blog

Stockholm screens Live Nude Girls Unite!

Stockholm University apologized for their irresponsible acts that occurred on March 4, and our screening was back on for Monday. It was a another success attracting an audience of over 150 people, most of which were new faces! There was such a good atmosphere in the room that night: everyone was laughing out loud, cheering and applauding! When the film was over, there was more noise coming out of the 150+ crowd than there was from the 300+ crowd we had when we screened The Coca Cola Case. Our discussion period was equally as fantastic. We didn't have a panel for this screening, so we posed the questions to the audience, and they pushed the discussion on their own. At the end, we asked them if they enjoyed this system of having the discussion centralized around audience rather than between a panel and the audience, and they seemed receptive to the idea of focusing more on the audience. In the future, we will include panelists, experts and special guests into the audience to make the discussions much more fruitful and comfortable.

Our school newspaper, Gaudeamus, will be publishing an article on our screening and troubles with the University which will be out in a week or so.

- Vi hörs!

Stockholm University attempts to censor feminist film

FROM 07-03-2010 PRESS RELEASE

On the eve of the 100 anniversary of International Women's Day, the Stockholm University administration aims at censoring one of the day's celebration events.

STOCKHOLM, 07-03-2010 - On March 6 Stockholm University's administration destroyed our marketing materials and cancelled our room booking for the screening of Live Nude Girls Unite! Apparently, the action was taken in response to complaints from students, faculty and support staff. Cinema Politica Stockholm and the Stockholm University Student Union were not consulted prior to this action.

This screening, in celebration of the 2010 International Women's Day, is intended to foster debate around the issues of women's empowerment and sexworker’s rights. Our screening of the film—an important and entertaining documentary about the first exotic dancer's union in the United States—and following discussion, as clearly stated in Cinema Politica’s charter is to present alternative perspectives regarding pressing social, political and cultural issues. We feel strongly that Live Nude Girls Unite will help us continue this tradition.

We are disturbed and appalled by this action, as it represents an inexcusable abuse of power, censorship and flagrant disregard of free speech by Stockholm University’s administration. Cinema Politica refuses to take this action lightly. We are forced to take action to continue our efforts to foster free and open debate.

Aristide Kicks Off Stockholm Haiti Week

Once again public transportation was working against us, but our numbers were still strong. This week we showed Aristide and the Endless Revolution, a movie about the political situation in Haiti over the past two decades. This was the kick-off event for Stockholm Haiti Week, a week of awareness about Haiti and fundraising for Red Cross relief efforts of the January earthquake that further devastated the country. More than ten student organizations came together in only a couple weeks to put these events together.

If you think about how difficult the lives of the people of Haiti were a couple years ago, it's several times worse now, and they will be feeling the effects of this disaster for years to come. But there's hope from events like these and international aid organizations as Roger Annis, our featured Skype guest, so vividly explained to us. Roger is a member of the Canada Haiti Action Network and various other organizations and is on the forefront of what's going on in Haiti. Not only did he give us an update on the current situation, relating stories from the news and first-hand visits such as his last trip in August 2007, he also gave us some resources (homework assignments?) like Peter Hallward's book, Damming the Flood, to learn more about Haiti.

Coca-cola, murder and injustice - by Ben Morgan

Yellowknife's Cinema Politica presented The Coca-Cola Case for a one night viewing at Northern United Place, 7:30 p.m., on Wednesday February 17th. Special guest speaker, activist Ray Rogers joined the audience via Skype to provide an update on the situation and take questions from the audience of some 130 people. Below is an article by Ben Morgan.

Stockholm shows up for H2Oil despite the storm!

What a city! The entire day was riddled with weather and public transport problems. A temperature like -20C may not be such a shock for somewhere lik Montreal, but here in Stockholm, we definitely felt it. Despite it all, around 120 people showed up for the screening of H2Oil. Once again, our superstar panel did not cease to please. We had H2Oil's filmmaker Shannon Walsh present on Skype, Greenpeace Sweden's energy and climate expert Martina Kruger, and GES-Investment's Flemming Heden. Our audience served up all kinds of questions for each of them, unfortunately our Skype connection with Shannon was sketchy and hiccuped a few times. The mood was still, and "I can't believe this is happening in Canada" is just one of the many memorable quotes of the night. Shannon Walsh did an incredible job at putting this film together, and our panelists made sure that everyone left with some knowledge of climate politics and corporate social responsibility. - Vi hörs!

The Big Kick Off Night for Cinema Politica Fundy!

Excitement is building for the big kick off night of Cinema Politica Fundy this Thursday  in Sussex, New Brunswick. We thought it would be appropriate, since this is a farming region, to start it all off with a film about farming. So we'll be screening "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" a hit at film festivals and in homes around the continent. With still a couple days to go before the first film, there's already a growing buzz in town about the documentary film series. I know this is something our local has looked forward to for a long time and I think we're not the only ones...

Chris Spannos debunks Canadian Olympic mythology

One week into the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, we had been wowed by the various athletic  stunts required to pull it off: making enough snow to ensure the skiiers and snowboarders could get down the mountain in an unseasonably warm winter; the police maneuvers necessary to keep tourists from noticing the thousands of Vancouverites in protest; and of course, who could forget that guy who lit his cigarette with the Olympic torch before being tackled by the police?

Carts of Darkness was an excellent film to portray the lives of less-than-privileged residents of North Vancouver, and the games they play to earn a living and amuse themselves. Afterward, CP Woods Hole co-organizer (and ZNet administrator) Chris Spannos warmed us up with some food-for thought questions he compiled through research and from Guillaume, Marla and Nat, authors of "Teaching 2010 Resistance: a project of the Olympic Resistance Network." Apparently, these discussion points were approved as part of the curriculum by the BC Teacher's Federation. Too cool for school!

Warm up
Questions:

How
many people have been excited about the Olympics?

Most hands raised

Challenge for Change Book Tour - Co-sponsored by Cinema Politica

In February and March of 2010 Cinema Politica is co-sponsoring a book tour of Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada, co-edited by Cinema Politica founder Ezra Winton. Above is the trailer for the book! Find out more about the tour here.

Aristide Film Draws Great Crowd, Raises $500

While putting together our Winter 2010 Film Schedule we decided to screen a film as a Haiti benefit at the last minute; and we're happy we did! 

One of our co-organizers knew of a passionate student, Matt Banninga, who volunteers with an education/development/aid NGO that operates in Haiti. Rayjon Share Care is a relatively small non-profit but has found its niche in Haiti after the earthquake, caring for temporarily and permanently orphaned children in a small UN recognized refugee camp. We decided to team up with Matt and Rayjon to screen this great film and facilitate a discussion afterwards. 

It's interesting to see the amount of people that are automatically skeptical when they hear about 'another aid organization.' I think this is especially true in Haiti's case, since anyone with a vague awareness of the country's political history knows the long list of (often brutal) foreign intervention. Crucially, Rayjon works with Haitians rather than treating them as passive recipients of aid and has all of its programs are created, prioritized and implemented by Haitians. Matt told us of how friends of his asked him what he did in Haiti after his first visit. "Did you dig wells? Help build stuff?" "No," Matt responded, "they're not stupid, they can do that themselves." Well said.

Massive Turnout in Stockholm for The Coca-Cola Case

It was a sell-out crowd Monday night at Stockholm University, as almost 350 people showed up for the screening of The Coca-Cola Case. When the doors opened, we were flooded with inquiring minds and by 7:00 p.m., people were still cramming into our lecture hall. This is exactly the kind of crowd we were hoping to have for this screening.

The event began with a small speech from Kyle describing the events leading up to this controversial screening, followed by an introduction of the film and panelists from Sebastian and Adriana. We were thrilled to have Ray Rogers of the Killer Coke Campaign, former European Parliamentarian Jens Holm, and Stockholm University's Professor Henrik Berglund. Unfortunately, Coca-Cola Sweden's director of communications, Peter Bodor, backed out of the discussion.As soon as the film started, no one made a sound in the room; the air was filled with anticipation. Unfortunately, the speakers provided in the room were not very good so we will need to fix something up for our next screening.