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

Fri May 4 13:37:42 CDT 2007

The Sundance Channel is on channel 614 on the Insight channel lineup.

----- Original Message -----
From: Karen Medina <kmedina at uiuc.edu>
Date: Friday, May 4, 2007 13:17
Subject: Re: [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'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
> >_______________________________________________
> >Peace-discuss mailing list
> >Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> >http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
> _______________________________________________
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