Work For All, an online film project by the NFB, has released it’s first films about racial discrimination in the workplace. Jaded is an hilariously uncomfortable short drama, and the first in a series of online videos on the topic that will be rolled out in the weeks to come.
Art Threat is partnering with Work For All to bring you ten videos on racism on the job — one a week for ten weeks. The campaign will kick off on March 21, 2010, on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
I’m about to fly off to the Maritimes to visit family for the weekend, so here’s a quick plug for a short film by our friend and media activist extraordinare, Liz Miller.
Novela, Novela looks at the making of Sexto Sentido, a groundbreaking Nicaraguan soap opera that regularly deals with controversial issues such as sexual orientation, rape, abortion and domestic violence in the context of a predominantly Catholic country that is the second poorest in the hemisphere. The doc explores the impact the incredibly popular program has had on audiences, as well as the young actors and screenwriters involved in the production.
The video embedded above is the 7 minute version of the film. If it tickles your fancy, you can get a copy of the full 30 minute doc, which includes an episode of Sexto Sentido, over at the film’s website.
A frank discussion on sex workers and labour rights appears to be too hot and heavy for the brass at Sweden’s Stockholm University.
The local chapter of Cinema Politica had plans to commemorate International Women’s Day with a screening of Live Nude Girls Unite!, a documentary on the creation of the first labour union for strippers in the United States.
Exotic dancers are regularly exploited by club owners, and the story of one woman’s quest to organize her fellow workers and fight back against the oppression of sex workers seemed like a perfect way to foster debate around the issues of empowerment and workers’ rights.
If university management has their way, however, no such discussion will take place. The administation has effectively banned the event, having canceled the student film group’s room booking and destroyed all of their promotional material.
Tadamon, a Montreal-based collective that works in solidarity with struggles for self-determination, equality and justice in the Middle East, has spearheaded a call from Montreal artists to support the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid. The following is an open letter they released on February 25.
Today, a broad spectrum of Montreal artists are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and supporting the growing international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli state. Last winter, the Israeli state launched a violent military assault on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, leaving over 1400 Palestinians dead, including over 300 children. Despite the official end of military operations, the blockade continues to this day, with devastating consequences for Gaza’s residents.
This week we’re going pretty mainstream, but it’s appropriate given that the world—well, at least those of us with the privilege do to so—is completely consumed with the Winter Olympics. Now, if you think the Vancouver games have been tough on the organizers, you need only look back one generation to find an Olympics that generated much more outrage, and far higher human toll.
Steven Spielberg’s Munich is a 2005 historical fiction film about Israel’s state-sponsored assassinations that followed the 1972 killing of Israeli Olympic athletes by the Black September militant group. The film was remarkable for its ability to generate a tremendous amount of controversy, with deeply divergent opinions on both the artists and political aspects of the flick.
Take quick glance over at Rotten Tomatoes and you’ll see the film derided as “disastrously inept” and full of “muddled liberal Zionist politics”, while simultaneously praised as a work of “deeply felt moral analysis” and an “even-handed cry for peace”.
So pop your popcorn, grab the film from most any rental shop, and be sure to come back when it’s over to let us know where you stand on the grand Munich debate.
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