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Photo: 'Asphyxious' screenwriter and director Shawn June, standing in front of the Marquee showing the Portland, Oregon screening of the films 'Free World' and 'Asphyxious' at the Historic Academy Theater. This screening celebrated not only the Grand Finale of the Portland, Oregon portion of the 7 day SURGE Film festival, but it also marked the 2011 Grand Finale of the Fifth Annual International SURGE Film festival which ran for over 10 days nationwide in 2011! As always, admission was free of charge for everyone because everything in the world should be free!


SURGE SCHEDULE
In Urbana, Illinois.

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This Schedule is Still Being Updated.  

Screening Dates: April 26th and April 27, 2012.
Times: To be Ann



SURGE Schedule

Urbana, Illinois.

Date: To Be Announced
Location: To Be Announced
To Be Announced
Access: Wheelchair access
Admission: Free of Charge

_April 2012

 


[Date and Time: TBA]~ “Cultures of Resistance"

  

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Look Closely. Those are items of art in their hands.

 

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Director Iara Lee

[Date: TBA]  Runtime: 73 minutes
Cultures of Resistance 3-Line Synopsis

In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, director Iara Lee embarked on a journey to better understand a world increasingly embroiled in conflict and, as she saw it, heading for self-destruction. After several years, travelling over five continents, Iara encountered growing numbers of people who committed their lives to promote change. This is their story.


Cultures of Resistance Awards:
Programming Descriptors
FORMS:Documentary
GENRES:Independent, Environmental, Period/Historical, Social Issue, News

Medium Synopsis 
Does each gesture really make a difference? Can music and dance be weapons of peace? In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, director Iara Lee embarked on a journey to better understand a world increasingly embroiled in conflict and, as she saw it, heading for self-destruction. After several years, traveling over five continents, Iara encountered growing numbers of people who committed their lives to promote change. This is their story. From IRAN, where the graffiti and rap became tools in fighting back the regime, to BURMA, where monks acting in the tradition of Gandhi take on a dictatorship, moving on to BRAZIL, where musicians reach out to slum kids and transform guns into guitars, and ending in PALESTINIAN refugee camps in LEBANON, where photography, music, and film have given a voice to those rarely heard, CULTURES OF RESISTANCE explores how art and creativity can be the ammunition in the battle for peace and justice.

Featuring: Medellín poets for peace, Capoeira masters from Brazil, Niger Delta militants, Iranian graffiti artists, women’s movement leaders in Rwanda, Lebanon’s refugee filmmakers, U.S. political pranksters, indigenous Kayapó activists from the Xingu River, Israeli dissidents, hip-hop artists from Palestine, and many more...



People in the Film
CULTURES OF RESISTANCE does not focus on one place in the world where a military unit or private corporation is violating a group of people’s human rights. Instead, the film looks at conflicts all over the world and seeks out artists who devote their work to fighting injustice and violence.

Poets for Peace
Medellín, Colombia, a city once notorious for drug violence, is reinventing itself as a world center for the living word. We attend the Medellín International Poetry Festival, which has been instrumental to this transformation by bringing the work of poets committed to promoting peace and social justice to the wider public. Founded in 1991, when the streets of Medellín were at their worst, organizers envisioned the festival as a form of artistic resistance against injustice and terrorism at the hands of drug cartels and the military. Over the years the festival has brought 1,000 poets from over 140 countries to Colombia and in 2006 received a Right Livelihood Award, widely known as "The Alternative Nobel Peace Prize.

Iranian Graffiti Artists
In Iran we encounter citizens who are at once patriotic—in rejecting heavy-handed threats from the U.S.—and critical of their own government—taking personal risks to demand greater political freedoms. Among these are the so-called Tehran Rats, a group of graffiti artists that under the cover of night expresses its dissent with spray-paint on city walls. As one of their members says, “good art is something that moves and shakes you.”

Rwandan Women Leadership
In Rwanda, where a greater proportion of women serve in the legislature than in any other country, we meet Hutu women who risked their lives to protect Tutsi children during the country’s 1994 genocide. One survivor, standing next to the rescuer who put herself in danger to help him, describes his experience: “She took me into the house and suggested that I hide up in the roof,” the survivor says. “I came out after three months, together with this brave woman.”

Liberian Cartoonist
In Liberia we encounter Leslie Lumeh, a survivor of his country’s civil war in the 1990s, who has since made sketches to recreate scenes from the conflict. Lumeh’s work was featured in a short documentary that aired on a local television station in Monrovia, which provoked then-president Charles Taylor to force the artist and his family into exile. Since his return home in 2005, his work has been widely welcomed and he continues to draw and paint to encourage ongoing peace in Liberia.

Brazilian Favela Photographer
Artists and community organizers work to stem violence in one of the most turbulent urban spaces in the world: the slums of Rio De Janeiro. One of them is photographer Andre Cypriano, whose startling images document the existence of those who persevere to build peaceful lives amid widespread poverty and despair. “These communities are where the violence exists,” Cypriano tells us. “But why? Through my photos I try to show where the problem is, where the solution is.”

Lebanon’s Refugee Filmmakers
In Lebanon we meet filmmakers who are devoted to offering their craft to those trapped within the walls of refugee camps. By giving the art of film to members of these communities, they are providing the tools to make visible what life is like for Palestinian refugees. As one member of the Zakira Photo Project says, “When you give them the camera, they feel a responsibility to document the community, so you are empowering them.”

Political Pranksters
The Yes Men are about as skilled as it gets in the art of deception. They first garnered international attention when one of them posed as a spokesperson for Dow Chemical on live television to make an announcement that would temporarily cause the company’s stock value to fall by over $1 billion. Since then, they have continued to pull off outrageous stunts, including the distribution of a special edition of The New York Times. The fake newspaper announced the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other improbable news, and asked its readers to think deeply about the state of our world.

Indigenous Activists
We travel to the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon, where the Brazilian government has for decades pushed for the construction of the so-called Belo Monte dam. If built, it would be the world’s third largest dam and would displace many thousands of the region’s residents. During our visit we encountered an uprising of over 1,000 people from various indigenous communities who were joined by national and international supporters to express their unequivocal opposition to the project. Today, their resistance remains as unified as ever.

Israeli Dissidents
The Israel/Palestine conflict often gets reduced to worn-out accusations and talking points, and in the process loses sight of the real human suffering that comes as its result. Jeff Halper, an Israeli citizen who has become a vocal opponent of many of his government’s policies, is one member of a surprisingly vibrant community that condemns its government’s policies toward the Palestinian people.

Hip-Hop Artists from Palestine
Palestinian hip-hop group Katibe 5 carries on a tradition of socially conscious rap, even as the genre becomes increasingly commercialized in the U.S. The group is made up of five members who came of age together inside the walls of a refugee camp in Beirut where over 16,000 people reside in less than a square mile. While the plight of the Palestinian people is a central focus of their work, they rap in solidarity with other struggles around the world. As one member put it, “We're not just Palestinian refugees speaking about our problems, or our lives in the camps, because the problems we face are not only a Palestinian problem. All over the world there are people who are oppressed, people who are incarcerated, people who are suffering."

Monks of the Saffron Revolution
In Burma, where a military junta has refused to recognize the democratically elected leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi and has ignored calls for national dialogue, voices of dissent have been brutally repressed. But there are signs of hope and courage here, too. Dressed in brilliant saffron robes, the monks in this heavily Buddhist nation have braved the possibility of arrest, torture, and even execution in order to give voice to a more humane ethics.

This is only a handful of the inspiring artists who appear in the movie. You can see them and many more perform their music and explain what motivates their work in CULTURES OF RESISTANCE.


The Power of Nonviolence: A statement by Iara Lee
Cultures of Resistance director Iara Lee states: "The Cultures of Resistance (CoR) feature documentary profiles conflicts in over 10 countries—including Israel/Palestine, Nigeria, and Burma—with a focus on how artists and musicians creatively oppose various forms of oppression. As both a filmmaker and an activist, I believe that nonviolent resistance is the only effective, long-term approach to conflict resolution. Nonviolence does not mean passivity. In fact, strategic nonviolence is often militant, active, and requires its practitioners to put themselves on the line. It uses unarmed resistance to create a crisis that undermines the viability of violence and oppression.

"In the film, I try to explore the challenge of violence; I show situations where victims of injustice resort to violence in order to address their grievances. While I can sympathize with the deep frustration and legitimate indignation that motivates such action, I do not endorse their approach. I ultimately believe that artistic resistance combined with active nonviolence, as advocated by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., is the only way to break the cycles of militarism and oppression upon which so many of the world’s injustices depend.

"When combating a massive military machine that profits from the creation of militarized conflict, choosing the path of armed resistance plays into our opponents' strengths. I hope to show in my work that our strengths--the strengths of forces promoting democracy, human rights, and economic justice--are based in art, creativity, and grassroots participation in nonviolent social movements."


For more photos and CULTURES OF RESISTANCE please see the profile for this film on the Love to SURGE Directory found here.



World Premier Multimedia Performance by Mark Enslin.

Details to follow.




Script Performance by M.C.

Details to follow.




Film by Carol.  Work in Progress.

Details to follow.
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Pig with a sausage jump rope in a bacon rainstorm. photo by Kristen Palana
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Veggie Propaganda Audience photo by Kristen Palana
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[Date: TBA]  "Veggie Propaganda. " (Italy)   Runtime 10 minutes.

Long Synopsis 
Veggie Propaganda is a quirky, sing-song animation that puts a spotlight on animals, our relationship with them and their rights. This 2D fine-art/digital animation features original music performed by New York City band, The Penultimate. It explores childhood myths about animals vs. the reality of their lives in a human-centered world, where our food really comes from and how by simply eating less meat individuals can make an astounding positive impact on their health, their finances and the environment. 

Independent animator, Kristen Palana has been a flawed, on-again/off-again vegetarian since the age of twelve. She continually is torn between her love of animals and the powerful cravings that make her want to occasionally eat them (especially when pregnant). She created this animation to raise awareness about the lives animals lead and to show that normal everyday meat-eaters have the power to make things better for animals, themselves and the planet just by taking a few baby steps towards eating less meat. 

The idea to make Veggie Propaganda originally stems from Kristen's lifelong love of animals and the growing realization as a child that perhaps the relationship between animals and humans was not as innocent as she was originally led to believe.

Kristen Palana writes:
'I think every animal lover can remember the day when they first learned where meat actually comes from. For me it was at my family's kitchen table in Swansea, Massachusetts back in 1982 when I was about four years old. Previously I had taken the bits of information the well-meaning adults told me such as “ham comes from pigs, etc...” and came up with the idea that animals “laid” the meat (good friends of ours that they were) just like a hen lays eggs or in the way that milk is extracted from a cow. I proudly repeated my theory to my parents and then 9 year-old brother to let them know that I was in the loop and knew how the world worked. I still remember my shock and dismay when my brother told me in less-than-friendly terms that in fact the meat WAS the animal. I was in fact, a misguided idiot.

My mother, wishing to console me as I tried to process this earth-shattering news reassured me with, 'Oh Honey, don't worry! Animals don't feel pain.' It worked though. I didn't really think about the issue again until around the age of twelve when most kids really start to ask tougher questions. That's when I started my first stint as a vegetarian; a label I have worn with varying degrees of success, failure and hypocrisy these last twenty three years. 

I wanted to make an animation that got people thinking about their relationship to animals and to their food. I have found that many 'propaganda' offerings that seek to convert people into vegetarians or vegans come off as heavy-handed or extremist and ultimately turn off more people to their cause. My goal was to make something funny, quirky and yet full of educational information that was targeted to regular every day meat-eaters who might be looking for good reasons to eat less meat. 

From 2008 to 2010 I actually wrote and rewrote Veggie Propaganda three times during pre-production because I was trying to strike just the right tone. Also, after sending off my rough (a huge understatement) attempt at a song in to my friend Steve Rittler of Queens, NY., he ultimately got his band, The Penultimate together and they recorded a much better version- albeit two whole minutes longer than what I had originally planned for! However, I was so happy with their take on the song that I decided to rework my storyboard/animatic yet again and the result is this current six minute version.'


 

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Kristen Palana, Director of Veggie Propaganda.
_ Kristen Palana is a multimedia artist based in Rome, Italy and is currently a tenured Associate Professor of Digital Media at The American University of Rome. She has eleven years of university teaching experience and has also taught BA, BFA, and MFA candidates at the Pratt Institute of New York and in the Art Department at William Paterson University of New Jersey.

Kristen is a dual American/Portuguese citizen and has offered art and multimedia courses in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Her work is exhibited internationally and online and has received a number of awards. Kristen received her MFA from Pratt Institute in Computer Graphics and Interactive Media and also holds a BFA in Painting from Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Previous animations and video shorts include "Larry & Roz" (2008) - a fine art animation about one couple's six decade relationship which screened at 25 international film festivals and won five Best Animation awards, "Lucky" (2006) -a documentary about one Indian American girl's arranged marriage and "Yellow Ribbons," (2004) -a stop motion animated political ad created for Moveon.org. Her multimedia animation about her experiences in Brooklyn and India, "Five O'Clock Shadows," screened in international animation and film festivals in 2002 and 2003. Excerpts and stills of her work can be found at her website at: http://www.kpalana.com.

She has lived and worked in Ireland, Scotland, India, Tanzania, Liberia, and Italy. Traveling and volunteering in developing countries rank among her biggest interests. She is currently expecting her second child, a son, who will be born in December of 2011. Kristen lives with her husband Michael and two year-old son Lukas in Rome, Italy.

For more information about this award winning film, please see the profile for this film on the Love to SURGE Directory found at www.LoveToSurge.org or visit the profile page found here. 







State Premier: Debt to Society

Play the Slideshow for Cast and Crew Who Attended the World Premier.


Bradd Hopkins is an award-winning screenwriter, author and publisher of award-wining fiction and non-fiction books. Bradd's Debt to Society screenplay is based on his award-winning original short story by the same name.


[Date: TBA]   "Debt to Society" with Q+A afterwards with Director Bradd Hopkins and Lead Actor
Rene Reyes.  Runtime: 17 minutes

Programming Descriptors
FORMS:Short
GENRES:Drama, Horror, Thriller, Human Rights, Social Issue
NICHES:Hispanic

Long Synopsis 
An imprisoned felon in a dystopian future pays his Debt to Society in sinister lottery when his number is drawn the day after a poignant visit from his wife and children.

Xavier, prisoner 1031, is doing hard time for manslaughter, soon to be paroled, when his number comes up as an involuntary organ donor in the corporate correctional system’s legal lottery.

Co-opted by their own economic necessities in a jobless economy, prison administrators, parole board members, and guards, as well as the prisoners and their families, are insulted, desensitized, and dehumanized in a macabre process that is designed only to assure fiscal viability at the expense of human dignity.

At every contact with the dysfunctional system, Xavier’s family is violated and degraded incidentally, but in the broader view, it becomes hard to determine who the victims really are. As the viewer absorbs the impact of Xavier’s losses, awareness emerges that the losses to the victimizers are even greater.

This work touches on the psychological horror of a powerful institutional system-gone-mad that compromises human values and ethics in the name of profits while maintaining a hypocritical façade of callous political correctness and superficial legality.

For more information about this award winning film, please see the profile for this film on the Love to SURGE Directory found at www.LoveToSurge.org or visit the profile page found here. 
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Orphans of Farmers in Protest
 [Date and Time: TBA]  A Little Revolution- A Story of Suicides and Dreams Runtime: 60 minutes.


3-Line Synopsis
A Little Revolution- A Story of Suicides and Dreams, follows the remarkable journey of filmmaker Harpreet Kaur, who travels from the rural villages of Punjab to the capital of India with children of farmers, who've committed suicide. She confronts the government's highest officials with the hope that they will understand the effects of their policies and avail the opportunity to help these children.

3-Line Synopsis (French)
A Little Revolution-Une histoire de suicides et de rêves, suit le parcours remarquable du cinéaste Harpreet Kaur, qui se déplace dans les villages ruraux du Pendjab à la capitale de l'Inde avec les enfants des agriculteurs, qui ont commis le suicide. Elle se confronte plus hauts responsables du gouvernement avec l'espoir qu'ils comprennent les effets de leurs politiques et saisissent cette occasion d'aider ces enfants.

Programming Descriptors
FORMS:Documentary
GENRES:Family, Drama, Educational, Human Rights, Independent, Culture, Personal Narrative, Social Issue
NICHES:Asian, Third World, Women, Senior/Aging, Student, Youth/Teen, Children


Medium Synopsis 
A Little Revolution - A Story of Suicides and Dreams, follows the remarkable journey of filmmaker Harpreet Kaur, who travels from the rural villages for Punjab to the capital of India with children of farmers, who've committed suicide. She confronts the government's highest officials with the hope that they will understand the effects of their polices and avail the opportunity to help these children.

Vast area of rural India are currently facing a crisis that few outside of the subcontinent are aware is even occurring. Yet, whether or not the world watches, the crisis deepens. At the center of this emergency are the thousands of Indian peasant farmers who have taken their own lives. Like many other crises currently facing the world at this moment there is no one single, complete answer to the farmer suicides in India. However, the general consensus is that a farmer takes his own life due to high interest loans, taken to fulfill India's pro-industrial farming policies, and ecological damage.



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More information about the film:

Long Synopsis 

A Little Revolution
A Little Revolution - A Story of Suicides and Dreams, follows the remarkable journey of filmmaker
Harpreet Kaur, who travels from the rural villages of Panjab to the capital of India with children of
farmers, who've committed suicide. She confronts the government’s highest officials with the
hope that they will understand the effects of their policies and avail the opportunity to help these
children.

Vast areas of rural India are currently facing a crisis that few outside of the subcontinent are
aware is even occurring. Yet, whether or not the world watches, the crisis deepens. At the center
of this emergency are the thousands of Indian peasant farmers who have taken their own lives.
Like many other crises currently facing the world at this moment there is no one single, complete
answer to the farmer suicides in India. However, the general consensus is that a farmer takes his
own life due to high interest loans, taken to fulfill India's pro-industrial farming policies, and
ecological damage.

This is a story of hope, empowerment and simple dreams. Director Harpreet Kaur, forces the
audience to not limit the dialog to the economic, environmental or political side of the issue but to
adjust the lens and focus on the plight of the farmer's children who are left behind carrying this
burden. Kaur takes the viewers from the picturesque countryside of rural Punjab into the homes
of these families. The children in these families have accepted their fate but aspire for an
opportunity for a better future. Kaur, gives them the opportunity to share their stories with the
world and confront the Government with their personal letters that offer a raw, humanistic and
honest portrait of what impact their parents suicides have had in their lives.

Tagline: A Little Revolution-A story of Suicides and Dreams

Country of Origin: India
Year of Completion: 2011
Production Company: Sach Productions
Premiere Status: Texas Statewide Premiere in SURGE Film Festival

Technical Information:
Feature Length: 60 minutes
Language: English & Panjabi (with English subtitles)

A few of the many Previous Screenings include:
- Official Selection at Sikh International Film Festival 2011
- Official Selection at Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival 2011
- Official Selection at Chagrin Documentary Film Festival 2011
- Official Selection at Sikh Lens Film Festival 2011

Website: www.ALittleRevolution.com


FILMMAKER INTRODUCTIONS


 

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A child in the film.
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Director
As a filmmaker, Harpreet Kaur has touched the lives of the individuals in her documentaries and
has captured audiences with her ability to effectively, creatively and honestly tell stories that
convey a strong sense of the people and places she covers.

Her most recent work, A Little Revolution - A story of Suicides and Dreams takes the viewers
from the picturesque countryside of rural Panjab in India, into the homes of children of farmers,
who've committed suicide. The children in these families have accepted their fate but aspire for
an opportunity for a better future. Kaur, gives them the chance to share their stories with the
world and confront the Government with their personal letters that offer a raw, humanistic and
honest portrait of what the impact of their parents suicides have had in their lives.

Harpreet Kaur's personal pursuit is to continue to create films on pressing issues that bring minority issues into the mainstream media.

Producer
Manmeet Singh worked with a diverse crew from Austin, San Antonio, Washington DC, New Delhi and Chandigarh, and managed to create a high definition feature length documentary which will not only educate the people on issues of farmers in rural India but would encourage them to engage in finding solutions.

In addition to the film work, Manmeet has over two decades of experience in Indian Classical
Music and has been involved in community endeavors for over 15 years and is now pursuing projects that will influence the direction of the South Asian community in India and abroad.


For more information about this award winning film, please see the profile for this film on the Love to SURGE Directory found at www.LoveToSurge.org or visit their profile page found here. 



Other Potential Films

Economics of Happiness - runtime: 1hr and 7 minutes.

One Minute - runtime: 1 minute

Project Happiness - runtime:


    







Important Note Regarding the Below Schedule:  Make certain to click on "Look for more" found below in order to see more events.





Exact Schedule of films will be posted later.



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