Short Films "Lucky Dip"/Best of VideoActive: This Saturday at Filmbase, Curved Street, Dublin

dublin | arts and media | feature Tuesday April 19, 2005 11:44 by Indymedia Ireland/Sustainable Ireland/Filmbase

"Sounds a bit arty" sez Wag, "Can you bring yer own coke 'n' crisps?"

Indymedia Ireland/Convergence/Filmbase Present A Day of Film Screenings:
As part of the Convergence Festival, Indymedia & Sustainable Ireland have teamed up with the recently opened Filmbase on Curved Street (the old Arthouse, opposite the Temple Bar Music Centre) to bring you a day of free short films from around the World, plus screenings of three of the feature documentaries from last November's "Videoactive" Film Festival.

Last November a new radical documentary film festival was held in the Samuel Beckett Centre of Trinity College Dublin. This was co-organised by the Cultivate Centre and Indymedia Ireland. The festival showcased a series of feature length politically committed documentaries from around the planet. A complete programme of the screenings is available here.

In November this year Indymedia, Cultivate and Film Base will host another 'Documentaries from the Edge' film festival.

The three films being screened this Saturday are listed below. Admission to each film is only 5 euro:

10.00am - 12.00pm Outfoxed: Rupert Murdock's War on Journalism. "Outfoxed" examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know. The film explores Murdoch's burgeoning kingdom and the impact on society when a broad swath of media is controlled by one person. This documentary also reveals the secrets of Former Fox news producers, reporters, bookers and writers who expose what it's like to work for Fox News. These former Fox employees talk about how they were forced to push a "right-wing" point of view or risk their jobs. Produced and directed by Robert Greenwald. (77 mins) Carolina Productions, 2004 http://www.outfoxed.org

12.30pm - 2.30pm The End of Suburbia: The End of Suburbia points out that the rise of the suburbs was made possible by abundant and cheap oil. It allowed for the creation of a system of habitation where millions of people can live many miles away from where they work and where they shop for food and necessities. And there is no other form of living that requires more energy in order to function than suburbia. But the voracious and expanding energy needs of our industrial society, our insane consumer culture, and the affluent suburban lifestyles are brushing up against the disturbing reality of finite energy resources. The End of Suburbia makes clear that the effects of energy depletion go way beyond paying more at the pump. (78 Mins)
Electric Wallpaper, 2004 http://www.endofsuburbia.com

3.00pm - 5.00pm Weapons of Mass Deception There were two wars going on in Iraq - one was fought with armies of soldiers, bombs and a fearsome military force. The other was fought alongside it with cameras, satellites, armies of journalists and propaganda techniques. One war was rationalized as an effort to find and disarm WMDs - Weapons of Mass Destruction; the other was carried out by even more powerful WMDs, Weapons of Mass Deception. The TV networks in America considered their non-stop coverage their finest hour, pointing to the use of embedded journalists and new technologies that permitted viewers to see a war up close for the first time. WMD is a 100 minute non-fiction film, explores this story with the findings of a gutsy, media insider-turned-outsider, former network journalist, Danny Schechter, who is one of America's most prolific media critics. Schechter says he "self-embedded" himself in his living room to monitor media coverage, by fastidiously tracking the TV coverage on a daily basis. (100 Mins)
Mediachannel 2004 http://www.wmdthefilm.com

Upstairs in Filmbase, Indymedia Ireland will be curating a day-long session of independent short films from across the world. We hope people will pop in and out of Filmbase for this short film "Lucky Dip". Admission to the short film screenings is free. The screenings start at 10am and run until approximately 5pm.

Below is a list of the short films that have been organised for the screening. This is just a provisional list, more will be added as Saturday gets closer - please check back regularly for updates! Additionally, if you are a short film-maker and have a film that you would like to be included in the screenings, please contact Indymedia Ireland.

**addition**Al Azzariyah - a short video postcard from a border crossing in the West Bank
Argentina Voices - A year after the anti-IMF rebellion, Buenos Aires residents reflect on the past
Aubonne Bridge - Activists blocking a road to the G8 are confronted by the French police, with terrifying consequences
Baxter 2003 - Easter 2003 at the Baxter Detention centre
Beverley Incident - The Beverley Uranium mine incident
Buy Nothing Day - Christmas action in front of a Shopping mall in Kyoto, Japan
Chainworkers - Interview with Alex Foti about the history of the Italian Chainworkers Crew
Consumption - 'Keep on buying things I dont need' a fast paced musical explosion
Contrato Basura - Finally a contract at Starbucks... but something smells fishy?
Crack the CIA - Connecting the dots between drug traffic and the CIA
Friend or Foe (extract)- Korea Telecom workers are fired but determined to fight back
Gimme an occupation of the premises with that McStrike - McDonalds workers go on strike & occupy the premises for six months
Hercubush - The lengths one man will go for a well-oiled torso
Interview with Naomi Klein - On the precarity of media work and the movement in Argentina
Les Precaires es Rebellen - Interviews with precarious rebels in Barcelona
Mayday Barcelona - Videoclip of Euromayday parade in Barcelona
No Bases For War - UK activists against their governments involvement in nuclear armaments
NOlympism - Impossible efforts of Bulgarian & Turkish textile workers to achieve the Olympic dream
Nous Sommes Partout - Actions against precarity of French temporary workers from the cultural sector
Occupation - Students direct action defeats world oldest corporation and wins a living wage
Picchetta la Catena - Mayday 2004 picket actions in front of Zara, Mondadori Bookstore, & Disney
Pine Gap - 2002 demonstration at the US war base at Pine Gap
Precarias A La Deriva - Precarious women on the path of war; interviewing each other
Raising West Papua - West Papuan Independence movement
Read my Lips - Bush and Blair, the special relationship uncovered
Recycling - Some teepee-dwelling german hippies have a novel way of protesting
S-11 Redux - Channel surfing the apocalypse
Saint Precarious Goes Shopping - Supermarket procession with the Saint of Precarity
Saranno Precari - Two precaires go to Milan to look for a job & bump into the Mayday parade...
Shoeshine President - Brazilians express their opinions on the election of Lula
Submission - Theo Van Gogh's highly controversial film about Islam which ultimately resulted in his murder
The Awful Truth - Mexican Holiday Inn workers risk being deported from the USA for creating a union
The Diamond Life - The complicity of the international diamond cartels in the civil war in Sierra Leone
The Meatrix - A pig opens his eyes to the real world of intensive farming
The Most Dangerous Game - The secret history of the CIA's mind control programs
The Take (extract) - Unemployed Argentinian workers occupy their abandoned factory
Thomson's Catchment - Saving forests in Thomson's Catchment
THRONG - The Heavenly & Righteous Opposed to Nanotechnology Greed
War No More - Trying to imagine a world without conflict
When the Smoke Clearz - Who drives hip-hop?
Where Is Freedom? - Interviews from the Woomera Detention Centre
Whose news? - Undercurrents present the unspun truth behind various grassroots movements
Woomera Breakout - Activists tear down the fence of the asylum detention centre
Yomango Tango - Yomango steals champagne and dances tango in a bank & supermarket

This Saturday, April 23rd 10:00am - Filmbase, Curved Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.