Free Speech in the Era of Pussy Riot, Wikileaks, and Drone Warfare

Hello everyone!

Today I want to tell you about 3 very important documentaries I had the pleasure of seeing this week. I'd originally only planned to write about two -- HBO's "Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer" and the Jemima Khan produced Wikipedia film "We Steal Secrets"--reflecting on the right of free speech and freedom of information in today's society, but then this evening I watched Jeremy Scahill's equally thought provoking film "Dirty Wars"about US JSOC covert killings and drone attacks in Afghanistan and Yemen, and knew I had to include it in today's post. All three do a good job of giving us an in-the-trenches perspective that takes us behind the scenes of the news we read about every day.

"Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer" provides fascinating footage from inside the Moscow courtroom in August 2012 where three members of the punk protest group Pussy Riot were accused of blasphemy and essentially charged with being enemies of the Russian state, aka President Putin. Two are currently serving out their 2-year sentences in a labor camp while the third was released on appeal. The film sheds light on the origins of Pussy Riot as part of the burgeoning protest movement against Putin's re-election. It also shows--rather compellingly--the Russian legal system in action -- or inaction, as the whole proceeding is clearly trumped-up and rigged from the start. The problem I have however with the film, despite it's obviously noble intent, is that the women themselves are not particularly sympathetic. And while I certainly do not support the charges against them or the harshness of their subsequent punishment, what I didn't get from the film was any sort of context of what led these women to form the band in the first place. We never really get to know these women as anything more than symbols of injustice and repression. The film works in shedding light on the trial and Pussy Riot's past performances -- including the infamous Cathedral stunt -- but I never once found myself really sympathizing with them as individuals. I was certainly appalled by the trial, which clearly demonstrated that Russia under Putin is sliding dangerously back to an almost Stalinist state. Perhaps this alone was the filmmaker's intent? And if so, the film does a good job of showing how individual rights and freedoms are being blatantly abused. But beyond that, I was left wanting more.

Which brings me to "We Steal Secrets". I must confess I've always found Julian Assange to be rather distasteful. In all the articles I've read about him and the press footage I've seen, there's a remoteness and an arrogance about him that renders him a bit of a cipher, and therefore it's difficult for me to --again -- really get behind him. I do think this film does a better job than "Pussy Riot"  of providing a broader, more detailed context for the story it tells. We receive an overview of Wikileaks, the extent of the information leaked to it by Bradley Manning, and a somewhat interesting character study of Mr. Assange himself. I also appreciated the fact that the filmmakers are balanced in their presentation. This isn't the love story to Julian Assange that I feared it might be. Comprised mainly of interviews with Assange and his former Wikileaks team, what we see is a man rather strangely remote from the world around him, whose convictions about the necessity for total disclosure of wartime secrets is driven less from a passionate belief in justice and more from a rather self-serving motivation to say "fuck you" to organized government and international security as a means of perpetuating his own celebrity. Regardless of the right or wrongfulness of his actions, at least as he is depicted in this film, there is nothing in the least heroic about Julian Assange. If anything, I find my sympathy goes to Bradley Manning, who is portrayed here as being a rather lost, desperate, and desperately sad young man, battling with his sexuality in a homophobic environment who is disgusted by what he witnesses in Afghanistan and feels he needs to somehow communicate what he's seen. His decision to divulge these secrets is presented as almost a form of psychiatric therapy. Ultimately, the filmmakers make the wise choice of leaving it up to the viewer to decide where they stand. The facts are presented and we are left to question our own beliefs. I appreciate this film because I feel I've gained some insight behind the headlines and I feel better informed from a contextual standpoint as I follow the latest NSA data-mining scandal and the evolving story of Edward Snowden.

And finally, we come to The Nation reporter Jeremy Scahill's film "Dirty Wars", a companion to the same-titled book published earlier this year. The film traces Mr. Scahill's investigation of a covered-up massacre by US troops in Gardez Afghanistan  of three women (two of them pregnant) and a man who served as a police commissioner trained by US forces.  Scahill's investigation leads him from Gardez where he interviews Afghani villagers who provide eyewitness accounts of the massacre (and harrowing cell phone video of the aftermath) to Yemen, where he interviews the father and grandmother of Anwar al-Awlaki, the US citizen and radical cleric who was killed in 2011 by a targeted drone attack, as part of a broader discussion about the Obama administration's increasing reliance on drone warfare and targeted assassinations of suspected al-Qaeda operatives in the Middle East and elsewhere. Of the three films, I feel "Dirty Wars" is probably the most successful. While some might criticize Mr. Scahill for putting himself front and center of the camera -- there's never really any doubt that this film is as much about Scahill as it is about the covert JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) activities he investigates -- I enjoyed his perspective. He's an engaging presence and I felt I was experiencing the horrors he uncovers through his eyes. There's a humanist quality to this film that I feel is lacking in "Pussy Riot" and "We Steal Secrets", both of which are rather dry and formal in their presentation.

"Dirty Wars" does an effective job of showing the difficulties journalists face when trying to delve beyond government-approved news bytes. And as such it is the more provocative of the three. We actually see Mr. Scahill being stonewalled by the US government in his attempts to uncover the truth about what happened in Gardez and we witness how certain personalities within the media openly ridicule and vilify his efforts to bring certain truths to light. These clips demonstrate better than anything in "We Steal Secrets" how there is definitely a conscious suppression of free speech in the United States and how the War on Terror is used just as much by the Obama administration (if not more so) than by Bush as a cover-all for unethical and unconstitutional activity in our wars overseas.

I commend all three films for their bravery and honesty. Collectively they present an effective portrayal of the uncertainty of the times we live in especially in regard to freedom of information and free speech.
"Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer" is currently airing on HBO and HBO On Demand; "We Kill Secrets" and "Dirty Wars" are playing in limited release but are both available through Comcast On Demand.

The Bialik-Rogozen School in Tel Aviv...Strangers No More

Hi everyone!

I want to spend some time today talking about an amazing and inspirational story I encountered last night. I had a chance to watch the documentary film "Strangers No More" that was broadcast yesterday on HBO. "Strangers No More" won the 2011 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film and chronicles the efforts of a really special school located in the heart of Tel Aviv. The Bialik-Rogozin School is unlike any I have ever encountered. It opens its doors to refugee children from all over the world and helps them achieve academic success (regardless of educational background) while working to acclimate them to their lives in a new country and culture.

The film takes a year-in-the-life approach by focusing on a select group of students--a seventeen year-old boy from Darfur, a girl from South Africa, a boy from Ethiopia, etc.--and traces their progress over the course of one academic year. The students and teachers are interviewed throughout, interspersed with scenes of the children in classrooms, with their parents/guardians, and interacting with each other. What is amazing is that none of these children enter the school speaking Hebrew and are often haunted by the unspeakable traumas they left behind in their home countries. As individuals, these children are inspirational. As a collective entity, they demonstrate that all children, regardless of their backgrounds, cultures, or upbringing, can learn and thrive as long as they are provided a safe and nurturing academic environment with educators who believe in what they are doing and have committed themselves to bettering the lives of the world's young people.

As an educator myself, I was often moved to tears as it reaffirmed my commitment to helping those who cannot always help themselves.

The Bialik-Rogozen School's website is in Hebrew with no translation function. This is unfortunate for those of us who cannot read Hebrew. However, their Facebook page provides links (in English) to additional stories and short films about the school and the work this special group of people do every day. The film's accompanying website www.strangersnomoremovie.com is also a great place to learn more about the film, the students and teachers, and the school itself. I am not sure when HBO will be rebroadcasting the film but I am sure it will be available online and through Netflix soon. I encourage everyone who cares about education to check it out!

There is indeed a lot of good being done in the world today despite what the news might have us believe. So I am sending a shout-out today to the teachers and students at Bialik-Rogozen and to the film's directors/producers Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon. A wonderful story well-told. Thank you!

Ciao.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: "What can YOU do today to help improve the lives of the world's neediest children?"