peace camps • nuclear nightmares • anti-nuclear actions • lebanese civil war
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Beyrouth, a Defaut d'Etre Mort (Canada 1983)
(Beirut, City of Death)
Documentary film, 16 mm, 58 min., color, in French
Made by Tahani Rached
Producer: National Film Board of Canada
Distributor: National Film Board of Canada (Canada)
An antiwar documentary, this film depicts the daily life of Lebanese war refugees living in West Beirut. The film was shot in October 1982, immediately following the massacre of hundreds of innocent civilians at the Sabra and Chatila refuges camps by rightwing Phalangist forces. In it, a number of women describe the conditions faced by poor people in the area following seven years of open warfare.
ASIA
Letter from Bataan (Philippines)
Slideshow, color, in English
Made by Center for Women's Resources (CWR) (Philippines)
This slideshow is about the anti-nuclear campaign against the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant organized by women's organizations in the Philippines.
EUROPE
A Day in May (England 1983)
Video, 1/2 in. (VHS), 23 min., color, in English; also available with Italian dubbing
Made by Sue Sudbury
Distributor: Gruppo Comunicazione Visiva (Italy) (Italian version)
A documentary video, A Day in May describes some of the major actions that took place during a June 1983 peace demonstration in London, attended by over one million women from twenty-five different countries. Women in the video explain their reasons for participating in public actions against the arms race. The film testifies to women's ability to voice their concerns within (and sometimes despite) the presence of traditional political structures, and to project these concerns at an international level.
For Life's Sake, Let's Fight (England)
Documentry film, 16 mm; video, 60 min., in English
Made by Margareta Wasterstam
Distributor: Women Make Movies (USA)
For Life's Sake, Let's Fight offers insight into why disarmament is such a crucial issue for women the world over As one of the women activists in the film says, "I have not borne children for them to die in a nuclear disaster." Winner of the Silver Dove and Press Prize at Leipzig Film Festival and broadcast nationally by public television in the United States, the film documents the first year of the Greenham women's encampment, featuring interviews with the founders, British women peace activists from diverse backgrounds, and the country people who live close by.
Carry Greenham Home (England)
Film, 16 mm; video, 66 min., in English
Made by Beeban Kidron and Amanda Richardson
Distributor: Women Make Movies (USA)
Carry Greenham Home was filmed during the second year of the encampment by Beeban Kidron and Amanda Richardson, two British filmmakers who lived at the camp for seven months. For this reason, the film presents a personal view of the daily life of the women living at Greenham and the major demonstrations and actions against the adjoining base, not least of which is the day the women locked the main gate with a thief-proof bike lock and watched the guards struggle to saw it off.
Helen John (England 1983)
Video, 30 min., in English
Made by Television History Workshop
Distributor: Past and Future Trading (England)
In 1981, Helen John joined the peace march to protest against the planned siting of cruise missiles in England. Unexpectedly she found herself driven to continue the protest at the Greenham base. Her growing involvement in the peace movement resulted in an enormous upheaval in her personal life.
Pretend You'll Survive (England 1981)
Film, 16 mm, 9 min., color, in English
Made by Leeds Animation Workshop
Distributor: Leeds Animation Workshop (England)
This film tells the story of one woman and her nuclear nightmares. It points out links between "peaceful" nuclear energy and the arms race, exposes the absurdity of civil defense in the face of nuclear weapons, and most of all shows the horrifying consequences of nuclear madness. The film uses music and color to challenge some 20th century myths.
NORTH AMERICA
Women, Peace and Power (Canada)
Film, 16 mm, 1 hour, in English
Made by Margaret Pettigrew
Distributor: Studio D (USA), National Film Board of Canada (Canada)
A vision of a world at peace where creative conflict resolution replaces violence and the threat of global destruction. The film gives a voice to women who offer new definitions of peace and explore positive, nonviolent concepts of power. They propose alternative ways to resolve social conflict which are both visionary and practical and inspire "ordinary citizens," particularly women, to exercise our own power for change.
Stronger Than Before (USA 1983)
Video, 27 min., in English
Made by the Boston Women's Video Collective
Distributor: Women Make Movies (USA)
During the summer of 1983, women from all over the world, of all ages and lifestyles, gathered at the Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice in Romulus, New York to protest the planned deployment of nuclear missiles from nearby Seneca Army Depot. The seventy-five women involved in the Video Collective, formed specifically to record events at the peace camp, offer us "excerpts from a summer of nonviolent protest," through the words and actions of the hundreds of women who chose to live collectively all summer, and who made their voices heard. Featured are interviews with Barbara Deming, Bella Abzug and other women activists, demonstrations at the base and in Seneca Falls, NY, and confrontations with the townspeople living nearby.
Genesis/Genocide: Women for Peace (USA)
Slideshow, 35 min., color, in English
Made by Karen Voss, Carol P. Christ and Marcia Keller
Distributor: The Third Image (USA)
This slide presentation is a multiracial, multimedia feminist collage designed to encourage women to think about the issues of war and peace which have traditionally been the domain of men, and to encourage women and men to think about the relationship between sex role socialization and militarism. In traditional roles as nurturers and homemakers, women have often assumed that public and political issues, especially those involving war and nuclear power, are best left up to men. But women are affected by wars even if they do not create them.
Look to the Women for Courage: Stories from the Seneca Encampment for Peace and Justice (USA)
Slideshow, 42 min., color, in English
Made by Joan Biren (JEB), Washington Peace Center
Distributor: Washington Peace Center (USA)
The presentation brings us the power and determination of the thousands of women who participated in the nonviolent direct actions of the encampment. It also shows us the anger, fear, elation, and celebration. There are sections on the organizational functioning of the encampment as well as the threat posed by the increasing arms build-up. It includes civil disobedience actions at the camp.
Dark Circle (USA)
Film, 16 mm, 82 min., color, in English
Made by Judy Irving and Chris Beaver
Distributor: Independent Documentary Group (USA)
A contemporary portrait of the nuclear age, told through the lives of those directly affected. The film interweaves dramatic personal stories with recently declassified footage of the secret world in which the hydrogen bomb is manufactured, tested and sold.
SEE ALSO
Other resources that address the themes of this chapter are listed below. The chapters where they may be found are given in boldface type.
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Migrant and Refugees
Women Under Siege (USA)
ASIA
Women in Struggle
Women in Korea (USA)