THE POLITICS OF U.S. OCCUPATION

To request a free DVD copy, contact:l POLITICS.OF.US.OCCUPATION@GMAIL.COM

This 30-minute documentary was submitted in fulfillment of the thesis film requirement of the Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) in Film and Electronic media at American University School of Communication-Washington DC. It features Professors Noam Chomsky, Neferti Tadiar, Nerissa Balce and Kenneth Bauzon who analyze the contemporary relevance of the 1899 Philippine-American War for the 21st century U.S. empire. The use of third party audio-visual images was guided by the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use published by American University-Center for Social Media website: http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/fair-use

Part 1 argues the idea that the bloody War of 1899 (and not World War 2) is the foundation of Philippine-U.S. relations. The Part 1 also visually shows footage of World war 2 combat and deaths that are just as brutal and traumatic as the footage of the 1899 combat and deaths.

Part 2 describes the idea that the U.S. occupation of 1899 is one characterized by systematic use of torture (despite official denials), one of which, the WATER CURE, can even claim to be the grandfather of the Post-9/11 Dick Cheney "water-boarding WAR ON TERROR happy hour drink special"

Part 3 explains the brutality/racism of the 1899 U.S. occupation of the Philippines as not so much different from the brutality/racism of her previous wars of conquest of indigenous cultures commonly called the Indian Wars (most of the Indian dead photographs, as well as re-enactment movies shown in the film were related to the infamous 1890 Wound Knee Massacre). We also learn in Part 3 that this turn of the century systematic and violent repression of nationalist uprisings in the Philippines became the template used by the U.S. in its many military occupations in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 20th century.

Part 4 ends with the idea of interconnectedness of domestic and overseas violence as violence migrates from the brutality of the Indian wars (e.g. 1890 Wounded Knee massacre) to the Philippine-American war abuses (e.g. 1906 Bud Dajo massacre) and to its 21st century echoes of human rights violations in the war in Iraq (e.g. 2007 WIKILEAKS video)