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Clean Thursday by Aleksandr Rastorguev

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kino21’s series, How We Fight, presents international works that explore soldiering and depict the experience of war from the point of view of those on the ground.  From Argentina, Russia, Iraq, Germany, France, Holland and the U.S., several of these films are US premieres. On Thursday, September 25 we begin with Iraqi Short Films, a brand new compilation of videos shot in battle by soldiers and militia members in Iraq. Subsequent programs include video diaries of the battlefield and pre- or post-combat rumination, extended observational portraits and interview-based works.  There are depictions of Russian conscripts in Chechnya, PKK rebels in the mountains of Iraq, American veterans returned from Vietnam, and mercenaries and peacekeepers stationed across the globe, from Bosnia to Rwanda, from the Middle East to the USA.

The series continues with two films portraying the words and worlds of conscripted soldiers. Tonight is a study in opposites, on one hand frank questions about slaughter in Interviews with My Lai Veterans and on the other, poetic and ironic observation on fighters’ repose in Clean Thursday. But these films share an unflinching ear and eye for the soldiers who have fought on the ground in two of the world’s most powerful armies.

Filmed two years after the My Lai massacre took place in Vietnam, the Oscar-winning Interviews presents five soldiers who recount their personal experience and understanding of that gruesome day, each one with a different perspective. While Interviews focuses on how soldiers interpret and narrate their role in massacre, Clean Thursday gives the converse: a sensuous and candid look at how soldiers live their moments between the carnage. During the Russian occupation and “cleansing” of Chechnya, a group of rear-guard soldiers is in charge of keeping their army clean. An old steam train transformed into laundry wagons and bathhouses is where most of Rastorguev’s film takes place. Soldiers arrive from the front, sweating and trudging through mud. For a day or two of respite, they wash, swear, remember family, brag about sexual conquests, and recount the hell of a war they’ve survived, as they clean their bodies and clothes only to “once again” kill or be killed at the front.

How We Fight: Conscripts, Mercenaries, Terrorists and Peacekeepers is presented with the generous support of the Potrero Nuevo Fund of the Tides Foundation, the LEF Foundation, and Goethe Institut San Francisco.

Using archival film and photo materials, Cuban director Manuel Pérez paints a personal portrait of Che Guevara, the legend and symbol of revolution. ­Ernesto Che Guevara was only 39 years old when he was executed in the Bolivian mountains in 1967. This film tells the story of Che’s short life: his childhood in Argentina, his early interest in the Spanish Civil War, the motorcycle trip through Latin America that changed his life forever, and his years in Cuba. *2004, 55min.*

 www.ANSWERcoalition.org • answer@ANSWERsf.org

IRAN (is not the problem) is a new feature length film responding to the failure of the American mass media to provide the public with relevant and accurate information about the standoff between the US and Iran, as happened before with the lead up to the invasion of Iraq.
 
We have heard that Iran is a nuclear menace in defiance of the international community, bent on “wiping Israel off the map”, supporting terrorism, and unwilling to negotiate.  This documentary disputes these claims as they are presented to us and puts them in the context of present and historical US /IRAN relation.
 
It looks at the struggle for democracy inside Iran, the consequences of the current escalation and the potential US and/or Israeli attack, and suggests some alternatives to consider.  This 79 minute documentary features Antonia Juhasz (The Bu

$h Agenda), Larry Everest (Oil, Power, and Empire), and other activists and Iranian-Americans.  There are differences of opinion between many of the voices in this film, but all agree that a war would be unjustified.

See the trailer at www.iranisnottheproblem.org

Plus Q & A with:

Antonia Juhasz – expert on oil, war, U.S. economic/corporate interests in Iraq and Iran, etc., activism and social change, author of “The Bush Agenda: Invading the World One Economy at a Time” and “The Tyranny of Oil” (http://www.TyrannyofOil.org), and Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and Oil Change International.

Larry Everest – author of “Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda”.  He has covered the Middle East and Central Asia for over 25 years for Revolution newspaper and other publications, reporting from Iraq, Palestine, India, and Iran in 1979 and 1980, shortly after the revolution that toppled the Shah, interviewed Islamic militants then holding the U.S. Embassy, and reported from Iranian Kurdistan.

Robert Gould – expert on US-Iranian history/relations, nuclear weapons and related health issues, anti-war activism. Former national president and current Bay Area chapter president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Co-author of “Rollback! Rightwing Power in U.S. Foreign Policy”, contributing author in “The New World Order and the Third World”, “War and Public Health”, and many articles on health, environment, nuclear and bioterrorism, and the persistent legacy of global militarism and violence.

Filmmaker Info:

Produced by Aaron Newman, an independent film-maker and part of the Scary Cow film co-op  in San Francisco.   He is an anti-imperialism/pro-democracy  activist, founder of the SF Chomsky Book Club, and a member of Hands Off  Iran.

Reviews:

“After years of working on Iran and Middle East politics, this is perhaps the most engrossing and easily digestible film Ive ever come across. A phenomenal educational tool that explains often misunderstood and complex issues in US-Iranian relations.”  – Sanaz Meshkinpour, Middle East Program Coordinator, Global Exchange

“I have watched it twice, and am deeply impressed with how much crucial historical context it provides in an engaging and accessible manner, combining archival footage with incisive analysis from interviews by US-based activists and scholars…I consider “IRAN (is not the problem)” to be an invaluable tool for raising our collective consciousness around the deeper reasons driving military aggression, for combating our lethal national amnesia in relation to Iran, for inspiring discussion, reflection and action, and for empowering citizens to better understand the present in light of the past.”-Zara Zimbardo, Fellowship of Reconciliation, National Council