'Trespassing,' censored at Sundance, screening in Santa Barbara

"Trespassing," the most important film to ever be rejected by the Sundance Film Festival, screening in Santa Barbara

by Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

SANTA BARBARA -- "Trespassing," the film that exposes how the nuclear industry has targeted American Indian communities in the Southwest will be screened at the Think Outside the Bomb National Conference on Saturday, Aug. 18.
After "Trespassing," was rejected and censored at Sundance Film Festival, and many of the world's leading avant-garde film festivals, it went on to win awards around the world. From the Tucson International Film Festival and festivals in Spain and Oaxaca, Mexico, fearless film festival organizers awarded it as a human rights' treasure.
The film features the struggles to protect Indian lands from nuclear testing and wasted dumps, including the Colorado Indian River Tribes, Mojave and Western Shoshone.
The film's message is also a lasting tribute to the life long struggle for reverence in defense of the land of Western Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney, who recently passed to the Spirit World.
"Trespassing," reveals how the American Indian Movement, California residents and environmentalists worked with the Mohave and Colorado River Indian Tribes' members to halt the proposed nuclear dump at Ward Valley. It also documents the Western Shoshone's opposition to the nuclear annihilation of their territory.
Venue for Santa Monica:
Discussion with film director Carlos DeMenezes, film star Steve Lopez of the Fort Mojave Nation, and Shundahai Network co-founder Julia Moon Sparrow.
Where: UC Santa Barbara, Theatre & Dance 1701 [click here for campus map: http://www.aw.id.ucsb.edu/maps/] Starting Time: 8 p.m.
BACKGROUND:
Over nine years in the making, "Trespassing" is a feature-length documentary film that poetically examines our fight for survival. By focusing on the battle around nuclear storage in the United States, the film carefully unpacks a deadly controversy around land rights, uranium mining, nuclear testing and the disposal of nuclear waste.
Filmed in and around Native American sacred sites in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, Four-Corners and California’s Mojave Desert, "Trespassing" captures the breathtaking beauty of the natural environment, while documenting the actions of indigenous people and others as they risk relocation, eviction and arrest to prevent further desecration of these lands, the air and the water by nuclear waste.
In revisiting the consequences of U.S. nuclear policy, "Trespassing" reveals a common thread in the lives of its protagonists, demonstrating how the actions of the past resonate in the present. The film introduces a range of perspectives, including Stewart L. Udall (former Secretary of the Interior under Kennedy and Johnson), Corbin Harney (Western Shoshone spiritual leader), Steve Lopez (Fort Mojave Indian and Coordinator for the Native Nations Alliance), Anthony Guarisco (Director, Alliance of Atomic Veterans) and Dorothy Purley (Laguna Indian and former uranium miner). Each story adds a layer of humanity to this evocative meditation on the ability of a war culture to bring itself to the brink of annihilation while simultaneously producing "gatekeepers" to combat that annihilation."Trespassing" offers an in depth and provocative examination of historical survival and struggle designed to impact the present generation and alter a deadly course of action.
To view the trailer, visit http://www.trespassingdocumentary.com/site.asp
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOMB NATIONAL CONFERENCE
The film screening is a part of the Think Outside the Bomb national conference which takes place from August 16-19 at UCSB. Think Outside the Bomb is a national network of activists who come together based on a common interest in nuclear abolition. For more information, including regarding how to participate in the entire conference, visit http://www.thinkoutsidethebomb.org/.
MORE INFORMATION:
Contact Will Parrish or Katie Murray, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation - http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=youth@napf.org – (805) 965-3443. Or visit http://www.trespassingdocumentary.com/,http://www.thinkoutsidethebomb.org/, or http://www.wagingpeace.org/.
ADMISSION:
FREE, with suggested $10 donation.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
- Carlos DeMenezes took ten years to make Trespassing, his first feature-length documentary, winner of the Best Documentary Feature award at the 2005 Boston International Film Festival, Best Documentary at the 8th Festival Internacional de Cine y Video de los Pueblos Indigenas held in Oaxaca, Mexico in 2006, and over 10 other documentary film awards. He studied film production at University of California Los Angeles Extension and trained at the Macunaima Theatre School in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and lives in Los Angeles, California.
- Steve Lopez is coordinator of the Native Nations Alliance and was a leader of the historic grassroots campaign that defeated the proposed Ward Valley, California nuclear waste dump (http://www.greenaction.org/wardvalley/index.shtml).
- Julia Moon Sparrow is co-founder and a former staff member of the Shundahai Network, dedicated to “breaking the nuclear chain”. Shundahai Network was founded in 1994 at the request of the internationally revered Western Shoshone activist Corbin Harney, who passed away this past July 10th. The organization has been at the forefront of resistance to nuclear colonialism, nuclear weapons testing, the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, and a variety of other struggles. Shundahai is a Western Shoshone (Newe) word meaning “peace and harmony with all creation.”

Will Parrish
Youth Empowerment Director
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
PMB 121, 1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 1
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=wparrish@napf.org
Phone: (805) 965-3443; Fax: (805) 568-0466
www.wagingpeace.org/youth; http://www.ucnuclearfree.org/; http://www.thinkoutsidethebomb.org/

Photos: Scene from Trespassing; Corbin Harney; Western Shoshone territory, now known as Nevada, scarred by the annihilation of bombs and nuclear testing/Courtesy photos

Mexico: Border wall would harm migratory endangered species

Photo: Walk along Arivaca Creek, near the US spy tower, 12 miles north of the border. The region is the migratory route of bats, jaguar, pronghorn, black bear and other rare species in Sonora, Mexico and southern Arizona. Photo Brenda Norrell Photo 2: Sonoran Pronghorn.


Mexico urges fence changes to aid animals

The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government said Monday it is seeking changes in a U.S. plan to expand fences along the two nations' border because of the threat to migratory species accustomed to roaming freely across the frontier.
The Environment Department said the fences would seriously hurt species that cross the 1,952-mile border, and said the United States needs to alter or mitigate the barriers — aimed at stopping migrants from crossing illegally into the U.S. — where necessary.
Mexico also wants Washington to expand its environmental impact study on the fences and will file a complaint with the United Nations' International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands if necessary.
"The eventual construction of this barrier would place at risk the various ecosystems that we share," said Environment Secretary Juan Rafael Elvira, noting that the border includes desert, mountains, rivers and wetlands.
A report prepared for the Mexican government by experts and activists from both nations said the fences could isolate border animals into smaller population groups, affecting their genetic diversity.
Exequiel Ezcurra, director of research at the San Diego Natural History Museum, stressed that Mexico would not be the only loser from the construction of 700 miles of border fencing: the United States could lose visits from Mexican jaguars and black bears that have enriched U.S. ecosystems.
Environmentalists say highly endangered species such as the antelope-like Sonoran pronghorn — of which only about 100 still exist — could be wiped out in coming years, because they are used to moving across the border in search of scarce grassland.
Even strong lighting or radar could interfere with nocturnal species in border areas, and construction, maintenance and traffic along the walls would affect a wider strip of border land than just the fences themselves, the report states.
Elvira did not say what alternatives to the fences might be, but the report suggested creating bridge areas so ecosystems can remain connected, and wilderness areas or "green corridors" without roads that experts say may be less attractive to smugglers.
It also suggested "live" fences of cacti, non-permanent or removable fencing, night-vision instead of radar and more permeable fencing to allow water, insects and pollen to move across the border.

Struggling for Border Justice

Photos by Brenda Norrell (Protest of Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano after signing of new immigration law.)

Senate bill includes funds for dangerous crashing drones (unmanned aerial vehicles.)

Senate Approval of massive border militarization sacrifices human security
Coalicion de Derechos Humanos

(July 27, 2007) TUCSON -- Yesterday’s Senate vote to provide an additional $3 billion dollars toward “beefing up border security” will have disastrous implications for border communities and diverts attention from root causes, and therefore solutions, for our migration phenomenon, contend local human rights groups.
Coalición de Derechos Humanos denounces the decision as irresponsible, pointing out the dramatic number of human rights violations and abuses that have occurred as a result of more than a decade of militarization tactics and policies.
The bill provides for an additional 23,000 Border Patrol agents, 4 unmanned aerial vehicles, 700 miles of new walls, 300 miles of vehicle barriers and 45,000 detention beds. The bill passed with 89 votes to 1, and is being put forth by some as an effort to put Congress on a path to override President Bush's promised veto of a $38 billion homeland security funding bill.
Read more ...
http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net/

Mohawks in Canada: Secret weapons testing at Sharbot Lake

SPECIAL MOHAWK NATION NEWS REPORT:

IS CANADA THE WORLD’S “BUTT HOLE”FOR TESTING BOMBS AND WMDs??
Sombody’s making deals with the devil!
July 26, 2007
“Ye Shall Know them by the Company they Keep” [from somewhere in the Bible?]

In a Memorandum of Understanding “Mining Resources Engineering Limited” MREL is continuing its weapons making and bomb exploding activities on Algonquin lands. We investigated and found a frightening profile on MREL.

MREL Encampment in the Bush

Their weapons testing is unacceptable! On July 13, 2007, some Indigenous people stumbled on their “secret” lab and explosive testing encampment in the bush on Sharbot Lake. They probably need to clean up some evidence of their questionable activities? We are now in the know! They are making weapons of genocide to be used on our people elsewhere in the world and, who knows, maybe even on us.

MREL tries to stay anonymous. Bill Bauer, the head, keeps company with some big guys in the BIG LEAGUE. Yes, the Department of National Defense Canada [DND] and the U.S. Department of Defense [DOD] are some of MREL’s biggest customers. They work secretly for the sake of “national security”, calling it “R&D” [Research & Development]. We know they don’t care about ‘our’ security. Why do we get the feeling that there’s a lot of “insanity” going on here? [Ask Bill Bauer of MREL at 613-545-0466 (111)Cell 613-530-0777. MREL hides out in Kingston].

Why should these secret companies and agencies know more about our security than us? We are the original owners of the land, and there are non-native settlers who live on our land.

Mysterious MREL has the high tech equipment to measure all forms of radiation. They provide their services to test weapons they call “explosives” at their unique “state of the art” at a remote facility in the wilderness of Algonquin territory.

For years MREL has been making a lot of noise in the Algonquin countryside. Their explosions can be heard and felt for miles around. Farmers have moved away because the noise causes their cows and goats to miscarry. [Are these lands going to become uninhabitable for hundreds of years?]
Read more ... See: “Sharbot Lake”
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/news/news4.php?lang=en&layout=mnn&category=58&srcurl=%2Fnews%2Fnews3.php%3Flang%3Den%26layout%3Dmnn%26sortorder%3D0

Priests prepare for court, possible prison, to expose U.S. torture

By Brenda Norrell

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

TUCSON -- Two priests willing to go to prison to expose U.S. torture and torture training at Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona are prepared for their pre-trial motions.

Fr. Louis Vitale (left) and Fr. Stephen Kelly will join human rights attorney William Quigley in Tucson on Sunday evening, August 12. It is the evening before the August 13 pre-trial motions hearing. The gathering will be held at Southside Presbyterian Church, 317 W. 23rd. That's one block south of 22nd St. at 10th Ave., at 7:00 pm.
Fr. Louie Vitale, a Franciscan priest, is an Action Advocate for Pace e Bene, co-founder of the Nevada Desert Experience and SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience.
Fr. Steve Kelly (right), a Jesuit priest, has served time in prison for his participation in several Plowshares direct disarmament actions. Fr. Kelly literary attempted to turn a weapon of mass destruction into a plowshare and went to prison for it.

In December, 2005, Fr. Kelly served as chaplain for Witness to Torture, a delegation which marched through Cuba to the gates of the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Bill Quigley is a law professor and Director of the Law Clinic and the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University, New Orleans. He's been an active public interest lawyer since 1977, volunteering with School of the Americas Watch, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti and many other groups.
On August 13 (and possibly 14), Fr. Louie Vitale and Fr. Steve Kelly, represented by Bill Quigley, will have a pre-trial motions hearing in federal court in Tucson on charges of trespass and failure to obey an officer's orders for their nonviolent witness on Nov. 19, 2006 at Fort Huachuca.

The priests attempted to give a letter to the post commander of Fort Huachuca because of the leading role that the Fort has played in the development of the manuals advocating torture used at the SOA (School of Americas) and current interrogation techniques being used by the Army.
On August 13, there will be a support circle in the courtyard outside the federal courthouse, 405 W. Congress, time to be announced.
Please regularly check http://tortureontrial.org/ for details, updated information about the case and related events, or call 520-323-8697.

Read more ...

http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/06/priests-face-prison-to-expose-torture.html

Torture protests outside federal court in Tucson. Photos by Brenda Norrell

brendanorrell@gmail.com/

Bush criminalizes the anti-war movement

CRIMINALIZING THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
By Prof. Michel Chossudovsky
www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=6377
This article gives the implications of the Executive Order Bush issued July 17, 2007 whereby opposing the Iraq War becomes an illegal act. It provides the text of the Executive Order, and the text of his Message to Congress the same day.
"In substance, under this executive order, opposing the war becomes an illegal act. The Executive Order criminalizes the antiwar movement. It is intended to "blocking property" of US citizens and organizations actively involved in the peace movement. It allows the Department of Defense to interfere in financial affairs and instruct the Treasury to "block the property" and/or confiscate/ freeze the assets of "Certain Persons" involved in antiwar activities. It targets those "Certain Persons" in America, including civil society organizatioins, who oppose the Bush Administration's "peace and stability" program in Iraq, characterized, in plain English, by an illegal occupation and the continued killing of innocent civilians. "