Another Wild Day at the U.S. Social Forum

Another day at the first ever U.S. Social Forum filled with debate, inspiring stories of activism, lots of interviews with folks from INCITE Women of Color Against Violence, AK Press, Liberation Ink, and dozens of other organizations, a slew of old friends, co-workers and I getting lost all over town, really cheesy almost-Christian-like social justice R&B, and a hell of a lot more.

US Social Forum

So the Free Speech TV team that came down to the U.S. Social Forum just finished its first day of workshops, plenary shooting for our Keynote Series, and networking galore. This morning I sat on a panel called "Connecting the Dots" about youth media and distribution issues that was put on by Arts Engine who does the Media That Matters film festival. Two people from Global Action Project, a couple from People TV in Atlanta, and two people from the Youth Channel were there as well. It was fun to reconnect with young people and hear about their ideas of the world and their desire to express themselves through media.

The two evening plenaries, shot for Free Speech TV, were quite inspiring. One focused on the government's response and grassroots solutions to Hurricane Katrina. The other focused on the War in Iraq.

The U.S. Social forum is by far the most culturally, racially, sexually diverse movement event I have attended. Yesterday's march and today's events have been dominated by people of color. It is refreshing to get to hear new voices and perspectives--not the same old grumpy, white left. For the first time in years, I feel a bit of hope at an activist convergence. If these networks can move forward, real change could happen.

Our Land, Our Life

Another great film at Dreamspeakers, Our Land, Our Life, tells the story of Carrie and Mary Dann, sisters from the Western Shoshone Nation whose land was protected by the Treaty of Ruby Valley and threatened by the Federal Government. For those of you in Denver struggling against the international abuses of the Newmont Mining Corporation, the film will be of particular interest as Newmont was one of the profiteers from the land exploitation. This is a powerful story of Native resistance. To get involved in land struggles of the Western Shoshone go to the website of the Western Shoshone Defense Project.

The Waimate Conspiracy

The opening film of the Dreamspeakers Film Festival, Stephen Lewis's The Waimate Conspiracy, is a fascinating, fictional film about a group of Maori whose oral histories fail to stand-up in a land claims case in court. When the people are baffled as to what to do next, they fake an historical account of the take-over of the land by a white family. Carefully creating a book, binding, aging, handprinting and all, they make a document that white people tend to believe. What I love about the film is how it brings into question the very notion of textual authenticity and white culture's refusal to believe oral history and it's need for textual proof, despite its equal inaccuracy. White society's faith in text as real is challenged by the film. As current debates about the veracity of Internet encyclopedias verses print, peer reviewed journals boils, we are reminded about how white cultural elites have maintained control over the creation of history by controlling the "legitimacy" of documents.

Dreamspeakers Film Festival

I'm up North in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for the Dreamspeakers Film Festival, an international Aboriginal film and television festival. So far films have been good and events well orchestrated. The sad thing about the festival is that the audience has been fairly low leaving an amazingly constructed, small festival under-attended. If you know anyone in Edmonton, have them come out!