[Peace-discuss] "Sir! No Sir!" and "The Ground Truth" -- films on Sundance Channel on Monday evening 5/7

[Karen Medina]

I'd kind of like to see "Sir! No Sir!" with people who are at least a few years older than I am. And it is on DVD or VHS. Anyone interested? 

-karen medina

---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 04 May 2007 12:55:28 -0500
>From: Stuart Levy <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu>  
>Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Sir! No Sir!" and "The Ground Truth" -- films on Sundance Channel on Monday evening 5/7  
>To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net
>
>I don't know whether the Sundance Channel is actually available
>in this area, but if some of you have it, you might be interested in these
>anti-war films to be shown next Monday, May 7th.
>
>I don't have cable, and can't "check listings", so am not sure
>what time they'll be shown in this area.   The e-mailed announcement is below --
>probably I'd received this since I'd bought a copy of one of the films.
>
>===========================================================================
>Don't miss this opportunity to see the film and show it to others.
>Make a night of resistance out of it!
>***************************************************************************
>Sir! No Sir!
>Monday May 7
>Sundance Channel
>9 pm Eastern and Pacific
>
>Check Listings for Central and Mountain
>
>The Ground Truth
>Monday, May 7
>The Sundance Channel
>10:30 pm Eastern and Pacific
>
>Check Listings for Central and Mountain
>***********************************************
>
>A Letter From David Zeiger
>
>
>It's a unique experience to feel that you are part of making history.
>
>So says Dr. Howard Levy who, as an army doctor in 1966, spent 3 years in
>federal prison for refusing to train Green Beret troops heading to Vietnam. His
>comments come at the end of my film about the GI Movement against the Vietnam
>War, Sir! No Sir!
>
>In a sadly ironic twist, 40 years later Dr. Levy and the thousands of active
>duty soldiers who openly organized against the Vietnam War while in the
>military are once again part of making history-because their story is sparking
>a new and significant movement in the military today.
>
>Sir! No Sir! tells a story that has literally been erased from history.
>Hundreds of films, both fiction and non-fiction, have been made about Vietnam.
>But this story-the rebellion of thousands of American soldiers-has never been
>told in film. This is certainly not for lack of evidence. By the Pentagon's own
>figures, 503,926 "incidents of desertion" occurred between 1966 and 1971;
>officers were being "fragged"(killed with fragmentation grenades by their own
>troops) at an alarming rate; and by 1971 entire units were refusing to go into
>battle in unprecedented numbers. In the course of a few short years, over 200
>antiwar underground newspapers were published by soldiers around the world;
>local and national antiwar GI organizations were joined by thousands; thousands
>more demonstrated against the war at every major base in the world in 1970 and
>1971, including in Vietnam itself; and stockades and federal prisons were
>filling up with soldiers jailed for their opposition to the war and the
>military. Colonel Robert Heinl, the Marine Corp's official historian, wrote
>strikingly in 1971 that rebellion in the ranks had "permeated every branch of
>the service." His article in the Armed Forces Journal was titled "The Collapse
>of the Armed Forces."
>
>Sir! No Sir! opened in theaters last Spring and got a good deal of attention.
>L.A. Times critic Kenneth Turan called it "A powerful documentary that uncovers
>half-forgotten history, history that is still relevant but not in ways you
>might be expecting," and another critic only half-jokingly called it "A film
>that threatens the war movement with every showing, the Bush administration
>should outlaw it from all theatres within fifty miles of an armed forces
>recruiting station."
>
>It turns out he had a point. Since its release last spring, my little film
>about events that happened 40 years ago has had quite an impact inside the
>military. Kind of like giving a motorboat to prisoners abandoned on a remote
>Island. The organization Iraq Veterans Against the War has distributed hundreds
>of DVDs soldiers for free, and the film has been cited by several who have
>publicly refused deployment to Iraq on the grounds that the war is immoral and
>a clear violation of international law.
>
>Navy Seaman Jonathon Hutto and Marine Sergeant Liam Madden met at a screening
>in Norfolk last fall and, inspired by the film and David Cortright's seminal
>book on the GI Movement, Soldiers in Revolt, decided to start the Appeal for
>Redress. Cleverly using the military's own whistleblower protection policy, the
>Appeal is a petition to congress calling for an immediate end to the war.
>Almost instantly they had 1,600 signatures (it has since risen to over 2,000).
>If the number seems small, consider this: There are currently about 140,00
>troops in Iraq. In November 1969, with over 3.5 million GIs in Vietnam, 1,366
>signed a New York Times ad calling for an end to the war-and the effect was
>electrifying. Numbers only take on their true meaning when understood in
>context.
>
>True, Iraq is not Vietnam, and 2007 is not 1969. But something very profound is
>happening here. The world is full of moments when history intertwines with the
>present in dynamic and unexpected ways. The civil rights movement of the 1960s
>was fueled by the hundred-year-old stories of Harriet Tubman, John Brown, and
>the slave rebellions we never learned about in school. This is another one of
>those moments.
>
>My film doesn't tell anyone what to do. But it does tell an incendiary story of
>thousands of soldiers who helped end a war 40 years ago. As the Bush
>administration plans only escalation of this horrendous war, the 200-pound
>gorilla blocking his way may well be the troops themselves.
>
>David Zeiger
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