[L-I] Censorship At the Amnesty International Film Festival On Human Rights.

_Censorship At the Amnesty International Film Festival On Human Rights._

Macdonald Stainsby

    Beginning Thursday, November 6^th until Sunday the 9^th , Amnesty 
International held their annual film festival on Human rights. The 
listings were much of the usual fare for AI: Films on Tibet, Burma, 
Pinochet's 1973 coup in Chile, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, even a film 
on Israel's secret nuclear weapons program. The festival had one other 
film scheduled to be the last one shown. That film had been broadcast on 
the CBC's 'Passionate Eye' program (twice). It had won more awards than 
any other film on the list of films to be put on screen at the film 
festival. It has been shown across Europe, including the BBC. It was 
removed two days before the festival, and AI still hasn't clarified why 
or who convinced them to do this. The film is “The Revolution Will Not 
Be Televised”, and citing a series of contradictory reasons, the film 
was banned from the festival by Amnesty International, after it had 
already been booked and listed in all of the AI programs.

A controversy immediately ensued, and it was Venezuelans who support the 
film who first noticed that the very people from Venezuela that the film 
exposed as human rights violators had launched a campaign against it 
globally, wherever people might see it. Don Wright, local region (BC 
Yukon) coordinator of AI, was interviewed on 'Democracy Now', a radio 
program in New York run on the station Pacifica. There, the arguments 
given were (quote): “...when we choose films we strive to choose films 
that are nonpartisan and nonpolitical to reflect the mandate of our 
organization.^1 <#sdfootnote1sym>” That is a rather bizarre statement, 
to say the least, for an organization dealing with human rights and 
coming from a film festival that included topics such as a successful 
coup in Chile and discussions of Israeli nuclear programs. Perhaps 
nuclear weapons in the Middle East and military coups in South America 
are non-political and failed coups in South America are? I guess I'm 
missing something here. And nonpartisan, well-- I guess the Chinese 
government will be invited to talk on why it maintains sovereignty over 
Tibet next year, no doubt that we need balance here.

Another point that seems very disturbing, Don Wright also said: “I think 
I needed to clarify that the decision to include the film and then to 
not include the film was very much a local decision...”, which will be 
news to myself, Derrick O'Keefe and Peter Lypkie-- who were all told 
directly by Don Wright that he would lose his job if he showed the film. 
Amnesty International Canada would fire someone for showing a movie? 
That sounds like a pretty dangerous film. Many people attending the 
festival were told that Amnesty Canada (in Ottawa) had ordered the film 
pulled. I doubt we'll ever know which of these stories to believe. The 
first stories were that the film was not about human rights, and that to 
show this film-- I remind you it's been on the CBC and the BBC as well 
as elsewhere-- would create further ruptures in Venezuela, possibly 
leading to more violence. If this sounds just a tad far fetched, it 
should. Censorship begets lying, which begets more lies to justify the 
censorship, and on and on.

Myself and only a few others ran a petition and information campaign out 
front of the film festival every night the festival ran. AI's supporters 
believe they are working to ensure an /end/ to censorship, and they also 
don't expect their organization to cave into outside pressures like 
this, especially from human rights violators. I am not exaggerating when 
I say that 90% were supportive and concerned, and 75% of the lineups-- 
over 300 people so far-- have signed in person the petition to demand 
that AI reinstate the film. Well, they didn't do that-- but you can 
still sign another petition online here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/vendoc/petition.html

...and then do what's even more important: see the film for yourself and 
use your own mind. As a response to the banning, some good people got a 
generator and a TV and VCR down to the Pacific Cinematheque to show it 
out front of the theater. Not a single riot broke out in Caracas. A half 
an hour after the movie was supposed to be shown (8:25pm, to be exact) 
we put it on for viewing at the Dogwood Centre in East Vancouver. We 
filled all but three chairs and raised over a hundred dollars to keep 
presenting the movie, to make copies, and to make certain that everyone 
has the chance to see it, no matter what AI or violent, anti-government 
Venezuelans try to do.

The film documents, from the inside out by the Irish Film Board (IFB), 
the events of the two days of the coup. The IFB had been in the 
parliament buildings making a separate documentary when the coup attempt 
happened and they simply kept filming. The documentary first shows 
events of the months leading up to the coup to learn about the struggle 
over democracy in the country. Hugo Chavez, the elected president of the 
country, has embarked on a dual campaign of democracy and social justice 
by holding referendums, democratizing the supreme court, the national 
assembly and now mildly redistributing wealth in a country with massive 
oil reserves-- yet a majority living in absolute poverty and illiteracy. 
The 'revolution' (as it styles itself) has begun providing health care 
to the rural and traditionally neglected regions of Venezuela while 
simultaneously empowering people through vast education campaigns as to 
the rights and duties of the citizen under the hyper-democratic 
provisions of the new constitution (itself written in consultation with 
the entire population). This has earned this government the wrath of the 
traditional ruling elites who have much to lose if the population is 
able to emancipate itself. This culminated in the US helping work with 
the 'opposition' (traditional ruling elites) to foment a military coup 
last April 2002. The extraordinary events of the coup, including the 
mass uprising of the people against it, are all documented from the 
inside out.

The Venezuelan media are, in what AI called the “world's first media 
coup” in their original description, shown to be more than mere 
supporters of the coup. They blacked out the pro-Chavez demonstrations 
by decree, asked the population to help overthrow the government, they 
were even thanked at great length individually during the brief time of 
the dictatorship! The one channel that the government controls, channel 
8, had it's signal cut during the coup. The coupistas even tried to use 
the media to say they still had power long after power and the military 
had been returned to civilian and constitutional rule.

As I and many awards agree, the film is nothing short of extraordinary 
as you see Venezuelans refusing to have their democracy stolen by the 
wealthy and formerly powerful few. But don't take my word for it, I 
believe that you should make up your own mind. The film will be shown 
again November 28^th at SFU Harbor Centre downtown (Fletcher Challenge 
Theater) at 6:30pm. You have the right to see this film and make up your 
mind yourself. After Amnesty International caved into the ominous 
pressures of those sympathetic to the coup, we need to see this movie 
more than ever. The only way to deal with this kind of censorship 
imposed from above on a group that seems to have lost it's spine is to 
learn what they don't want you to know, and to see what you are not 
supposed to see. The same people who plotted the first coup are still 
trying to unseat the president, so history is far from over.

If you want to get your hands on your own copy of the film, please 
contact me at [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> with a phone 
number and I will contact you when the cassettes are ready in the near 
future (to be sold at cost). Be a rebel: see the film that Amnesty 
censored.

Contact AI Canada and demand they include the film across the country, 
this is a traveling festival. 1 800 AMNESTY (266-3789). email: 
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>

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<#sdfootnote1anc>http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/06/1558221&mode=thread&tid=25




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