SHOCKING AND AWFUL MARATHON -- PART TWO:
"Dance of Death" (26 minutes)
Dance of Death examines the relationship between U.S. soldier-occupiers and the Iraqi people. What impact has this interaction had on the soldiers, what hopes or resentments has it fueled in the people of Iraq? Army recruitment films speak of "An Army of One." But it's not like the ads on MTV. Men and women may ship out as units, but they come home alone. Wives, husbands and parents speak about the impact on families of physically and mentally damaged loved ones, the despair of "stop -loss" forced extension of duty. And what's the class and ethnic background of the military? How many non-citizens have been recruited with the promise of citizenship? (Three years after this video was made, Iraq Veterans Against the War organized Winter Soldier II: Iraq and Afghanistan - Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations.. Over 200 vets attended, more than 50 testified, confirming in great detail the reality that Dance of Death describes.)
"Erasing Memory -- The Cultural Destruction of Iraq" (28 minutes)
This heartbreaking and enraging program begins with Robert Fisk's eyewitness account of the looting of Baghdad's museums and libraries, while the U.S. military watched, ordered by their high command only to protect the Ministry of Oil. Elsa First's beautiful lamenting poems of the plunder and the loss give emotional magnitude to the crime. Archeologist David Gimbel describes the vast pillage of archaeological sites so severe that "no archaeologist could deal with it psychologically." ("When we go back and look at this situation we will find there were attempts to wipe out culture...In reality the occupation is a military and a cultural occupation." -- Iraqi writer and painter Mooald Dawood Al-Bassam)
"Globalization At Gunpoint" (27 minutes)
The military occupation of Iraq has enabled the U.S. to enforce privatization of the Iraqi economy, in effect, selling off Iraq's assets to foreign investors. A look at the challenges to privatization.
"The World Says NO to War" (27 minutes)
Documents the massive protests of tens of millions of people throughout the world in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Sounds and images from 16 countries show passionate and creative reactions to militarism and occupation.
"Eyes Wide Open" (8 minutes)
As part of the Media Edge 3-week series to mark the 10th anniversary of the second US invasion of Iraq, we present an encore presentation of "Eyes Wide Open", Media Edge producer Steve Kolb's multi-award-winning video about the "Eyes Wide Open" tribute to the soldiers and civilians killed in Iraq. This traveling exhibit stopped in Sacramento on March 29-31, 2005.
