[sixties-l] [Fwd: "Hidden Wars"/Test-sale at Barnes & Noble]

From: Ted Morgan (epm2@LEHIGH.EDU)
Date: Mon Aug 05 2002 - 13:18:04 EDT

  • Next message: sixties@lists.village.virginia.edu: "[sixties-l] Julian Bond - "Freedom Under Fire" (fwd)"

    In the interest of making a left perspective more accessible to
    mainstream America (and this video is a must-see, especially with the
    forthcoming war!), I'm passing this along.
    DemocracyU, by the way in case you don't know of it, is an excellent
    source for videotaped lectures (etc.) by the likes of Chomsky, Zinn,
    Ehrenreich, hooks, etc. I recommend checking it out. (cheap, too).

    Ted Morgan

    -------- Original Message --------
    Subject: Fwd: "Hidden Wars"/Test-sale at Barnes & Noble
    Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 07:08:04 EDT
    From: DemocracyU@aol.com

    attached mail follows:


    At Free-Will, we wish to thank again Ralph Cole and all the many Justice Vision subscribers who have supported our work by ordering copies of our "Hidden War of Desert Storm" doc. and of our new 8 1/2 hour-interview and footage compilation ( http://hiddenwars.org ). Copies of the previous announcements and ordering info are pasted at the end of this message. We are making good progress in the editing of our current documentary on "Plan Colombia" thanks to your help and we will let you know as soon as copies are available, most probably by early September.

    We need your help again for something different this time. Our commercial distributor Terra Entertainment recently signed a deal with Barnes & Noble that would distribute "Hidden Wars" under the title "Hidden Wars in the Middle-East" and with a new packaging. Barnes & Noble however wants to "try" the tape in some selected stores to see how the public react to it before ordering it massively and making it available to the general public across the country. This is a fantastic opportunity to give mainstream visibility to many issues having to do with US foreign policies, waging wars for resources, imposing embargoes on civilian populations, using the United Nations, polluting the world with radioactive waste... The problem is we don't know which are the locations where Barnes & Noble is trying "Hidden Wars". The immense service we are thus asking all of you who happen to have a Barnes & Noble in their vecinity and a little time is to enquire with them about "Hidden Wars", again entitled here "Hidden Wars in the Middle-East" and possibly to try referring anybody who might want to get a copy this way. Copies will retail for $ 16.95 I believe and even though we will see practically nothing of this money, it will help convince Barnes & Noble to give the doc and the issues it raises national in-store visibility.

    Thank you all very, very much for your time and all the help you may be able to give us. Thanks also for sending us an e-mail at < freewillprod@prodigy.net > if you do find "Hidden Wars in the Middle-East" at your local Barnes & Noble.

    In solidarity,

    Gerard Ungerman

    Free-Will Productions

    (818) 487-2979

    Free-Will Productions is proud to present "Hidden Wars of Desert Storm" on the mailing list of JusticeVision.

    We are an independent, totally unfunded small family production structure based in Los Angeles and we are devoted to peace and justice activism through the medium of social/political documentary filmmaking.

    Narrated by British actor John Hurt and with the participation of Ramsey Clark, Denis Halliday, Scott Ritter, General Schwarzkopf and many others, "Hidden Wars" offers insights about the history of Western involvement in the Middle-East, about the situation that led to the Gulf war after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, about the hidden US political agenda behind the ongoing embargo strangling the population of Iraq and also about the not-so-mysterious Gulf war syndrome plaguing both veterans and local populations. The documentary also features moving images recently brought back from Iraq as well as rarely if ever seen footage from the war and declassified documents. All these shed light on the duplicity of some of our leaders, the same duplicity they now exert in Afghanistan for the sake of oil and territory control, for the sake also of securing gigantic military contracts for the benefit of US arms-makers and at the expense of the US tax-payers and world peace.

    Shown worldwide on television and in dozens of festivals, Grand Prize winner in Portugal and praized by the widest spectrum of newspapers from the New York Times ("an uncommonly sober, well-researched film") to Change-Links, the progressive community newspaper of Los Angeles ("I encourage everyone reading this article to go and see for yourself"), "Hidden Wars" has not and probably will never be shown on television in the US.

    Distributed in the US exclusively with the help and enthusiasm of local grass-root organizations, churches, students and activist groups, "Hidden Wars" is now available to the supporters of JusticeVision for only $ 12. including shipping instead of the regular $ 20. we normally ask for on our website at < http://hiddenwars.org >. This minimum contribution will nonetheless help us dramatically as we struggle to finish our latest documentary about "Plan Colombia" which will feature among many other interviewees Noam Chomsky, Ramsey Clark, Sen. Paul Wellstone as well as brutal footage brought back from Colombia last year (available this coming Fall).

    To order, please send a check or money-order written for "GERARD UNGERMAN" to :

    Free-Will Productions

    PO Box 5476

    N. Hollywood, CA 91616

    If you would like to order using a credit card, you can do so on our website at < http://hiddenwars.org >. The system there is not set up though for the $ 12. price but you may pool with somebody, write "JusticeVision" in the special instructions space and we will send you two copies unless otherwise instructed.

    Again, your support is desperately needed as non-corporate sales are our only chance to go on producing such documentaries. All donations will be dearly appreciated. Thank you all !

    NEW : "Hidden Wars" 8-1/2 hour compilation

    To answer quite a few requests already, Free-Will Productions has now put together an 8-and-a-half hour compilation of some of the most informative interviews we had gathered during the production of "Hidden Wars of Desert Storm". These interviews are complete and uncut and some of them are not even featured in the actual documentary for lack of space. Based on content and complementarity with the documentary interview-excerpts, we have selected the full interviews of :

    Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General (on the development of the Gulf War and the impact of sanctions on the Iraqi population),

    Denis Halliday, former UN Iraq Program Director (on the impact and illegality of the embargo) Phyllis Bennis, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Political Studies, DC (on how the US Gov. dictates their will to the UN Security Council),

    Scott Ritter, former UN Weapons Inspectors team-leader in Iraq (on US Gov.'s manipulation of the weapon inspections for spying and initiation of bombing campaigns),

    Michel Haj, senior journalist, writer, television producer from Jordan (on insights about how Bush Sr spared Saddam Hussein's regime and let him quell rebellions that might have toppled him),

    Dr. Labib Kamhawi, former President of the Jordanian Human-Rights Assoc. (on particulars about how the embargo is controled by the US Gov. and how it impacts Iraq's civil society),

    Dr. Nassira Sadoum, Dir. of the Gulf War Remembrance Museum in Baghdad (on the widespread sufferings across all segments of the Iraqi society with interesting remarks on Washington's manipulative foreign policy),

    several Iraqi doctors from several hospitals both in Baghdad and Basra, the most bombed Iraqi city close to the border with Kuwait (this part is devoted mostly on the impact of malnutrition and shortages in medical supply).

    A second part in the tape focuses on the use by the Pentagon of radioactive ammunitions made of depleted uranium. The full interview-selects feature :

    Paul Sullivan, then President of the National Gulf War Ressource Center (on DU's nature, its health and environmental impact and how veterans have been ignored by their own government, with some interesting remarks on the "twisted history" of the US military abusing veterans),

    Dan Fahey, Gulf War Veterans advocate and editor of "The Military Toxic Project" thorough report on US toxic weaponry and cover-ups (on history of DU weapons development and cover-ups by the Pentagon) followed by the accounts of two sick Gulf War veterans plus Q&A during the 2000 Gulf War Veterans National Organizing conference in Las Vegas,

    Doug Rokke, physicist hired by the Pentagon to conduct on-the-ground radiation-assessments in Kuwait after the war and then commissioned to produce DU training videos for the US military that were never shown to the troops (on scientific angle to DU weapons, technical performance and toxicity nightmare - Doug, an outspoken, respectable scientist is now in hiding after anonymous threats made to him last year), then...

    two of Doug Rokke's training videos that give a very detailed and informative overview of DU and what the Pentagon really knew about it despite their silence and denial (These videos were never shown neither to the troops nor to the public for fear of triggering outrage), and eventually a sequence of Iraqi doctors interviewed specifically on the impact of DU on the civilian populations exposed to low-level radiations (some images shot in hospitals in Baghdad and Basra are shocking and were edited out from the documentary for that very reason).

    Again, your support and contributions will help us tremendously as we struggle to finish our current documentary about "Plan Colombia" to be released hopefully in September 2002. We are asking, if we may, a sliding contribution from $ 12. to $ 22., postage included. We are also glad to offer the option to buy both "Hidden Wars of Desert Storm" and the interview compilation for an other sliding contribution of $ 22. to 42. If you prefer to use a credit-card, log on our website at < http://hiddenwars.org >. Again, the site is set for a standard charge of $ 20. plus $ 5. (S&H) but you can write a note in the instruction box on the second page of the order-form where you may either request the compilation to be sent along with "Hidden Wars" or do as if you were buying two "Hidden Wars" and write a note to request a compilation instead. You can actually do either way requesting one or two compilations if you already have a copy of "Hidden Wars" and only want the new compilation.

    We take this opportunity to thank immensely the many of you who have already supported us by ordering copies of "Hidden Wars of Desert Storm". Actually, another way to help us is by having your local public library, school or university order from us. This is indeed quite a significant help as these institutions acquire copies at a higher rate.

    Thank you all for your interest, support and generosity..

    Please, contact directly GERARD UNGERMAN at

    Free-Will Productions

    PO Box 5476

    N. Hollywood, CA 91616

    freewillprod@prodigy.net

    < http://hiddenwars.org >

    Tel: (818) 487-2879

    Fax: 487-2869

    Thank you to send to this address checks made payable to GERARD UNGERMAN.

    Gerard @ Free-Will Prod.



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