Subject: Consider a Seasonal Gift to the Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:37:15 -0600 Message-ID: <BDD0A3EABE40F04A8C7200805EDE5A6A0488D81A@PEPSI.uwec.edu> From: "Nowlan, Robert A." <RANOWLAN@uwec.edu>
Greetings, Friends, SFPJ:
I'd like to invite you to consider making a seasonal donation to
support the 2007 UWEC Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival. If you are
able and interested in doing so you can send your tax-deductible
donations to the UWEC Foundation with the included instruction that this
donation is to support the Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival and to
be transferred for this purpose to the English Department Advancement
Fund (our operating account at UWEC). So far we have raised
approximately $5000.00 for next year's festival--scheduled to run from
Friday April 13 through Sunday April 22--which is very promising since
this is equivalent to the total amount we raised for last year's film
festival. But we can definitely use more financial support, especially
if, and this we aim to do this year, we want not only to screen and
discuss films, but also to bring in guests to present and conduct
workshops during the festival (filmmakers, subjects of films, and others
with relevant expert knowledge about issues we will be addressing in the
films). Plus, more money will mean we can afford the public permission
fees for more expensive films. Your donation, of any amount--say $25 or
$50 or more, for example--will help. And we will definitely greatly
appreciate it!
The 2007 Festival looks to be a very exciting event. Not only are
we well ahead of last year in planning and preparation, but also we aim
to help sponsor a series of allied, and concurrent events during the run
of the Festival--"Ten Days of Progressive Education and Action" (which
may tentatively include speeches, workshops, readings, dramatic
performances, stand-up comic performances, musical performances, art
exhibitions, rallies, marches, vigils, and other diverse happenings--all
depending upon what our staff can manage to solicit and arrange [and we
have up to 27 people potentially working on this event this year, in one
way or another, or to one degree or another, although so far pretty much
all of what we've done John Nicksic, this year's festival director, and
I, have done ourselves]).
Also, for your information, we now have already tentatively
confirmed the booking of the following films for our festival run:
1. _I Know I'm Not Alone_
Michael Franti, of Spearhead, travels to, investigates, and plays music
throughout the Middle East.
2. _Brother Outsider the Life of Bayard Ruskin_
The life and times of the openly gay lead organizer within the Black
Civil Rights Movement, and a principal activist mentor of Martin Luther
King, Jr.
3. _The ACLU Freedom Files_
Ten parts from focusing on current 'hot' current civil liberties and
human rights issues, from Robert Greenwald and Jeremy Kagan.
4. _Why We Fight_
Eugene Jarecki's critical inquiry into the US military-industrial
complex from the Eisenhower administration onward--and backward.
5. _What is Indie?_
Inquiring into what truly independent musical production and
distribution is like today, who is involved, and how it works.
6. _The God Who Wasn't There_
Critically inquiring into the question of whether the New Testament
personage Jesus ever really existed, and how the historical Jesus has
been socially and politically constructed-as well as why so.
7. _The Cult of the Suicide Bomber_
Examining the history and politics, as well as the psychology, behind
this instrument of warfare, from Samson through the present.
8. _Darwin's Nightmare_
Imperialist links between the illicit arms trade and the destruction of
the indigenous ecology and associated social welfare of the Lake
Victoria region in Tanzania.
9. _Who Killed the Electric Car?_
Inquiring into exactly this question, and showing what interests
were--and are--responsible.
10. _Daddy and Papa_
Focusing on current controversies surrounding same-sex couples parenting
in the US today.
11. _Manderlay_
The second of Lars Von Trier's USA trilogy, beginning with _Dogville_,
again offering a blunt attack on American hypocrisy, sanctimony, and
venality through creatively imagined scenarios and stagings.
12. _The Forsaken Land_
A poetic examination--and winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes for best
first feature--of the human and ecological impact and legacy of 23 years
of Civil War in Sri Lanka.
13. _The World According to Shorts_
Six current award-winning short films, from Chile (_La Perra_),
Australia (_We Have Decided Not to Die_), Norway (_United We Stand_),
Poland (_Antichrist_), Brazil (_The Old Woman's Step_), and Germany
(_Ring of Fire_).
14. _Laramie Inside_
An inquiry into the cultural politics of Laramie, Wyoming, past and
present, in the aftermath of the Matthew Shepard murder.
15. _Strange Fruit_
Exploring the history and terror of the long all-too-extensive practice
of lynching in the US, as well as its continuing legacy and impact, and
the heroism of those who fought back.
16. _DAM/AGE_
Arundhati Roy's campaign against the Narada Dam project in India, which
will displace over a million people. Focusing on issues of
globalization and development as well as of the need for state
accountability and the exercise of free speech in protest and dissent.
17. _The Hour of the Furnaces_
The most famous and influential film in the history of 'Third Cinema',
focusing on revolutionary struggles in Argentina in the 1960s.
18. _Fight Back, Fight AIDS: Fifteen Years of ACT UP_
A comprehensive insider history of one of the most powerfully
influential and impactful movements in postmodern progressive politics.
*
We also have received permission to screen the following films too, but
are still deciding whether we can afford the prices, and the equipment
costs:
1. _Pick Up the Mic_
Feature-length documentary on the burgeoning contemporary US (and UK)
homohop (queer hip hop) movement, with performances, history,
background, context, and perspective.
2. _Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land_
Examining not only the interests at stake in the Israeli-Palestine
conflict but also in the ways this is predominantly represented in the
mainstream media outside of the region, especially in the US.
3. _This Land is Your Land_
Grassroots popular community stories of how people across the US have
dealt with -- and fought back against -- the detrimental impact of large
corporate domination of their individual and community lives.
4. _Sacco and Vanzetti_
A new documentary historical re-examination of the famous story of these
two immigrant Italian anarchists executed in the aftermath of a
notoriously prejudiced and flawed trial for murder back in 1922, with
focus as well on the subsequent legacy and impact of these men's lives,
and their fate.
In addition, furthermore, these are among the other films we are also
exploring obtaining the permission to screen:
1. _Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room_
2. _Iraq for Sale_
3. _The Road to Guantanamo_
4. _War is $ell_
5. _Domestic Violence Part I_
6. _Domestic Violence Part II_
7. _Cochise County, USA: Cries Across the Border_
8. _Doing Time: Life Inside the Big House_
9. _The Canary Effect_
10. _El Norte_
11. _Shortbus_
12. _Hedwig and the Angry Inch_
13. _Zero Degrees of Separation_
14. _Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids_
15. _The Gleiwitz Case_
16. _The Murderers Are Among Us_
17. _Your Unknown Brother_
The more assistance we can get--and financial assistance is indeed
key--the more and better we can do . . . for all of us.
Thank you, once again, for whatever you can do to help.
All the Best,
Bob Nowlan
Executive Director, 2007 Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival