[act-ma] William Joiner Center Film Series

[James in Cambridge]

William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences Fall 2007
Film Series
All films at 2:30 PM in room 3540, 3rd Floor of the Campus Center

October 15th
War Made Easy
How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
Featuring Norman Solomon - Narrated by Sean Penn
Directed & Written by: Loretta Alper & Jeremy Earp
Approx. 72 minutes - 2007

War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year 
pattern
of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States 
into
one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist 
Sean
Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion 
and
exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how 
the
American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of
successive presidential administrations.

October 29th
Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People
Featuring Dr. Jack Shaheen
50 minutes - 2006

This groundbreaking documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic
history that has run virtually unchallenged form the earliest days of silent
film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring acclaimed author 
Dr.
Jack Shaheen, the film explores a long line of degrading images of 
Arabs--from
Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and gun-wielding
"terrorists"--along the way offering devastating insights into the origin of
these stereotypic images, their development at key points in US history, and 
why
they matter so much today. Shaheen shows how the persistence of these images
over time has served to naturalize prejudicial attitudes toward Arabs and 
Arab
culture, in the process reinforcing a narrow view of individual Arabs and 
the
effects of specific US domestic and international policies on their lives.

November 5th
The Ground Truth
Sometimes the Greatest Act of Courage is to Tell the Truth
Directed by Patricia Foulkrod
78 minutes - 2006

The filmmaker's subjects are patriotic young Americans - ordinary men and 
women
who heeded the call for military service in Iraq - as they experience
recruitment and training, combat, homecoming, and the struggle to 
reintegrate
with families and communities. The terrible conflict in Iraq, depicted with
ferocious honesty in the film, is a prelude for the even more challenging
battles fought by the soldiers returning home - with personal demons, an
uncomprehending public, and an indifferent government. As these battles take
shape, each soldier becomes a new kind of hero, bearing witness and giving
support to other veterans, and learning to fearlessly wield the most 
powerful
weapon of all - the truth.

November 19th
No End in Sight: The American Occupation of Iraq
Written and Directed by Charles Ferguson
102 minutes - 2007

The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq's descent 
into
guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality and anarchy, NO END IN SIGHT is a
jaw-dropping, insider's tale of wholesale incompetence, recklessness and
venality.  The film examines the manner in which the principal errors of 
U.S.
policy - the use of insufficient troop levels, allowing the looting of 
Baghdad,
the purging of professionals from the Iraqi government, and the disbanding 
of
the Iraqi military - largely created the insurgency and chaos that engulf 
Iraq
today. How did a group of men with little or no military experience, 
knowledge
of the Arab world or personal experience in Iraq come to make such 
flagrantly
debilitating decisions? NO END IN SIGHT dissects the people, issues and 
facts
behind the Bush Administration's decisions and their consequences on the 
ground
to provide a powerful look into how arrogance and ignorance turned a 
military
victory into a seemingly endless and deepening nightmare of a war.

For more information or disability-related accommodations please contact:

The William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at 
UMass
Boston
100 Morrissey Boulevard     Boston, MA 02125
(617) 287-5852      http://www.joinercenter.umb.edu      
joinercenter at umb.edu

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