Productions
In 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and the United States moved
in. But was this attack a surprise? Did we use all methods of diplomacy
before entering combat? In this video, you will find out a lot more
about the Gulf War than you heard in the news a decade ago. Prominent
personalities such as Desert Storm Commander General Norman Schwarzkopf,
former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, and former UN Iraq Program Director
Dennis Halliday all speak out about the hidden policies and politics
behind the war, as well as modern issues such as sanctions and "Gulf
War Syndrome" that are left as a result.
Email: freewillprod@prodigy.net
Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq
000/75 mins/John Pilger/Bullfrog Films
When the U.S. imposed sanctions against Saddam Hussein's regime in 1990,
President George Bush told the American public, "Our quarrel is not
with the people of Iraq." But a 1998 study by the United Nations found
that the death rate of Iraqi children has doubled since the sanctions
were imposed, while the wealthy and politically powerful continue to
enjoy access to imported food and other supplies. With 4000 children
dying every month as a result of severe shortages of food and medicines,
the political rhetoric and rationale used to justify sanctions have
proven false. In this harrowing, hard-hitting documentary, award-winning
British filmmaker John Pilger depicts the immorality of the UN sanctions
that are kept in place by the U.S. and Britain. Footage of children
and adults dying in hospital rooms for lack of drugs--or even morphine
to ease their pain--demonstrates the reality behind the program that
is alleged to deny Iraq access to "weapons of mass destruction." Confronted
with the Machiavellian illogical of his position, the head of the UN
Sanctions Committee, Peter van Walsum, almost breaks under Pilger's
questioning.
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/pay.html
Suspended Dreams
1992/49 mins/Mai Masri and Jean Chamoun/Bullfrog Films
This courageous, prize-winning documentary, originally produced for
BBC television, puts a human face on Lebanon's long civil war. Focusing
on four Beirut citizens, the documentary follows their struggle to piece
together their lives and rebuild their homes while trying to understand
the cause of their suffering. The film also assesses the appalling damage
the war wreaked on Beirut, its citizens, and the environment. It further
depicts how, since the war ended, the culture of this beautiful city
has fallen prey to a new, insidious invasion by American commerce and
advertising, while water conflicts with neighboring Israel loom large
on the horizon. (Includes sections in Arabic, with English subtitles)
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/sus.html