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Okupa is the Spanish word for squat. This is a short video of two very large demonstrations that took place in Barcelona against evictions and property spectulation.
Today's aggressive management techniques and the cult of outsourcing and speed have spawned new monster-companies, proud of those very values they had been criticized for. One of them is Office Tiger, a transnational hybrid specializing in document-processing for big enterprises. As with the bubble of start-up dotcoms, there comes a time when work itself takes second place and what matters is the staff's attitude – in part ambition, in part a heroic, self-punishing sense of dedication.
UntitledA meditation on the milieu of elevated threat which addresses national identity, gun culture, wilderness, consumption, patriotism and the possibility of personal transcendence. Of particular interest are the ways Americans have come to understand freedom and the increasingly technological reiterations of manifest destiny. While channeling our national psyche, the film is interrupted by the story of Col. William Rankin who in 1959, was forced to eject from his F8U fighter jet at 48,000 feet without a pressure suit, only to get trapped for 45 minutes in the up and down drafts of a massive thunderstorm. Remarkably, he survived. Rankin's story represents a non-material, metaphysical kind of freedom. He was vomited up by his own jet, an American icon of progress and strength, but violent purging does not necessarily lead to reassessment or redirection. This film is concerned with the sudden, simple, thorough ways that events can separate us from the system of things, and place us in a kind of limbo. Like when we fall. Or cross a border. Or get shot. Or saved. The film forces together culturally acceptable icons of heroic national tradition with the suggestion of unacceptable historical consequences, so that seemingly benign locations become zones of moral angst. "With the excuse of freedom, we lose so many things." - Silvio Barile
Ode creates a portrait of neighbouring midland towns, through the recollections of a family split by divorce between the two regions. The age-old rivalry of the towns mimic this new tension, remembrances of by-gone days highlighting the fluxuating structure of the modern day family. The syntax is irregular and poetic like the ramblings of a dream, as memories spanning the generations interweave to create a poignant story of community and how the decline of local industries has impacted on this institution. Vast shoots of landscapes allow the narrative to develop an unforced voice with a Proustain quality.
October 17th, 1961. The war in Algeria is in progress. In Paris, Algerians took to the streets to protest the curfew. The demonstrators are persecuted and a peaceful demonstration ends in a bloodbath. When he went to the film in Cannes, the room was evacuated by police at the last minute and kidnapped copies. Half a century later, in October 2011, project for the first time in Paris.
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Actions and protests in Canada.
UntitledBack in the old days, a 'maquila' was a “millers portion”, the amount of grain that farmers paid millers to process their grain. Now maquilas are tax-free factories set up in underdeveloped countries to produce their goods using cheap labour. In Nicaragua, 100,000 people work in maquilas, which pay $0.32/hour and violate all workers rights. The Nicaragua maquilas are virtually unknown to international public opinion, and essential to the supply of the US consumer market.
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Four families who live in Bon Pastor, a Barcelona neighbourhood, refuse to leave their single-storey houses. Some refuse because they've lived there for their whole lives, others because they feel they've been duped by the Board of Housing. This video shows the action carried out by the support group “Asemblea de Apoyo a Bon Pastor” in solidarity with the four families who resisted, at a time when it is seen as “politically incorrect” to ask for what you believe is right.
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