Tri Continental Film Festival

Media Uprising

“Media is the most powerful entity on earth. It has the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power.” - Malcolm X

A Little Bit of so Much Truth
Burma VJ
Trouble the Water

A Little Bit of so Much Truth United States/Mexico, 2007, 90min, English Subtitles Director: Jill Friedberg www.corrugate.org In the summer of 2006, a popular uprising exploded in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Some compared it to the Paris Commune, while others called it the first Latin American revolution of the 21st century. But it was the people’s use of the media that made history. The film captures the unprecedented media phenomenon that emerged when thousands of teachers, housewives, indigenous peoples, health workers, farmers, and students took over 14 radio stations and one TV station and used them to organize, mobilize, and ultimately defend their grassroots struggle for social, cultural, and economic justice. Narrated almost entirely with recordings from the occupied media outlets, A Little Bit of So Much Truth delivers a breathtaking, intimate account of the revolution that WAS televised. Courtesy of the Director Awards International Documentary Film Festival"Santiago Alvarez en Memoriam 2008- Grand Prize Festival of Independent Documentary Film and Video Mexico City, Mexico- First Place Continents Int'l Documentary Film Festival 2007- Special Jury Prize 3 Atlanta DocuFest 2008-Best Foreign Documentary Miradas en el Movimiento Oaxaca 2008- Grand Prize Festival of Indigenous Film and Video La Paz, Bolivia- Honorable Mention IX

Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country Denmark, 2008, 85min, English Subtitles Director: Anders Høgsbro Østergaard www.dfi.dk Armed with pocket-sized video cameras, a tenacious collective of Burmese reporters are determined to expose the repressive regime controlling their country. In 2007, after decades of self-imposed silence, Burma became headline news across the globe when peaceful Buddhist monks led a massive rebellion. More than 100,000 people took to the streets protesting a cruel dictatorship that has held the country hostage for more than 40 years. Foreign news crews were banned, the Internet was shut down, and Burma was closed to the outside world. The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), aka the Burma VJs were the only source of reportage from the country. Compiled from the shaky handheld footage of the DVB, acclaimed filmmaker Østergaard’s Burma VJ pulls us into the heat of the moment as the VJs themselves become the target of the Burmese government. Courtesy of the Danish Film Institute Awards IDFA 2008 – Joris Ivens Award IDFA 2008 - Movies That Matter Human Rights Award Berlinale 2009 – Human Rights Award Sundance 2009 – World Cinema Documentary Editing Award Sundance 2009 – Grand Jury Prize Nomination

Trouble the Water African Premier United States, 2008, 90min, English Director: Carl Deal and Tia Lessin www.troublethewater.com Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, this powerful documentary is as horrifying as it is exhilarating. Directed and produced by Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine producers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, Trouble the Water takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen. The film opens the day before the storm makes landfall. Kimberly Rivers Roberts, an aspiring rap artist, is turning her video camera on herself, her husband and neighbours trapped in the city. Weaving an insider’s view of Katrina with a mix of verité and in-your-face filmmaking, the film is a redemptive tale of self-described street hustlers who become heroes—two unforgettable people who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning. Courtesy of the Directors Awards Sundance Film Festival 2008 Grand Jury Prize, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival- Special Jury Prize Silver Docs-Grand Jury Award Gotham Independent Film Awards 2008- Best Documentary