Bioneers Summer Film Series Tuesday, August 22, 5pm Teatro Santa Ana, Insurgentes 25, 50 pesos On August 22, the final two films of the Bioneers Summer Film Series will be shown. Every year at the annual Bioneers Conference, various indigenous peoples, including North American indigenous leaders, offer their wisdom and experience in plenary sessions and workshops.

These two films feature speakers Jeannette Armstrong and John Mohawk.

Jeannette Armstrong is a Canadian from the Okanagan people. An author and artist, Armstrong is also a renowned leader in indigenous and environmental education. She is a council member of the Okanagan Nation and an advocate of indigenous rights, serving on many international councils. In this address at Bioneers, she speaks of council ways, ethics of the land and how these can be integrated into environmental education. A quiet yet forceful speaker, Armstrong speaks movingly of her people and how they are preserving old ways, yet adapting to change. Her words on people, the land and translating council ways into land ethics are poignantly clear.
John Mohawk, of the Turtle Clan Seneca people, is an assistant professor of American Studies at the State University of New York and Director of Indigenous Studies in the Center for the Americas. He serves on the board of Bioneers and works to develop food products from traditional Iroquois white corn. In this film, he speaks on “The Art of Peace.” He addresses the issues of war and conflict, religious intolerance and scarce resources from the perspective of older traditions such as those of the Iroquois, who created frameworks for treaties of peace and friendship.

The films last about an hour and are followed by an optional conversation in the Café Santa Ana. 


Film documents US war machine

Film Series Why We Fight

Thursday, August 24, 3pm, Teatro Santa Ana, Insurgentes 25, 50 pesos
Directed by Eugene Jarecki, Why We Fight examines the extent to which the “military-industrial complex” (a term coined by President Dwight Eisenhower in his 1961 farewell speech warning about the permanent establishment of an arms industry) not only profits from war but also becomes a force that makes war happen. 

With the use of graphic war footage, a visit to a weapons trade show and interviews with politicians, ordinary citizens and retired military officers, Jarecki dispels the notion advanced by Presidents Johnson, Reagan and Bush that America has been a force for peace in the world. Instead what we see is a militaristic nation in which capitalism is at war with democracy—and capitalism is winning.

Made in 2005, Why We Fight was selected as the Best American Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. The running time is 98 minutes.