[news] Censorship At the Amnesty International Film Festival On Human Rights.

[Macdonald Stainsby]

+AF8-Censorship At the Amnesty International Film Festival On Human Rights.+AF8-

Macdonald Stainsby

Beginning Thursday, November 6+AF4-th until Sunday the 9+AF4-th , Amnesty
International held their annual film festival on Human rights. The
listings were much of the usual fare for AI: Films on Tibet, Burma,
Pinochet's 1973 coup in Chile, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, even a film
on Israel's secret nuclear weapons program. The festival had one other
film scheduled to be the last one shown. That film had been broadcast on
the CBC's 'Passionate Eye' program (twice). It had won more awards than
any other film on the list of films to be put on screen at the film
festival. It has been shown across Europe, including the BBC. It was
removed two days before the festival, and AI still hasn't clarified why
or who convinced them to do this. The film is +IBw-The Revolution Will Not
Be Televised+IB0-, and citing a series of contradictory reasons, the film
was banned from the festival by Amnesty International, after it had
already been booked and listed in all of the AI programs.

A controversy immediately ensued, and it was Venezuelans who support the
film who first noticed that the very people from Venezuela that the film
exposed as human rights violators had launched a campaign against it
globally, wherever people might see it. Don Wright, local region (BC
Yukon) coordinator of AI, was interviewed on 'Democracy Now', a radio
program in New York run on the station Pacifica. There, the arguments
given were (quote): +IBw-...when we choose films we strive to choose films
that are nonpartisan and nonpolitical to reflect the mandate of our
organization.+AF4-1 <+ACM-sdfootnote1sym>+IB0- That is a rather bizarre statement,
to say the least, for an organization dealing with human rights and
coming from a film festival that included topics such as a successful
coup in Chile and discussions of Israeli nuclear programs. Perhaps
nuclear weapons in the Middle East and military coups in South America
are non-political and failed coups in South America are? I guess I'm
missing something here. And nonpartisan, well-- I guess the Chinese
government will be invited to talk on why it maintains sovereignty over
Tibet next year, no doubt that we need balance here.

Another point that seems very disturbing, Don Wright also said: +IBw-I think
I needed to clarify that the decision to include the film and then to
not include the film was very much a local decision...+IB0-, which will be
news to myself, Derrick O'Keefe and Peter Lypkie-- who were all told
directly by Don Wright that he would lose his job if he showed the film.
Amnesty International Canada would fire someone for showing a movie?
That sounds like a pretty dangerous film. Many people attending the
festival were told that Amnesty Canada (in Ottawa) had ordered the film
pulled. I doubt we'll ever know which of these stories to believe. The
first stories were that the film was not about human rights, and that to
show this film-- I remind you it's been on the CBC and the BBC as well
as elsewhere-- would create further ruptures in Venezuela, possibly
leading to more violence. If this sounds just a tad far fetched, it
should. Censorship begets lying, which begets more lies to justify the
censorship, and on and on.

Myself and only a few others ran a petition and information campaign out
front of the film festival every night the festival ran. AI's supporters
believe they are working to ensure an /end/ to censorship, and they also
don't expect their organization to cave into outside pressures like
this, especially from human rights violators. I am not exaggerating when
I say that 90+ACU- were supportive and concerned, and 75+ACU- of the lineups--
over 300 people so far-- have signed in person the petition to demand
that AI reinstate the film. Well, they didn't do that-- but you can
still sign another petition online here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/vendoc/petition.html

...and then do what's even more important: see the film for yourself and
use your own mind. As a response to the banning, some good people got a
generator and a TV and VCR down to the Pacific Cinematheque to show it
out front of the theater. Not a single riot broke out in Caracas. A half
an hour after the movie was supposed to be shown (8:25pm, to be exact)
we put it on for viewing at the Dogwood Centre in East Vancouver. We
filled all but three chairs and raised over a hundred dollars to keep
presenting the movie, to make copies, and to make certain that everyone
has the chance to see it, no matter what AI or violent, anti-government
Venezuelans try to do.

The film documents, from the inside out by the Irish Film Board (IFB),
the events of the two days of the coup. The IFB had been in the
parliament buildings making a separate documentary when the coup attempt
happened and they simply kept filming. The documentary first shows
events of the months leading up to the coup to learn about the struggle
over democracy in the country. Hugo Chavez, the elected president of the
country, has embarked on a dual campaign of democracy and social justice
by holding referendums, democratizing the supreme court, the national
assembly and now mildly redistributing wealth in a country with massive
oil reserves-- yet a majority living in absolute poverty and illiteracy.
The 'revolution' (as it styles itself) has begun providing health care
to the rural and traditionally neglected regions of Venezuela while
simultaneously empowering people through vast education campaigns as to
the rights and duties of the citizen under the hyper-democratic
provisions of the new constitution (itself written in consultation with
the entire population). This has earned this government the wrath of the
traditional ruling elites who have much to lose if the population is
able to emancipate itself. This culminated in the US helping work with
the 'opposition' (traditional ruling elites) to foment a military coup
last April 2002. The extraordinary events of the coup, including the
mass uprising of the people against it, are all documented from the
inside out.

The Venezuelan media are, in what AI called the +IBw-world's first media
coup+IB0- in their original description, shown to be more than mere
supporters of the coup. They blacked out the pro-Chavez demonstrations
by decree, asked the population to help overthrow the government, they
were even thanked at great length individually during the brief time of
the dictatorship! The one channel that the government controls, channel
8, had it's signal cut during the coup. The coupistas even tried to use
the media to say they still had power long after power and the military
had been returned to civilian and constitutional rule.

As I and many awards agree, the film is nothing short of extraordinary
as you see Venezuelans refusing to have their democracy stolen by the
wealthy and formerly powerful few. But don't take my word for it, I
believe that you should make up your own mind. The film will be shown
again November 28+AF4-th at SFU Harbor Centre downtown (Fletcher Challenge
Theater) at 6:30pm. You have the right to see this film and make up your
mind yourself. After Amnesty International caved into the ominous
pressures of those sympathetic to the coup, we need to see this movie
more than ever. The only way to deal with this kind of censorship
imposed from above on a group that seems to have lost it's spine is to
learn what they don't want you to know, and to see what you are not
supposed to see. The same people who plotted the first coup are still
trying to unseat the president, so history is far from over.

If you want to get your hands on your own copy of the film, please
contact me at mstainsby+AEA-tao.ca <mailto:mstainsby+AEA-tao.ca> with a phone
number and I will contact you when the cassettes are ready in the near
future (to be sold at cost). Be a rebel: see the film that Amnesty
censored.

Contact AI Canada and demand they include the film across the country,
this is a traveling festival. 1 800 AMNESTY (266-3789). email:
pro+AEA-amnesty.ca <mailto:pro+AEA-amnesty.ca>



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