[Peace-discuss] AWARE presents opportunity?

[Randall Cotton]

This summary below for this Iraq documentary looks very promising. Perhaps AWARE
presents might be interested in touching base with Jen in Ohio to get a
screening copy and maybe set something up (at Boardman's?) for the day before
the election 8-).

R

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jen Angel" <jenangel at riseup.net>
To: <Recipient List Suppressed:>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 12:24 PM
Subject: Bring this film to your school or community group!


: Filmmaker David Martinez will be touring with his recently completed
: film, "500 Miles to Babylon" during October and November 2006. Open
: dates include:
:
: DC and surrounding areas: October 20-27
: Ohio and surrounding areas: Nov 1-3
: Chicago and surrounding areas: Nov 6-9
: Minneapolis and surrounding ares: Nov 11-13
: New York City, Boston, and surrounding areas: November 15-22
:
: West coast and southeast dates coming in 2007.
:
:
: Booking contact: Jen Angel, 419-410-7745, jenangel at riseup.net
: Website: www.graffitifilms.com
:
: 500 Miles to Babylon is a one-hour documentary film about Iraq under
: U.S. occupation. Narrated by the filmmaker, using footage shot in
: Iraq during 2003-4, the film addresses the current war not simply as
: a conflict over petroleum profits or a scheme to fill a company's
: coffers, but as part of a larger American imperial project.
:
: Through impromptu interviews, glimpses of daily life, still
: photographs, and footage of car-bombs, demonstrations, night-time
: graffiti artists, and the celebrations following Saddam's capture,
: 500 Miles To Babylon reveals the situation in contemporary Iraq
: through a personal lens. More than a simple anti-war movie, 500 Miles
: will follow a narrative of disintegration, showing the initial
: excitement of some sectors of the Iraqi population after the U.S.
: military toppled Saddam Hussein, their hope eroding as they watched
: their country sink into chaos and violence in the months that
: followed.
:
: The film ends with the April 2004 assault on Fallujah, when all of
: Iraq was rising against the Americans, and includes rare footage from
: inside besieged Fallujah, where the filmmaker went with a group of
: journalists and aid workers to deliver medical supplies and move
: wounded civilians to Baghdad.
:
: 500 Miles To Babylon includes appearances by journalists Prothap
: Chatterjee, Christian Parenti, Dahr Jamail, Rob Eshelman, and others.
:
: About the filmmaker: David Martinez is a journalist and filmmaker
: originally from Texas. He has worked as a video war-correspondent in
: Aceh, Indonesia, where with William Nessen he was the first to
: interview the head of the guerrilla organization The Free Aceh
: Movement (G.A.M.) in 2003, as well as in Iraq where he worked with
: Prothap Chatterjee covering the U.S. occupation in 2003-4. As a
: filmmaker he has produced several shorts, including a segment for the
: 2004 PBS series Visiones, executive produced by Hector Galan. Most
: recently he worked on a film about music in Sumatra, Sumatran Folk
: Cinema, for the Sublime Frequencies label. Mr. Martinez currently
: makes his home in San Francisco.
:
: Screening copies are available on request.