/mff 2005/colpe di stato

colpe di stato - state (t)error terror strategy in the name of democracy
“The exercise of violence against civilian populations is terror”. Noam Chomsky
Terrorism as a strategy of so-called democratic governments. A deliberate, organized, thoroughly planned terrorism consisting in warfare actions, ban on dissent and slanted news coverage.
Among the films submitted to Milano Film Festival we have chosen some stories depicting crimes, injustice and massacres, committed under the banner of democracy, freedom, security or religion. We have marked out a route connecting South America to Iraq, Russia to the Middle East, Italy to the United States – little fragments of reality that prevent us from contenting ourselves with the softened, doctored, soothing and reassuring news the media deliver everyday.

Mon 19, 5pm
Teatro Strehler
Power and Terror – Noam Chomsky in Our Times
by John Junkerman, Japan/USA, 2002, 72’
One of the most renowned and influential American intellectuals in a series of conferences and public meetings on the US policy before and after 9/11: from the dirty wars in South America through the role in the Middle-Eastern conflict to the war on terror. The biggest power on earth imposes its supremacy with the same methods it claims to be fighting against.

Wed 21, 5pm
Teatro Strehler
¿Premio Nobel de la Paz…?
by Malena Roncayolo, Venezuela/Belgium, 2005, DvCam, 66’
Opposition demonstrations are brutally put down by the army. Stories of tortures and injustice. A portrait of Venezuela that leaves many questions about the controversial figure of Hugo Chavez unanswered.

Thu 22, 9.30pm
Fossato del castello
Russia/Chechnya: Voices of Dissent
by Carlo Nero, Great Britain, 2005, DvCam, 47’
The story of the never-ending war in Chechnya told from a different point of view, through the voices of internal opponents to Putin’s policy. Terrorism as a weapon used by both parts in a free-for-all that now permits everything.

Fri 23, 5pm
Teatro Strehler
Falluja 2004
by Doi Toshikuni, Japan, 2005, DV, 55’
Images from an Iraqi city after the American siege in April 2004. Bombings, roundups, massacres of civilians – a shattered and destroyed city. One of the ghastliest moments in Bush’s endless war.
then:
10 anni dopo: Bosnia: la vergogna d’Europa
by Mimmo Lombezzi, Italia, 2005, Beta/DV, 35’
Bosnia: the routine of evil ten years after the end of the war. A Muslim woman from Focha goes back to see the building where she was raped and sold by the soldiers as a sex slave for months. A Serbian man from Pasaric shows us the Muslim lager where he has been living during the war. The tenth anniversary of Srebrenica’s massacre is an occasion to make a journey into the dark core of this European war.

Sat 24, 9.30pm
Fossato del castello
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land
by Bathsheba Ratzkoff e Sut Jhally, USA, 2004, DV, 80’
This documentary displays with rigour and precision how slanted news by the Israeli and American media about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict help give a distorted view of reality. A consideration of the politically-aimed use of media power.