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Life or Liberty (lifeorliberty.org), a non-profit media project under the fiscal sponsorship of Third World Newsreel, tells the stories of immigrants fighting injustice and racism under post-9/11 policies. Currently in production is Enemy Alien, an hour-long documentary on the two-year fight for the release of Palestinian activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti. This documentary is being produced for public television and theatrical distribution. Funds are needed for production, distribution and outreach.
Enemy Alien (trailer, 9 minutes) The dramatic two-year struggle to free Palestinian activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti from illegal Homeland Security detention unfolds through the eyes of the Japanese American filmmaker, as he joins the fight for Farouk’s freedom, and confronts his own family’s World War II internment.	Rising Up: The Alams (11 minutes) This documentary shows how the Alams, a Bangladeshi family living in Coney Island, move beyond victimization under anti-Muslim policies to actively fighting for change as members of South Asian community organization D.R.U.M. (Desis Rising Up and Moving).
Thursday, June 16, 2005 7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. (doors open 6pm, screening at 8p.m.) White Rabbit 145 East Houston Street New York City (between Eldridge and Forsyth Sts., right next door from the Sunrise Theater) Subway: F to Second Ave. Station $5 cocktail specials and $3 Dos Equis until 8pm.
Requested donation: $10 No one will be turned away. Larger donations are sought. Tax-deductible checks can be made out to Third World Newsreel, with “Life or Liberty” in the memo line. Please contact konrad@lifeorliberty.org if you or someone you know may be interested in making a larger donation and being listed in the documentary credits. Following the screenings will be brief comments from the producer and the Center for Constitutional Rights, an outreach partner for Enemy Alien.

Posted by Konrad at 07:00 PM | Permalink

My recently completed short Rising Up: The Alams will be showing:

Wednesday, June 8
6:00 p.m.
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue (at Second Street)

NEWFILMMAKERS GOES GLOBAL
6:00 THIRD WORLD NEWSREEL PROGRAM
Founded in 1967, Third World Newsreel is one of the oldest alternative media arts organizations in the United States. It is committed to the creation and appreciation of independent and social issue media by and about people of color, and the peoples of developing countries around the world. More at www.twn.org.

Posted by Konrad at 06:00 PM | Permalink

Dear Friend,

It's time to shut down the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay once and for all. Guantánamo has become a symbol world-wide of the Bush Administration's arrogant disregard for the most basic of human rights. In a hard-hitting editorial on Sunday, June 5, The New York Times wrote: "The best thing Washington can now do about this national shame is to shut it down. It is a propaganda gift to America's enemies; an embarrassment to our allies; a damaging repudiation of the American justice system; and a highly effective recruiting tool for Islamic radicals, including future terrorists."*

Please write your representatives in Congress and the members of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees and tell them to shut down Guantánamo and either try the remaining 540 detainees in a court of law or release them.

The Center for Constitutional Rights has led the fight against the detentions at Guantánamo Bay. From the day the government made clear they planned to ship prisoners there to keep them beyond the reach of law, indefinitely, and without any chance to challenge their detention or know the charges against them, CCR has fought for the detainees to have their day in court. CCR won the fight in the Supreme Court one year ago and is leading a team of more than 350 attorneys from around the country representing the detainees in the courts, but the Bush Administration has defied the ruling of the highest court in the land and stonewalled detainees' access to the courts and to counsel. We urgently need your help. Please contact your representatives in Congress and tell them the time has come to shut down the Guantánamo prison camp once and for all. And please help if you can with a donation to help us keep at this critical fight: CCR does cutting edge work, and we can't do it without you.

In response to increasing documentation of abuse and the now admitted intentional desecration of the Koran, Senator Arlen Spector (R-Pennsylvania) will be holding hearings in June on the treatment of the detainees, and Senator Joseph Biden, (D-Delaware), who has just called for Guantánamo to be shut down, has proposed an independent commission to investigate the situation. CCR has long called for an independent special prosecutor with the power to prosecute the human rights abuses being committed in our name as Americans. And now we're calling for the immediate closing of the Guantánamo prison camp.

Yours,
Ron Daniels and Michael Ratner Executive Director and President, The Center for Constitutional Rights

To find out more about Guantánamo and CCR's other cases go to www.ccr-ny.org
To be removed from CCR's action alert list reply with "remove me" in the subject line

*read the full text of the Times editorial here:

Posted by Konrad at 02:28 PM | Permalink