Film Festival Special
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It’s a Parliamentary recess this week – and so we bring you some highlights of the annual New Zealand Film Festival, notes of what we know is happening to mark the anniversary of the granting of refugee status to Ahmed Zaoui on August 1 and a brief introduction to the National Security Archive – an institution which archives US Government documents released under the Freedom of Information Act – a huge and fascinating repository.
Film Festival
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The Festival has already got underway in Auckland, and opens in Wellington tomorrow. It’s also happening everywhere from Whangarei to Queenstown over the next four months.
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July 15
Control Room
, Jehane Noujaim, USA/Egypt 2003
Inside Al Jazeera – the Qatar-based TV channel which exposes the partiality and bias of the US media when it comes to reporting Middle Eastern events. -
July 16
Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion
, Tom Peosay, USA, 2003
Using material gathered over 10 years, this film examines the forms of force used against the Tibetan people by the Chinese government over the 50 years since the invasion and annexation of Tibet by China. -
July 17
The Battle of Algiers
, Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy/Algeria, 1965
This film is not a documentary – but a lot of it seems like newsreel footage which could have been shot yesterday. It has been revived because it is so relevant to today’s events in the Arab world. I (Christine) saw it when it first came to New Zealand, and I can still vividly recall the scenes of Muslim families being assaulted and murdered in their homes by the colonising forces. A powerful drama. -
July 18
The Corporation
, Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, Canada, 2003
A deconstruction and critique of the illicit power of the corporations which control our world and our fate, and so often stand in the way of peace and justice. -
July 18/19
Citizen King
, Orlando Bagwell, W. Noland Walker, USA, 2004
A film biography of Martin Luther King Jnr. -
July 20
Imelda
, Ramona S. Diaz, USA 2003
A expose of the former ‘First Lady’ of the Philippines as she was and is, and an account of the suffering of her country under the corrupt and vicious rule of her and her husband President Marcos. -
July 20
Fahrenheit 9/11
, Michael Moore, USA, 2004
If you don’t know what this one is about already, what can I say? Just see it. If you live in Christchurch, there are still some tickets available for the special preview screening on July 25 – buy them from the Green Room, 16 Bedford Row, at lunchtime on weekdays. -
July 25
The Yes Men
, Chris Smith, Dan Ollman, Sarah Price, USA 2003
The story of some – seriously – funny people, who pose as corporate boosters and get standing ovations at free trade talkfests for their increasingly preposterous proposals (such as recycling waste from McDonald’s loos to feed the hungry) until they break their cover and give it to ’em straight.Not exactly on a war and peace theme (but not unconnected) is the documentary
Super Size Me
(Morgan Spurlock, USA, 2003) which examines the violence which living on a diet of McDonald’s food for a month can do to the human body – a metaphor for the other forms of violence which the fast food industry does to planet, people and other species, which are also touched on in the film.Not in the Film Festival, but currently doing the rounds and not to be missed for anyone wanting to see a revealing film about how wars happen, is Errol Morris’s documentary
The Fog of War
. It covers the life and times of former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (1961-68). McNamara analyses what happened – as he saw it – during the Cuban missile crisis and the escalation of the Vietnam War. A disturbing film on many levels – perhaps most of all for showing the way in which a man of considerable intelligence who knows that killing is wrong nevertheless uses that intelligence ‘rationally’ to maximise deaths and destruction.
To find out what’s on in your town when go to
New Zealand Film Festival
.
This year there is a fine collection of documentaries with war and peace themes, so we are using this edition of JustPeace to draw your attention to what’s worth seeing. There is still (just) time to get to everything listed in Auckland, and all of the listings will then go on to Wellington and Christchurch. Smaller centres may not be so lucky – please check the NZ Film Festival site (above) for what’s showing in your town.
Films are listed in order of their Auckland screening dates:
Action
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Ahmed Zaoui Anniversary
. Ahmed Zaoui was recognised as a refugee by the New Zealand government one year ago on Sunday August 1. Actions are taking place around New Zealand.
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Auckland Saturday August 7
: The Zaoui Procession: A gathering at Cityside Baptist Church, 8 Mt Eden Rd, Auckland followed by a candlelight procession to Auckland Central Remand Prison. Starts at the church from 3.30pm with speakers, performances which include Don McGlashan, and poetry. Limited seating available. From 4.45pm there will be a candlelight procession to the prison, with performances, brief speeches and culminating in release of doves. -
Wellington
: The Zaoui Concert: The Zaoui Concert (to raise money for Ahmed Zaoui’s family) features performances by Goldenhorse, Rhombus, The Accelerants, Alphabet Head, The Beatgirls, Jeff Henderson, Richad Nunns and Sally Rodwell, Taika Cohen/Jo Randerson and Gentiane Lupi. From 7pm at The Opera House, Manners Street, Wellington with tickets via Ticketek 04 384 3840. -
Christchurch
: “No Ordinary Sunday” : Service for Zaoui – an interfaith gathering at the Cathedral in the Square, Christchurch from 7-8pm. Gathering welcomed by Dean Peter Beck, contemporary Christian/Koranic writings, music, poetry, lighting of candles. Followed by tea/coffee in Cathedral Cafe. Contact
robyn
[at]
ccanz [dot] net [dot] nz
robyn
[at]
ccanz [dot] net [dot] nz
> for more information.
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Analysis
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Indonesia’s 1969 Takeover of West Papua Not by “Free Choice”
– National Security Archive Update, July 9, 2004. The National Security Archive is a institution that archives and makes available documents released under the United States’ Freedom of Information Act. This week they made available documents relating to the West Papua Act of Free Choice.Also on the
frontpage of their website
this week are documents relating to Iraqi use of Chemical weapons and Donald Rumsfeld’s visits there in the 1980’s. Below is a announcement from the archive:
Document Release Marks 35th Anniversary of Controversial Vote and Annexation
Secret Files Show U.S. Support for Indonesia, Human Rights Abuses by Indonesian Military
Washington D.C., July 9, 2004 – “You should tell [Suharto] that we understand the problems they face in West Irian,” national security adviser Henry Kissinger wrote President Nixon on the eve of Nixon’s July 1969 visit to Indonesia according to previously secret documents posted today by the National Security Archive. The presidential trip coincided with Indonesia’s holding of the “Act of Free Choice” voting by which it legitimized its annexation of the territory of West Irian (now known as West Papua).
Marking the 35th anniversary of the “Act of Free Choice” and in the midst of Indonesia’s first direct presidential elections, the National Security Archive posted formerly secret documents detailing U.S. support for Indonesia’s controversial 1969 takeover of the West Papua.
These documents were recently declassified by the State Department and the Richard Nixon Presidential Materials collection at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). This briefing book is the first publication of the National Security Archive’s Indonesia documentation project, which is seeking the release of thousands of secret U.S. documents concerning U.S. policy toward Indonesia and East Timor from 1965-1999.
The project aims to assist efforts to document and seek accountability for more than three decades of human rights abuses committed during the rule of Indonesian President Suharto (1965-1998).
Among the revelations in these formerly secret documents:
- Agreement among U.S. and other Western officials that “Indonesia could not win an open election” and that the vast majority of West Irian’s inhabitants favored independence.
- U.S. officials attempted to convince the United Nations representative for the “Act of Free Choice,” Bolivian diplomat Ortiz Sanz, that independence for West Irian was “inconceivable.”
- U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Frank Galbraith warned that Indonesian military operations and abuses in West Irian, resulting in the deaths of possibly hundreds of civilians “had stimulated fears and rumours of intended genocide among the Irianese.”
JustPeace was produced by Christine Dann, Tim Hannah and Keith Locke, MP
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