Special Punjnad Film Club Screening – Bringing Down a Dictator

Given the prevailing situation in the country – a dictator whom no one wants except Western vested interests – and with the historic Long March coming up, we thought it was high time to link art and activism through a somewhat controversial film, “Bringing Down a Dictator”.

Movie: Bringing Down A Dictator
Venue: The Club
When: 5:00 PM, Saturday, June 7, 2008
Running Time: 56 mins
Link to website: http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/films/bdd/

The official synopsis is given below:

Synopsis

Bringing Down A Dictator documents the spectacular defeat of Slobodan Milosevic in October, 2000, not by force of arms, as many had predicted, but by an ingenious non-violent strategy of honest elections and massive civil disobedience.

Milosevic was strengthened by patriotic fervor when NATO bombed Yugoslavia in early 1999, but a few months later, a student movement named Otpor! (“Resistance” in Serbian) launched a surprising offensive. Audaciously demanding the removal of Milosevic, they recruited where discontent was strongest, in the Serbian heartland.

Their weapons were rock concerts and ridicule, the internet and email, spray-painted slogans and a willingness to be arrested. Otpor students became the shock troops in an army of human rights, pro-democracy, anti-war, women’s groups, and opposition political parties. Their slogan: “He’s Finished!”

Trained in non-violent action and partially financed by the US and western Europe, they forged a unified political opposition, fought to stop vote fraud, and systematically undermined police and army loyalty. When Milosevic refused to accept defeat at the polls, the opposition called a general strike. As normal life ground to a halt, Serbs by the hundreds of thousands poured into the capital on October 5 to seize the Federal Parliament in a dramatic triumph for democracy. The one-hour documentary is narrated by Martin Sheen.

However, let us be clear that we neither advocate nor solicit funding from foreign governments or parties or agencies of any sort. Quite to the contrary, we actively reject any such initiatives as being in contradiction to one of our major arguments against the current usurper of the Army House and the Presidential Palace: the sale of Pakistani sovereignty and honour to the highest bidder.

What we find interesting about this film, and the motivation for screening it at this juncture, is:

1. the high degree of creativeity and the sheer audacity of the students and young people involved in Otpor, and,
2. the culmination of the movement in a massive march on the capital that leads to the downfall of the regime.

City of God, May 11, 2008

Curiously enough, there is a congruence between the themes explored in our next film, City of God, and the dates May 11 and May 12. On May 11, 1998, the sub-continent went irrevocably nuclear. On May 12, 2007, the terrorists of MQM (as alleged by practically every serious commentator and analyst of the Pakistani political and socio-economic environment) unleashed mayhem on our crumbling City of Lights.

Directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, the film was nominated in several categories at the Oscars in 2003, won the best foreign film award at the British Independents in 2003, was nominated for the same at the 2003 BAFTAs, won the 2003 BAFTA best editing award and won or was in the running for awards at film festivals around the world. Perhaps the most intriguing and revealing citation was from the jury for the FIPRESCI prize, awarded to director Fernando Meirelles, at the 2002 Havana Film Festival: “For approaching the explosive theme of social exclusion, using an ambitious, complex and involving style of narration, without moralising or condoning violence.”

Show Information:
Date: Sunday, 11 May 2008
Time: 05:00 PM

Venue: Punjab Lok Rahs
Flat # 8, Third Floor, RB1, Awami Complex
Garden Town Lahore.
042 5940166, 0333 4320802