Flying Focus March 1997 Newsletter
Here's our latest (3/97) newsletter. If you'd like to
be on our 'snail' mailing list, or would like a copy
of the 1996 catalog, feel free to contact us
March 1997
Flying Focus Video Collective
(503) 321-5051, (503) 239-7456
ffvc@agora.rdrop.com
http://www.rdrop.com/~ffvc
Using video as a tool for social change
Fifth Busiversary
On November 18, 1996, the Flying Focus Video Bus
celebrated five years on the air. This year's retrospective, the
"Fifth Busiversary" (VB #21.8&9) features short clips from
our first four years, as well as the ubiquitous introductions to
our work in 1996 from Flying Focus producers. Meet
Elizabeth Atly, Moss Drake, Dan Handelman, Frank
Mahoney, Hyung Nam, PC Peri and Marjorie, sitting in for
Barb Greene. You can see clips about Cuba, the death
penalty, the substance of news, an alternative media
conference, vegan cooking and animal rights issues... among
others.
Women's Tribunal Program
Belated recognition of International Women's Day will
occur in late March when we show "The Oregon Tribunal on
Violations of Women's Human Rights", sponsored by Women
Empowered Beyond Beijing for Equality, Development and
Peace. The Tribunal, culminating "16 Days of Activism
Against Gender Violence," condenses 8 hours of testimony
and recommendations into a powerful one-hour program
which will be shown in two parts on the Flying Focus Video
Bus.
Lending Library News
By the time you read this, we will have spent the last of
our grant money from The Paul Robeson Fund for
Independent Media, having distributed copies of 23 tapes to
four locations. While Laughing Horse Books, Underground
Video and 223 Freedom and Mutual Aid Center all remain at
their old locations, the Oregon Peace Institute has become
part of "Building Bridges", a new umbrella organization
housed at 1950 SW 6th Avenue, Rm 121 (near PSU). Their
new phone number is 725-8192.
For more information on the Lending Library check out
our web page at http://www.rdrop.com/~ffvc.
Ramsey Clark
Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark spoke at Portland
State University in November 1996 regarding "Sanctions and
Other Weapons of War." Look for a video of his speech (SE
#89), which tells of the conditions in Iraq after six years of
US and UN imposed sanctions and the aftermath of the so-
called "Gulf War." The tape includes speakers Richard
Becker from Clark's organization the International Action
Center and Mohamad Zuhairy of Portland Peaceworks Iraq
Affinity Group, and photos by Bill Hackwell, who traveled to
Iraq in 1995.
Scholarly Focus
New York University. Drexel University in Philadelphia.
Harvard University. University of Minnesota in Duluth.
Greensboro College North Carolina. What do these schools
have in common? People have shown our tapes there, either
to classes, or on their cable access facilities. This is very
exciting for Flying Focus, since one of our main goals is to
educate the public using video.
If you go to a school or teach at one and are thinking of
using our tapes for class use or public viewing, please let us
know so we can keep track of where our work is being
effective!
Special thanks to Yvonne Simmons who passed our tapes
on to a teacher from Harvard at an International Women's
conference in January. Part of the show Yvonne co-produced
many years ago on the Clothesline Project (VB #5.6) is being
shown as part of a women's film festival here in Portland in
March.
Take This Job & Shove It
Are you sick and tired of working your tail off to make big
bucks for someone you either don't know or can't stand? Are
you tired of being laid off so some rich white guy can get
higher dividends? Are you tired of doing boring, stressful
work day in and day out while management attends
"conventions" in the Bahamas? If the answer to any of these
questions is "Yes!", check out "Worker Owned Cooperatives"
(VB#22.3&4). Tim Calvert, co-owner of City Bikes and
Laughing Horse Books, explains how to start and run a
worker owned cooperative and how they fit in the current
world order.
Atomic Secrets and Nuclear Lies
So, you think Ozzie and Harriet and the boys are the
epitome of the 1950's nuclear family? BOOM! Enter Robert
Meeropol with horror stories of the ultimate 50's nuclear
family -- blown apart by incredible government machinations
that took his parents from him at age 3 and used the
execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to convince the
American public that our World War II ally was now our
enemy, that anyone who supported it in any way was a traitor,
that we had to protect ourselves from its economic system by
secret construction of unthinkable killing devices, and that we
protect ourselves from 'traitors' in our midst by killing them.
Watch "Inciteful Views" - Interview with Robert Meeropol,
son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (SE #90 -60 minutes).
At the same time--those innocent 50's--the same
government is conducting experiments in what it deems
'country suitable for dumping used razor-blades,'--a region of
the country where a theocratic and protective authorit-
arianism protracts the secrecy of these experiments, while the
inhabitants begin to display a grisly panorama of mysterious
medical complaints. Enter a pushy New Yorker, Carole
Gallagher, who photographs and prods these reticent desert
dwellers to describe their lives and the deaths of too many
loved ones under the nuclear cloud, and puts out a book that's
a nuclear explosion in itself. Check out Carole Gallagher:
American Ground Zero (VB #21.13 & VB#22.1).
You could augment this set of tapes with the Hanford
Downwinders panel (VB #18.5 & 18.5), or get a number of
good reasons to abolish the death penalty in “Succinct
Arguments Against the Death Penalty” (VB #21.5) and then
look in our catalog for tapes on police abuses. Then, you'll see
more connections, and you'll have to get more of our tapes.
Get good and depressed, then good and angry, then get off
your duff and into action!
Protests and Press Coverage
Flying Focus came into through protest marches in
response to commercial media’s marginalization of
dissenters. Through the years we have taped many protest
marches, demonstrations and rallies, but obviously we can't
be everywhere all at once to capture the mood and substance
of each. The problem is, however, that without mainstream
media recognition the protests can fail to reach a wider
audience.
Elizabeth Atly taped five different demonstrations in the
course of one winter month and is putting them together in a
program, concluding with a demonstration that may have a
lesson for us all, regarding how we contact the media. Watch
for this program at one of our regular times this spring. Jim
Wrathall from The TV Set (live on Portland Cable Access
every other Saturday at 8pm) interviewed Elizabeth and
showed some preliminary clips from this forthcoming
program on their show.
Showtimes:
Watch the Flying Focus Video Bus weekly:
Mondays, 8 PM, Ch. 27 Paragon
Wednesdays, 11PM, Ch. 33 Paragon
Fridays, 9:30 PM, Ch. 11 Citywide
Also check out Free Speech TV -- From Boulder, CO. Four
hours of progressive programming for your viewing pleasure.
Two two-hour blocks will be shown on TVCA channels
59/53:
Block 1: Mondays, 4 PM; Tuesdays, 10 AM; Fridays, 10 PM;
Saturdays, 6 PM
Block 2: Wednesdays, 2 AM and 8 PM; Thursdays 2 PM
Watch for
Ramsey Clark: Sanctions and Other Weapons of War
TVCA (Columbia/TCI) Channel 9/33
Monday, Mar 24, 11 AM; Thurs, Mar 27, 11 PM
Tues, Apr 1, 8 PM; Wed, Apr 2, 2 PM
Tues, Apr 8, 2 AM
Channel 11 (Cable Acces Network) Citywide
Wed, Mar 26, 10 PM; Fri, Apr 4, 3:30 PM
Power never gives up anything without a struggle. It never
has and it never will. -Frederick Douglas
Playback times for Interview w/ Robert Meeropol:
Wed 2/26 8 p.m. ch 27
Sat 3/1 8 p.m. ch 33
Tue 3/4 4 p.m. ch 11
Sat 3/8 10 p.m. ch 27
Tue 3/11 7 p.m. ch 33
Mon 3/17 5 p.m. ch 11
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