tagged w/ Repression
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Part one of two films documenting the UK Tamil protests that spanned six months, as the final surge by Sri Lankan forces against the Tamil Tigers killed tens of thousands of innocent Tamil civilians and left 300,00 displaced, locked behind barbed wire refugee camps.
For a more indepth report: http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2009/07/film-tamil.html
The film is also available on issue 19 of Reel News: www.reelnews.co.uk
This film is copyright (c) 2009 Jason N. Parkinson. All Rights Reserved.
For use please contact the author directly: jasonnparkinson@gmail.comPart one of two films documenting the UK Tamil protests that spanned six months, as... more
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The freedom that many Iranians would like to have is to listen the music they love, too. The regime in fact, even if the Koran doesn't say anything against music, prohibits any kind of music that promotes a "decadent Western culture", because the religious elite and the state monitor even the disco industry. Ahmadinejad in 2005, overturning the policy of more liberal predecessors, banned on national radio and tv all "western music" that really means all the iranian music that the regime doesn't like.The freedom that many Iranians would like to have is to listen the music they love,... more
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The repression of popular protests in Iran continues and worsens. All the opposition newspapers have been closed and journalists arrested. The opposition leader Mousavi seems to be under house arrest, and several members of the regime threaten exemplary punishment against him for having instigated the demonstrations. Seventy university professors have been arrested after visiting his home. The police and the basji militia fired on the crowd several times, and there were also raids in hospitals to arrest the wounded or carry away the bodies of demonstrators killed.The repression of popular protests in Iran continues and worsens. All the opposition... more
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Mr. Chen and his comrades had just been given chilling orders: to clear the symbolic heart of the nation, even if it meant spilling blood.
Twenty years after Chinese troops shot their way into the center of Beijing, killing hundreds of people and wounding many more, Mr. Chen provided a rare window into the military crackdown that re-established the Communist Party’s supremacy after six weeks of mass unrest and then, for most Chinese, disappeared in an official whitewash.
Speaking publicly for the first time — and defying security officials who have told him to keep silent — he explained how soldiers from the 65th Group Army dressed in civilian clothes on June 3 and stealthily made their way to the Great Hall on Tiananmen Square’s western edge. At midnight, with clips of ammunition slung across their chests, they faced off against demonstrators, the air filled with the singing of students and the sound of gunfire.Mr. Chen and his comrades had just been given chilling orders: to clear the symbolic... more
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Not quite six months in, this has been a pretty strong year for releases. Seen some fantastic stuff, not all of which I’ve been able to cover on MMP. (If they come your way, be sure to check out SUMMER HOURS, a smart, subtly turned French film, and BIG MAN JAPAN, a delirious, kick-ass send-up of Japanese kaiju.)
But to date, none of the documentaries I’ve seen have quite blown me away like BURMA VJ: REPORTING FROM A CLOSED COUNTRY. It’s a combination of factors, here — the idea of the video journalists who work for the Democratic Voice of Burma, under constant threat of torture and lifetime imprisonment; the prime focus of the film on the Saffron Revolution, an uprising of Buddhist monks that crystalized into large-scale protests and resulted in a shockingly brutal response from the military junta; and director Anders Ostergaard’s way of mixing documentary footage smuggled out of the country with reenactments of events that happened outside the country — that makes the film such a compelling revelation of the struggle to disseminate truth in the face of repression.
The film has the backing of HBO, and so should be showing up on the network at some point. It’s well worth keeping an eye out for. In the meantime, here’s my interview with Ostergaard and Democratic Voice of Burma’s deputy director, Khin Maung Win.Not quite six months in, this has been a pretty strong year for releases. Seen some... more
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1 April 2009 - Financial Fools Day: As the 29 G20 leaders gathered in London, thousands came out on to the streets of the financial district to protest a wide range of issues from climate change to the failing capitalist system and tax payers bailout of the international banking system.
10,500 police were drafted in, at an estimated cost of £10 million, to police the protests and protect the banking institutions from what the police had deemd "the summer of rage". The end product was two policers suspended, scores injured and hospitalised and one man dead after being attacked by an unidentified member of the TSG (Territorial Support Group) riot squad.
Global Economic Meltdown follows on from last year's short film Global Economic Crisis, which documented the initial protests as the UK government bailed out the banks to a sum of £500 billion.
http://current.com/items/89599936_global-economic-crisis-the-first-wave.htm
Music for Global Economic Meltdown comes from Senser, I.C.H, and Rikki Blue.
http://www.senser.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/senserband
http://www.myspace.com/ichcolchesterpunx
Other Related Films and Reports
http://current.com/items/89971707_guardian-publishes-catalogue-of-g20-police-brutality-video-evidence.htm
http://current.com/items/89994382_ian-tomlinson-memorial-march.htm
Both films are available on Reel News, a bi-monthly independent DVD release by activists and journalists, covering campaigns and news that did not make the mainstream.
http://www.reelnews.co.uk/
Blog: http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/1 April 2009 - Financial Fools Day: As the 29 G20 leaders gathered in London,... more
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Portfolio ran an anonymous piece today by a self-described TARP wife lamenting how far she's fallen both socially and monetarily. The article only serves to further the notion that perhaps one of the few silver linings of this financial crisis is to burst the bubble of the TARP wives. Except her bubble hasn't really burst, just punctured with the air slowly leaking out. What's always astonishing about these Wall Street "look how much worse my life is" pieces is that they're written with the belief that people, besides their friends at the country club, will have any sympathy for them whatsoever.
For example, take this paragraph:
I haven't even looked at spring clothes; God forbid someone catches me out in something new. Keeping up with fashion seems somehow decadent in this new era, like getting Botox injections or catered dinners... If I buy a present for someone, I have the package sent to their home. I don't want to be spotted climbing into a taxi, laden with Bergdorf Goodman shopping bags.
One senses that the spring fashions she would consider are not from The Gap because, really, if your new pair of pants is going to cost less than $250, is there a point in getting new pants? And then there is the line about buying presents. The point this wife seems to be missing is that she can still afford to, and still does, buy presents for friends at Bergdorf's. The only thing that's changed is she's embarrassed to be seen with the bags. This is not a real problem.
The next paragraph is equally cringe-worthy and it's only the third paragraph:
As you can see, being a TARP wife means, in short, making decisions according to a complex algorithm: balancing the need to look like your world hasn't crumbled beneath you--let's not alarm the investors!--with the need to appear duly repentant for your subprime sins. It also means we're part of the community of more than 400 companies that have received government bailout funds, whose fall from grace has been swifter and harsher than any since Mao frog-marched intellectuals into China's countryside.
As tasteless these sentences are, they nicely sum up the disconnect between this wife and the real world. The "complex algorithm" by which she lives her life is not complicated all. Expending energy to determine how much less money you have to spend to satisfy the need "to appear duly repentant" is what we call one of those "good problems." Most of America lives their lives by the complex algorithm of balancing the need for rent, food, and the occasional night out to blow off some steam.Portfolio ran an anonymous piece today by a self-described TARP wife lamenting how far... more
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From the article...LOS ANGELES -- Two animal rights activists were charged Monday with conspiracy, stalking and other crimes against researchers at University of California, Los Angeles and executives of a juice company.
Linda Faith Greene, 61, and Kevin Richard Olliff, 22, pleaded not guilty to the charges during their arraignment in Superior Court.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office issued a statement calling the pair "alleged domestic terrorists" and describing them as associates of the Animal Liberation Front, an extremist animal rights group.
A county grand jury indictment was handed up March 27 and charged each with three counts of conspiracy to commit stalking, three counts of stalking, two counts of conspiracy to threaten a public officer or school employee and two counts of threatening a public officer or school employee. They were arrested Thursday.
The indictment alleges that an unnamed co-conspirator tried to place an incendiary device on the doorstep of UCLA professor Lynn Fairbanks' home in July 2006 but it was actually left at an elderly neighbor's house and failed to explode.
One of the overt acts in the conspiracy was Greene, acting as press officer for an animal rights Web site, posting a "communique" by the ALF which took responsibility for what it called a "moletov cocktail," according to the indictment.
Greene, Olliff and others conducted demonstrations at the professor's home and on the UCLA campus, during which they chanted threats through a bullhorn and disputed law enforcement claims that the wrong house was targeted, according to the indictment.
Greene is also accused of identifying Fairbanks as a "target" on a Web site, publishing her addresses and other personal information online.
The indictment alleges a similar campaign against a neurobiology professor, Dario Ringach, who later gave up primate research, citing harassment from animal rights activists and concerns for his young children.
A telephone message seeking comment was left Monday evening at the office of attorney David B. Rutan, who represented Greene and Olliff when UCLA got a temporary restraining order against animal rights activists.
Dr. Jerry Vlasak, an animal rights activist with North American Animal Liberation Press Office, said Monday that Greene and Olliff violated no laws.
"They're using their constitutional right to free speech. They're not breaking any laws or breaking in to sabotage or destroying vehicles or equipment," Vlasak said. "Everyone knows who they are. They're high-profile activists who never tried to hide their identities. Linda did TV interviews."
The indictment further alleges that Greene and Olliff stalked executives of Los Angeles-based POM Wonderful Juice Co., picketed at a corporate family picnic and conducted demonstrations at their homes.
Vlasak said the activists targeted POM because they believe the company was using animal experiments to support claims that pomegranate juice could improve erectile function in men with mild impotence problems.
A telephone message seeking comment from POM after hours was not immediately returned.
Greene was held on $450,000 bail and is due back in court Friday for a bail review hearing. Olliff was held on $460,000 bail.
Both defendants are scheduled for a pretrial hearing on May 20.
Over the past couple of years, animal rights activists have aggressively protested animal research at the homes of scientists.
Earlier this year, four people pleaded not guilty in connection with an attempted break-in at the home of a UC Santa Cruz breast cancer researcher in 2008. Last December, a man pleaded no contest to making harassing phone calls to UC San Francisco researchers at their homes and telling them that they would die the same way they made animals suffer.From the article...LOS ANGELES -- Two animal rights activists were charged Monday with... more
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The sad fact of the matter is the violence and police tactics has yet again taken the limelight in nearly all coverage of the G20 summit. The issues being raised by protestors was mostly lost amid images of baton charges and bleeding skulls.The sad fact of the matter is the violence and police tactics has yet again taken the... more
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Citing a lack of evidence, a Boston Municipal Court clerk-magistrate yesterday rejected some of the vandalism charges Boston police are trying to bring against celebrated graffiti artist Frank Shepard Fairey, Fairey's lawyer said.
The clerk-magistrate said that seven of the 17 charges police wanted to bring against the Los Angeles-based artist should not go forward in criminal court because there is not enough proof he committed the acts of vandalism, said Fairey's lawyer, Jeffrey Wiesner.
"The evidence has to be virtually nil for a clerk to do that," said Wiesner, who is based in Boston.
But Fairey, 39, who gained acclaim for his "Hope" poster of Barack Obama, has not seen the last of Boston law enforcement officials. He still faces 17 other counts of vandalism.
Today, he is to return to Boston Municipal Court to face the 10 other charges of vandalism.
Wiesner said in court that Boston police are needlessly going after Fairey because stickers bearing his images have been posted on stop signs and guardrails throughout the city. Those stickers have been mass-produced, are sold on Amazon.com, and could have been posted by anyone, the lawyer said. The Institute of Contemporary Art, which is exhibiting Fairey's work, has distributed some of the stickers for free, Wiesner said.
But prosecutors said that one of the charges stems from the Jan. 24 discovery of a 6-by-8 foot mural painted on a condominium on Massachusetts Avenue that took "time and knowledge."
After the hearing, Fairey did not comment on the charges, but smiled wanly and offered this: "This is a fun process, I'll say that."
About a dozen residents from Mission Hill and the Back Bay, neighborhoods plagued by graffiti, were in court yesterday to witness the proceedings.
"We want the judge to know the community is here and wants something to happen, wants for this to be taken seriously," said Kathleen Alexander, cochairwoman of the Graffiti NABBers for the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay.Citing a lack of evidence, a Boston Municipal Court clerk-magistrate yesterday... more
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What would it take for you to leave your homeland forever?
100,000 Tamils living in London
300,000 Tamils in the U.K
80 million Tamils world wide
Why is their story so supressed - when will the media break its silence over mass
Srilanken genocide?
This is a short only - complete interviews will be online shortly.
music: Gaea Knight, Paris,
Additional footage: K&J photography
Jason n ParkinsonWhat would it take for you to leave your homeland forever?
100,000 Tamils living in... more
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4 April 2009: Strasbourg, France, was the set for protests against the 2009 NATO Summit, but as thousands marched on the Pont Du l'Europe German border point to greet 5000 German protestors, roads blocked by riot police opened fire. Endless tear gas and concussion grenades rained down, and rubber bullets found targets in densely populated crowds. Return fire came fast, first rocks and bottles, then flares and fireworks.
This is just a teaser video of the forthcoming work from myself and Reel News, as the UK and rest of the world slips into mass social unrest, an uneasy and angry reaction to the global economic crisis, failing capitalism, bank bailouts, the military industrial complex and those politicians that are trying desperately to hold the old western civilisation together.
Special thanks to Senser and Paul West at Imprint Music for the use of the latest Senser single "Resistance Now" from the forthcoming album "How To Do Battle".
Related links.
Imprint Music: http://www.imprintmusic.co.uk/
Senser: http://www.senser.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/senserband
Reel News: http://www.reelnews.co.uk/
Blog: http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/4 April 2009: Strasbourg, France, was the set for protests against the 2009 NATO... more
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SCOTLAND YARD is to deploy officers armed with 50,000-volt Taser stun guns to deal with violent demonstrators planning to disrupt this week’s G20 summit in London.SCOTLAND YARD is to deploy officers armed with 50,000-volt Taser stun guns to deal... more
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Thursday 26 February 2009: At the London PhotoForum NUJ member and photographer Andrew Wiard spoke on the history of the UK Press Card.
In this NUJ-funded film - Wiard talked about the creation of the press card without state control and the long campaign to get it in place, the problems and benefits of the card, the future of the UK press card system and the need to hold on to the press card in increasingly difficult social and political times.
PhotoForum Film Part One: Know Your Rights
A short film on photography rights hosted by photographer Peter Macdiarmid and solicitor Anna Mazzola.
http://current.com/items/89927365/photoforum_know_your_rights.htmThursday 26 February 2009: At the London PhotoForum NUJ member and photographer Andrew... more
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Thursday 26 February 2009: Following the arrival of the new 2008 Counter Terrorism law and the introduction of Section 76, the London PhotoForum held a meeting on photographers rights.
Section 76 allows for the arrest and imprisonment of anyone who takes pictures of police officers, and some other public servants, “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”. The maximum sentence is ten years.
This NUJ-funded film comprises of two speakers on the issue of photography rights, Anna Mazzola from Hickman and Rose solicitors and photographer Peter Macdiarmid. Experiences of working the streets of the UK, police guidelines, Section 76, stop and search powers and what to do if you detained by police are all covered in this vital reference film for photographers and other lens-based media, both amateur and professional.
PhotoForum Film Part Two: The UK Press Card - Past, Present and Future
A short film on the histroy of the UK Press Card, with speaker Andrew Wiard.
http://current.com/items/89927474/photoforum_the_uk_press_card_past_present_future.htmThursday 26 February 2009: Following the arrival of the new 2008 Counter Terrorism law... more
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County Mayo, Ireland: Staunch Shell To Sea campaigner Maura Harrington has been jailed for 28 days and ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation by an Irish Judge.
Harrington, a retired school head teacher and well known for her staunch resistance to Shell in County Mayo, became one of the most dangerous anti-Shell campaigners in County Mayo when in September 2008 she instigated a hunger strike in her car outside the Corrib Gas pipeline landfall site. Her orders were, remove the pipe laying ship Solitaire from Irish waters or have the death of a local resident on your hands. The historical connotations of this action were too much. The Solitaire ship had an "accident" and left the West Ireland coast for repairs in Scotland.
This latest imprisonment of a Shell To Sea campaigner comes at the same time as Shell announces its plans to attempt to lay the Corrib Gas pipeline for a second time.
Related Films and Reports
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/environment/irish+gas+plant+under+fire/568972
http://current.com/items/87156551/policing_the_pollution_don_t_mention_the_water.htmCounty Mayo, Ireland: Staunch Shell To Sea campaigner Maura Harrington has been jailed... more
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Family members of Oscar Grant, the unarmed BART rider shot to death by a transit agency police officer early New Year's Day, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Monday that seeks $50 million from the agency, its chief of police and three officers.
John Burris, an attorney for the family, had asked for $25 million in a legal claim against BART after Officer Johannes Mehserle shot Grant on the platform of the Fruitvale Station in Oakland.
Grant, 22, of Hayward, and several other young men had been pulled off a Dublin-Pleasanton train by police investigating reports of a fight. He was face-down on the station platform when he was shot, an incident that several passengers recorded on cell-phone cameras.
Mehserle, 27, quit the BART force Jan. 7 and was subsequently charged with murder. His attorney said Mehserle had meant to fire his Taser when he fired a single shot with his pistol.
Burris said Monday that the actions by Mehserle and by BART Officer Tony Pirone, who first detained Grant and five of his friends in the aftermath of the fight, were "more egregious than I initially thought."
The lawsuit Burris filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland on the Grant family's behalf also named Pirone's partner, Marysol Domenici, and Police Chief Gary Gee. The attorney suggested that racism had played a role in Grant's detention and death, an accusation that a lawyer for BART said is not supported by evidence.
Burris wrote that an unidentified officer "directed a racial slur at one of the young men" after they were detained. Grant was African American, and the other detained men were black and Latino, Burris said in the suit.
Dale Allen, an attorney representing BART and the officers in civil court, said Monday that Grant's death was "a tragic accident," citing Mehserle's explanation about trying to fire his Taser.
"BART has been discussing mediation with Mr. Burris in an attempt to bring closure to the Grant family, and will continue to do so," Allen said.
Allen said evidence in the case will show that Grant and his friends "had been identified as having been involved in an altercation on the train" and that officers had properly detained them. He said racism was not a factor in the case and that officers had uttered "absolutely no racial slurs."
Burris said Pirone struck Grant without good reason minutes before Grant was shot, and that Domenici threatened to "tase" the young men in the face. Pirone's attorney, Bill Rapoport, has said Grant provoked Pirone's blow by trying to knee the officer in the groin.
Burris filed the lawsuit on behalf of Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson, as well as Sophina Mesa, who was Grant's girlfriend and is raising the couple's 4-year-old daughter.
BART spokesman Linton Johnson said Monday that a criminal investigation into the actions of Pirone and the other officers on the platform will soon be turned over to Alameda County prosecutors for a decision on possible charges.Family members of Oscar Grant, the unarmed BART rider shot to death by a transit... more
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On Saturday 27 December 2008 Israel launched an unprecedented attack into the Gaza Strip. In London protestors took to the streets en-mass, in their thousands. There the anger and outrage manifested themselves in Kensington, the home of the Israeli embassy.
Part Two covers the march of thousands on the Israeli embassy in Kensington from Hyde Park. The footage tells the rest of the story from the day that peaceful protest deteriorated into three-hour running street battles.
Boiling Point is not so much a fully narrated film piece, more of a visual account of what happened between Saturday 3 January and Sunday 11 January, allowing the footage of those days to do the storytelling. Constructed from nearly ten hours of footage shot over four days on two cameras, hopefully it gives the viewer an idea of what really happens down on the front line of a riot situation.
The music comes courtesy of:
"OPT" by MC Cox - Released on "Badly Worn Hat" Soul Prolapse Records 2004
"Dr Benway" by Headjam - http://www.myspace.com/headjamuk
Boiling Point will also be available on the February issue of Reel News:
www.reelnews.co.uk
Home blog
www.jasonnparkinson.blogspot.comOn Saturday 27 December 2008 Israel launched an unprecedented attack into the Gaza... more
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