“San Miguel short film sparks discussion and debate
By Miles Merritt, Feb 9, 2007

Una Causa Noble (A Noble Cause) Tue, Feb 20, 5pm, Wed, Feb 21, 5:30pm Teatro Santa Ana, Biblioteca Pública, Insurgentes 25 Part I

Sometimes, you toss a pebble in the water and never know how far its ripple will extend. When we first began production on our short film Una Causa Noble (A Noble Cause) in San Miguel de Allende, our goals were pretty much the same as those of most short filmmakers: submit to various film festivals and, if extremely fortunate, eventually sell the rights to a cable TV network like HBO, the Sundance Channel or the Independent Film Channel. 

But as it turns out, our film has led us to some unexpected places that have provided us with many enlightening and moving experiences. 

Una Causa Noble is loosely based on the true story of Lance Corporal Juan López, a young Mexican man who enlisted in the US Marines in hopes of expediting his family’s application for citizenship. Subsequently, Juan was killed in Iraq and his body was flown back to his hometown of San Luis de la Paz to be buried in an official military funeral. At the funeral, a man from the US Embassy showed up to give Juan’s wife—now a widow—Juan’s posthumous citizenship papers. 

The tragic irony of this story planted the seed of our short film. Our focus while writing the script was to try to put a human face on the issues of war and immigration. Although our story is essentially fictional, it serves to illustrate how these global matters affect one family in a small Mexican town. Since premiering Una Causa Noble in San Miguel last summer to three sold-out audiences, our film has been an official selection at a dozen film festivals internationally and will be aired this spring on Telemundo. But it has been the unanticipated venues—the classrooms, local community groups and professional Hispanic organizations—that have made the screening of our film such a unique experience for us. 

In 2002, President Bush issued an executive order enabling foreign nationals residing in the US who enlist in the US Armed Services and agree to fight against terrorism to have their applications for citizenship accelerated. As a result, many of these immigrants—particularly Mexicans—have seen this as an opportunity to secure a better life for themselves and their families. Unfortunately, recruiters have also recognized it as an opportunity to prey on a vulnerable segment of the population. This “preying” often includes hanging around public high schools that are predominantly Hispanic, especially in southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Florida. 

Last fall, after viewing an NBC Nightly News Report about these subjects, we contacted Carlos Castillo, a teacher at Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles, and arranged to show

Una Causa Noble to several of his classes. Roosevelt High School is about 95 percent Hispanic and has been the target of intense recruiting over the last few years. But Carlos had taken the bold step of banning all recruiters from his classroom. Although 16-year-old high-school students were never our target audience, we were amazed by their feedback and how much 

they seemed to relate to our film. After all, some of them were “illegals” themselves. Others either had a family member in the military or knew someone else who did. 

From there we went on to visit classrooms in San Francisco and Florida and in our home state of New Mexico. Word got around, and soon we began to receive numerous emails from various organizations, including Non-Military Options for Youth, the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Global Justice and the Healthy Start Coalition, an organization offering education and support to Hispanic families. All were interested in screening our film as part of their workshops for young people. Following one of our film festival screenings in Florida, we were invited to speak at a meeting of the Healthy Start Coalition of Manatee County. Several of these people were immigrants, some with family members currently serving or considering serving in the US Military. After the film, a young man about 20 years old raised his hand and told us how his brother had served in Iraq and had recently been killed. Despite his loss, this young man was still contemplating joining the Army himself. “I plan to enlist anyway,” he 
said. “Getting my US citizenship papers is the only way I will feel like I truly belong in this country. I don’t always want to feel like I’m an outsider.” Statistics appear to bear out his argument. Though a multitude of foreign nationals, including a disproportionate number of Mexicans, have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars the number who have lived and obtained their US citizenship remains significantly higher. Does that mean it is a risk worth taking?

Whatever one’s views may be regarding these issues, we hope that Una Causa Noble continues to stimulate honest discussion and debate. As the carnage persists overseas, perhaps our film will encourage even more young people to learn all the facts before enlisting in the US Military, and therefore make better-informed decisions.

Those decisions will not only affect them as individuals, but will also affect their entire families, and often their communities, too. We never intended for Una Causa Noble to stir up any waves or steer us on any political course, but it seems to be one of the directions in which it has taken us. 

Una Causa Noble runs 27 minutes, and cast and crew members will be on hand for question-and-answer sessions after each screening. Buy your tickets early! 

Filmmaker Trent speaks out 
By Michele Connor

Soldiers Speak Out Tue, Feb 13, 4:30pm, Wed, Feb 14, 5pm Teatro Santa Ana, Biblioteca Pública, Insurgentes 25

Barbara Trent is a former welfare mother, an Oscar-winning filmmaker, seasoned activist, and trailblazer for change. She has publicly exposed criminal activities in the White House, Pentagon, and CIA and has been the target of at least three FBI counter-intelligence operations. Her personal story of courage, risk and achievement, starting in the 1960s, is inspiring. 

Trent fights to expose the forces controlling the US media as well as the US government’s covert policies. Her films have been acclaimed, exhibited and broadcast around the world. Broadcast resistance in the US, however, makes her presentation particularly relevant. Drawing on a quarter-century of filming and community organizing, Trent engages audiences in an exciting journey from skepticism to illumination to action. Her urgent message inspires audiences to find methods that will affect the federal government, the mass media and the public at large. She examines the present-day obstacles to having an independent and courageous media in the US. She educates audiences to “see through” the daily news and assists them in identifying ways to access alternative perspectives. 

Appointed as an Expert Senior Training Specialist for the VISTA program under Jimmy Carter, Trent has been decorated with the Gasper Octavio Hernández Award by the Journalist’s Union in Panama and is a recipient of the American Humanist Association’s Arts Award for her “courageous advocacy of progressive ideas.” She received an Academy Award in 1993. Trent co-founded and co-directs the Empowerment Project, a media resource center serving hundreds of progressive videographers and filmmakers each year. 

Her lifelong commitment to empowerment invariably inspires her audiences to assume more active responsibility for themselves, their society and the world in which they live. Trent’s thoughts on ethics, the media, government, the drug crisis, women's issues, affirmative action, unfettered capitalism and international and national affairs are presented as a frank source of information, personal experience and inspiration. 

Preceding each showing of her 28-minute documentary, Trent will host a reception at the Santa Ana Café in the Biblioteca Pública. After each screening, she will talk about the making of this and other films by her organization, The Empowerment Project ( www.empowermentproject.org ). 

For further information about this screening and or the empowerment project, please contact Michele Connor at 185-2195 or smamichele@yahoo.com. 

Two Global Justice films this week

Maquilapolis 

Mon, Feb 12, 3pm
Why We Fight 
Thurs, Feb 15, 3pm
Teatro Santa Ana
50 pesos

In response to popular demand, the Center for Global Justice has added a second film each week to its Snowbird Symposium Film Series. This coming week’s entries are Maquilapolis and Why We Fight. 

Maquilapolis tells the story of a border city where it takes an hour of drudgework inside a poisonous factory to earn enough to buy a jug of potable water and it takes about two hours to earn a gallon of milk. Factory workers find bathroom breaks are few, toxins are many, and the pressure—and intimidation—are always on. It’s a place where poverty is so deep that workers are expected to be grateful for the high-end $11 a day they might earn, to give up hope of ever earning more or of ever seeking better working conditions. This daily $11 does not buy them the protection and aid of their local and national governments. Under-taxed and under-regulated factories operated by multinational corporations pollute residential neighborhoods with seeming impunity.

This powerful and unique film brought American and Mexican-American filmmakers together with Tijuana factory workers and community organizers to tell the story of globalization through the eyes and voices of the workers themselves—overwhelmingly women—who have borne the costs but reaped few of the benefits. The workers did not just testify on camera, they became an integral part of creating their stories on film. Two women in particular, Carmen Durán and Lourdes Luján, armed with cameras for video diaries, chronicle their struggles. The result is not only an informative and disturbing film, but also an evocative and poetic one. The film has a running time of 68 minutes.

Why We Fight is a compelling documentary about the US war machine. Directed by Eugene Jarecki, the film 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.

Bioneers Winter Film Series

Tue, Feb 13, 3–4pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos

The first film in this week’s Bioneers Winter Film Series, Light at the Edge of the World: The Poetry of Diversity, features speaker Wade Davis. Davis is a combination ecological point guard and Renaissance man. A cultural anthropologist, ethnobotanist, National Geographic explorer and author of eight books, he has a unique perspective on the world.

As he travels, he photographs nature and people. His breathtaking photographs capture plant, animal and human cultures that are edging toward extinction. In his presentation, Davis makes the point that people are more aware of the extinction of animal species than they are of the disappearance of human cultures and languages. His talk and photos are both eloquent and haunting. 

The second film features Paul Stamets and his “Magic Mushrooms.” A perennial favorite at the annual Bioneers Conference, mycologist Stamets will deliver his “Report from the Underground”—incredible stories from the underground mycelial (mushroom) network. Stamets has been studying some 30 different types of mushrooms from the old growth forests of Washington, and he has found fungi that clean up toxic waste piles, oil spills and chemical weapons. Stamets has great hope for this “intelligent” species that he says is running along behind us, trying to clean up the mess we have made. After you see this film, you will have a whole new regard for the “lowly” mushroom, as well as hope for the ecological potential of the “underground internet.”

The screening is followed by an optional conversation café. 









Cinemateca 

José Luis’s Pick and Tips:


The pick

Carol’s Journey

Carol’s Journey features very good acting and offers a revealing look at recent Spanish history, complete with excellent period settings. The direction, casting, cinematography, and art direction are wonderful. If you want to see something that is interesting, poignant, and very well written and acted, I recommend you check this one out. 

In order to be able to provide the best viewing experience, the show times for some movies may be adjusted to accommodate their length. Be sure to check the schedule carefully. Also, please remember the new ticket price of 50 pesos. Discount cards are 450 pesos for 12 shows. 


On Monday after 12pm, buy your tickets for any selection of the week. Don’t take the risk of being locked out! Nos vemos en el Cine….



The Day I Became a Woman (2000)
Thursday, February 15, 5:30pm
Middle Eastern drama, Farsi with English subtitles, 78 minutes
Director: Marzieh Meshkini
Cast: Shabnam Toloui, Badr Iravani, Azizeh Sedighi

In her directorial debut, filmmaker Marzieh Meshkini offers an unsettling vision of what it means to be female in her native Iran. Tracing the stories of three characters—a 9-year-old girl on the brink of maturity, a young wife who defies her husband and an elderly woman seeking material comfort—this tightly crafted, award-winning film is a powerful, poetic exploration of the struggle to maintain dignity in the face of second-class status.



Special Premier: 
Soldiers Speak Out 
Tuesday, February 13, 4:30pm
Wednesday, February 14, 5:30pm
English, 28 minutes
Producer and Director: Barbara Trent

Barbara Trent is an activist, filmmaker, Academy Award winner (for Panama Deception) and public speaker. Soldiers Speak Out is a powerful, first-hand testament to the reality of the military experience, told entirely in the words of American veterans who have been to war and now oppose it. This half-hour documentary sheds light on the growing and courageous anti-war and anti-occupation movement within the US Military. It serves as a counter-recruitment and organizing tool for veterans, activists, schools and organizations, providing a sober view of the war in Iraq and an important counterpoint to the “stay the course” rhetoric of the Bush administration. Trent has publicly exposed criminal activities in the White House, Pentagon, and CIA and has been the target of at least three FBI counter-intelligence operations. Her personal story of courage, risk and achievement, starting in the 1960s, is inspiring to many. 



Center for Global Justice Film:
Why We Fight
Thursday, February 15, 3 pm, limited seating
English, 98 minutes

This is a compelling documentary about the U.S. war machine. Directed by Eugene Jarecki, the film 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 Career of Nikos Dyzma (Kariera Nikosia Dyzmy, 2002)
Friday, February 16, noon 
Monday, February 19, 6:30pm
Friday, February 23, 6:30pm
Polish comedy, Polish with English subtitles, 110 minutes 
Director: Jacek Bromski
Cast: Cezary Pazura, Anna Przybylska, Ewa Kasprzyk, Danuta Rinn

Nikos is a master of funeral ceremonies (i.e., an undertaker) who doesn’t expect much from life. After drunkenly insulting a diplomat at a party, weird things begin to happen for Nikos. The news that a mysterious stranger offended the hated Deputy Prime Minister galvanizes the political elite assembled at the banquet, and a rumor that Nikos can take care of anything spreads like wildfire, making him an idol of the masses.



Carol’s Journey (El Viaje De Carol, 2004)
Wednesday, February 14, noon
Friday, February 16, 5pm
Thursday, February 22, 5:30pm
Spanish drama, Spanish with English subtitles, 100 minutes
Director: Imanol Uribe
Cast: Clara Lago, Juan Jose Ballesta, Alvaro de Luna, Lucina Gil

The Spanish Civil War unfolds through the eyes of a child in Imanol Uribe's sensitive coming-of-age drama. Uprooted from her home in New York, 12-year-old Carol (Clara Lago) travels to her mother’s native village in Spain. Separated from her adored father, she struggles to adjust to her foreign new life. But through her relationships with her grandfather, a teacher and a local boy, she gains perspective on her situation in a nation divided.



Kids’ cartoons
Saturday, February 17, noon
Free



Musical Saturdays: 
Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
Saturday February 17, 2:30pm
Adults-only admission because of sexually explicit scenes
Sung in Russian, English subtitles, 100 minutes
Next week: Wagner’s Meistersinger

This opera in four acts is based on an original story by Nikolai S. Leskov written in 1865. The action takes place in Mtsensk immediately before the Revolution of October 1917. The Ismailov family are rich landowners, and the household consists of Boris, who rules the house in a typically patriarchal manner, his weak son, Zinovy, and Zinovy’s wife, Katerina. When Zinovy is away on business, Katherine starts an intense affair with the new farmhand, Sergei, which threatens their entire way of life in this powerful, passionate opera.