“The Rape of Europa” won an Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary at the 2007 River Run International Film Festival. Kenneth Turan, writing for the Los Angeles Times, says the documentary “covers a lot of territory and is packed with information. It also tells a series of wonderful stories, many of which are fascinating enough to inspire movies of their own.” Another reviewer comments that the film “leaves you wondering how art ever survives wars.”
Please join us for this excellent and educational documentary, a must for art lovers, on May 28th starting at 6:15 pm in the Teen Room on the Second Floor of the South Portland Community Center.
More information on this fine film at http://www.rapeofeuropa.com/
To view the film trailer, click here: http://www.rapeofeuropa.com/theTrailer.aspx
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Directed by Stephen Walker, YOUNG AT HEART follows a singing group of Massachusetts senior citizens as they prepare for their 2006-7 concert tour of New England, the West Coast, and Ireland. As Ty Burr of the Boston Globe points out, the premise of the film sounds “much too cute to tolerate.” However, the “ragged triumph of Stephen Walker’s film is that it convinces us to stick around as the proceedings deepen into profundity.” After mentioning the songs performed in the film and the source of suspense in the action, Burr concludes: “In ‘Young at Heart,’ the prison is old age, and every song’s a jailbreak.” Please join us for this humane and heartwarming documentary, which premiered at Sundance in 2008.
This documentary tells the 2002 story of Dilawar, a young Afghan taxi driver who picks up three passengers and never returns home. Five days later he winds up dead at Bagram Air Base, killed by injuries inflicted by US soldiers. The interviews, net footage, and firsthand reports provide a gripping look at this controversial case and the Bush administration’s policy on torture. The term “dark side” was coined by Vice President Dick Cheney during a “Meet the Press” interview when he stated that the US might have to use tactics of the “dark side” to contain terrorists. The documentary has had excellent reviews: Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe writes: “the film quickly becomes one of the most powerful, carefully researched investigations of the moral-legal side effects of current American military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.” Tamard Straus, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, suggests that the film’s winnning an Oscar must mean that “academy members also want Americans to be rattled by the country’s lost moral stature.”
The families succeed in generating an independent iinvestigation, but more questions than answers emerge as the film spotlights secretive politicians, buried news items, and government press conferences lacking substance. Viewers’ comments on the film are very positive; for example, one commentator writes that it portrays “just the struggle of 9/11 survivors to get reasonable answers from our government”; another, there are “lots of news stories revealed here that shed new light on what really happened.” Especially powerful is the post-commentary during and after the credits of the film at the end, which suggests that we are far from knowing the truth of this catastrophe.
With water becoming scarce all over the world, the film urges a call to arms before more of our most precious natural resource evaporates. The New York Times, commenting on water as “the sleeping giant issue of the 21st century,” describes the film as “compelling and passionate,” opening our eyes to the seriousness of the global water crisis. Robert Redford argues that director Salina “builds a case against the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.” Underlying the issues raised by this film is the question: can anyone really own water?
Nominations for Chair of the South Portland Democrats will be accepted at our regular monthly meetings on Wednesday, January 28 and Wednesday, February 18. At the latter meeting, nominations will cease and a new Chair will be elected. South Portland Democrats interested in running for the position also have the option of notifying the committee by email at sopodems@hotmail.com
The nominations shall remain open until our February Meeting on Wednesday, February 18. At that time nominations will cease and a Chair will be elected. Anyone interested in running for the position of Chair may inform the committee by email before our next meeting on Wednesday, January 28, or at the meeting itself. We will be happy to post your intention to run on the official website of the South Portland Democratic City Committee and any biographical information or statement about your candidacy. Of course, you may also introduce yourself at our January and February meetings.
“America: Freedom to Fascism,” directed by Aaron Russo, investigates the creation of the Federal Reserve and the controversial legislation that requires all American citizens to pay income taxes. As the promotional description explains, Russo demystifies federal income tax and the creation of money through interviews with key members of Congress, a former IRS commissioner, tax attorneys, agents from the IRS and the FBI, and various authors. The film has received mixed reviews; Mark Olsen from the Los Angeles Times, criticizes the film for straying from its original premise regarding the government’s right to collect money; he writes that “The film raises more questions than it could possibly hope to answer fully.” Another reviewer argues that every American needs to see this film, which he sees as “fast paced enough to keep most people interested all the way through.”
Roger Ebert sees Amandla! as an “uplifting film that combines archival footage, news footage, reports from political exiles, visits with famous local singers, with a lot of music.”
Dear South Portland Democrat Friends & Neighbors,