by M. Cook – BASICS Online
The Toronto Premiere of the award-winning Filipino film “Dukot” (Desaparecidos) packed the Nat Taylor Cinema at York University on the afternoon of Saturday, May 22. The film is one of the first to focus on the political killings currently taking place in the Philippines.
“[The film] is not a collection of stories from a distant past” said Bonifacio Ilagan, the screen writer. “This is what is happening in the Philippines since 2001. When outgoing president [Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo] assumed power, extra judicial killings, abductions, illegal detentions have been increasing.”
Since 2001, over 200 cases of enforced disappearances and more than 1,000 cases of extrajudicial killings have been documented by the human rights organization Karapatan. Last November 2009, the Philippines made headlines worldwide for the Ampatuan massacre, a gruesome massacre in Mindanao that killed 57 people, including 30 journalists (see BASICS Issue # 17).
The May 1st Movement Presents the Toronto Premiere of:
“The Women of Brukman” – A documentary film by Isaac Isitan
Thursday, April 15 – 6:30pm – Bloor Cinema – 506 Bloor St. West (at Bathurst)
by N. Zahra Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)
This past March, Amy Miller and Boban Chaldovich, founders of Wide Open Exposure, a Montreal-based production team, released their debut documentary, Myths for Profit. The hour-long film is an important introduction to Canadian imperialism. In a short time, it introduces its audience to Canada’s role in ‘industries of war and peace,’ leaving them wanting to explore each facet of the documentary in greater detail. Filmmaker Amy Miller points out that throughout her years of research, she came across many examples of Canadian Imperialism. The film does a good job of picking particularly salient examples that the audience might have some degree of familiarity with and going into particular details to help bust the myth of Canada as the eternal peacemaker.
Through diverse interviews and case studies, the 60-minute documentary unveils the specific interests and profits made by certain corporations, individuals and governmental and non-governmental agencies within Canada. The documentary covers the three myths of Canadian identity: ‘Canada as a peacemaking nation,’ ‘Canada’s military purpose [as] defense,’ and ‘Canada’s aid [as] helping people around the world.’
In addition to the informative interviews from varying perspectives, the film also has a lot of archival footage as well as a clever and funny cartoon exploring the history and role of NATO in various conflicts throughout the world.
Wide Open Exposure is a particularly unique production team in that it is made up of social justice organizers and independent media activists. It is their mission to work with grassroots organizations and educational organizations such as BASICS to provide resources for political education. We look forward to any future projects.
