Subject: 3 statewide film showings!ACMEVermont's FREE Monthly REEL ACTION Film Series: September 2004 Selection
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 16:47:28 -0400
"Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear, And The Selling of American Empire"
To commemorate the third anniversary of the September 11 tragedy, the Vermont chapter of the Action Coalition for Media Education (http://www.acmecoalition.org) is hosting statewide screenings of "Hijacking Catastrophe," a new 60 minute documentary produced by ACME coalition partner the Media Education Foundation (http://www.mediaed.org). The film, produced by Sut Jhally and Jeremy Earp, narrated by Julian Bond, and featuring more than two dozen interviews, raises provocative questions about U.S. foreign policy shifts and domestic transformations here at home in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and may be one of the most important films of this election season.
We encourage you to attend one of these FREE screenings, and bring colleagues, friends, and family! Donations are welcome.
Friday, September 10th at Burlington's Firehouse Forum - 6:00 p.m. (Contact Suzie DeBrosse at [EMAIL PROTECTED])
(Donations to benefit the Vermont International Film Festival)
Sunday, September 12th at Waitsfield's Eclipse Theater - 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. (Contact Rob Williams at [EMAIL PROTECTED])
(Donations to benefit "Media Literacy to Strengthen Our Democracy" Workshops)
Monday, September 13th at Brattleboro's Hooker-Dunham Theater - 7:00 p.m. (Contact Robin Rieske at # 802.258.2402)
Donations to benefit KnowMedia)
Find out more about the film at http://www.hijackingcatastrophe.com
Download ACME's FREE study guide for the film at http://www.acmecoalition.org
A review of the film follows:
Neo-Conned!
Hijacking
Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear, And The Selling of American Empire
Written by
Rob Williams
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Whats the most important dilemma U.S. citizens confront as we enter the 2004 presidential election season? Heres a short list of possibles. Some say poverty: the Census Bureau tells us that almost 40 million Americans live at or below the poverty line. Others say the ailing health care system: more than 45 million Americans are now uninsured, and the cost of health insurance is rising by 15-20% per year. The U.S. deficit? Now at $375 billion and growing, the highest it has ever been, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The U.S. debt, meanwhile, is ballooning to a projected record-breaking level of $7 trillion. Or what about quality jobs? The U.S. unemployment rate hovers around 5.6 percent, while median household income remains stagnant at $43,000.
All of these dilemmas are critical to debates about this countrys prospects, but one issue looms larger than all others: the future direction of U.S. Empire. We are citizens of the richest and most powerful empire in world history. As countless poets and pundits have pointed out, the 9/11 tragedy three years ago proved a wake up callfor many Americans. Now, three years later, it is critical that we make our imperial foreign policy the subject of intense scrutiny during the presidential debates leading up to the election.
And there is no better film to serve as a springboard than the Media Education Foundations new hour-long documentary Hijacking Catastrophe.Produced by MEF Executive Director Sut Jhally and Jeremy Earp, narrated by veteran activist Julian Bond, and featuring more than two dozen interviews, Hijackingargues that a small but influential group of fringe Republican ideologues Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and National Revieweditor William Kristol among them have leveraged the national trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to revamp U.S. foreign policy based on a pre-existing neoconservative blueprint, while simultaneously rolling back social programs and civil liberties here at home.
Other filmmakers have gone down this road, most notably Fahrenheit 9/11s Michael Moore. His film suffers from a number of flaws, however, including a frustrating focus on Bush-bashing to the exclusion of any larger sustained structural argument about the nature, direction, and key players involved in shaping post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy.
Not so with Hijacking Catastrophe.Jhally and Earp wisely keep their unwavering gaze focused on the decades-long ideological debates that have played out within elite foreign policy circles underneath the corporately-owned U.S. news medias radar, debates that culminated in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, when neoconservatives moved quickly to solidify their strategic plans for unilateral U.S. global dominance.
And if you are tempted to think that all of this has little to do with the mundane realities of existence, think again. Hijacking Catastrophealso lays bare the opportunity costs inherent in the neoconsplans. The invasion and occupation of Iraq has cost U.S. taxpayers close to $150 billion dollars. (Thats you and me more than half of U.S.based corporations simply dont pay taxes any more). These financial resources could be used to address all of the pressing problems education, health care, job re-training that so many Americans are concerned about, not to mention strengthening the chronically under-funded Department of Homeland Security or strengthening programs designed to find and stop ACTUAL terrorist networks who mean U.S. citizens harm. (Where are those pesky Iraqi WMDs or those proven links between Saddam and al Qaeda, anyway?
More sobering, perhaps, is the cost in human lives. Close to 1,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, courageously fighting and dying in the Middle Eastern desert to support the D.C.-based neo-consgrand vision (almost all of whom avoided military service during Vietnam). 6,000 more U.S. soldiers have been injured, many losing arms, legs, or their eyesight in combat. Between 10,000 and 13,000 Iraqis have been killed we dont know exact numbers, because the Pentagon has refused to count the Iraqi dead.
Simply stated, Hijacking Catastropheoffers the most provocative exploration of post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy to date. It may be the most important documentary film of this presidential election season. Dont miss it.
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Dr. Rob Williams: Historian, Media Educator, Musician, Writer
Mad River Valley, Vermont/cell tel # 802-279-3364
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Join the Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME).
Visit http://www.acmecoalition.org for more information.
"It's time for ACTION in media education!"
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"You cannot teach anybody anything.
You can only help them discover it within themselves." Galileo
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