Category Archives: Documentaries and Film

Maryknoll Sisters, El Salvador

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Murdered in El Salvador (clockwise from top left): Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford; lay missionary Jean Donovan; and Ursuline nun Dorothy Kazel.

On December 2, 1980, these four women joined the ranks of more than 75,000 people who were killed in El Salvador’s civil war (1979-1992). They are not saints, but I am categorizing them under “Saints and Soldiers” anyway for the confluence of their lives with American foreign policy and militarism. These Catholic women were beaten, raped and shot to death by an El Salvador government death squad. Of the five officers later found responsible for the rape and murder of these women, three were graduates of the School of the Americas, run by the U.S. military. The four men convicted of the crime later said that they were following orders from higher up, and a 1993 UN report concluded that there was a cover-up over the incident by top military and political officials in the country’s U.S.-backed regime.

An organization called School of Americas Watch has a list here of the notorious graduates from the School of the Americas and the death and terror they brought to the people of El Salvador. This is Part I of the documentary El Salvador and the School of the Americas narrated by Susan Sarandon.

The New York Times reported earlier this year that the US Justice Department ordered the deportation of retired General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova to El Salvador, due to his role in the rape and murder of Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Sister Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan.

Maryknoll Sisters President Janice McLaughlin, MM said, “We are grateful to all those who persevered in obtaining justice in this case. Perhaps it can bring closure and healing to the thousands of Salvadorans who lost loved ones during the conflict, knowing that one of the senior persons behind the bloodshed will be called to give an account. A culture of impunity may be at an end in Salvador, but also in the United States because we were also complicit in the violence that took place in El Salvador in those years of civil war. We armed and trained the army, but also we gave asylum to some of the perpetrators of the violence, including General Casanova and he’s lived here comfortably until now.”

In the weeks before she died, Jean Donovan wrote a friend:

“The Peace Corps left today and my heart sank low. The danger is extreme and they were right to leave… Now I must assess my own position, because I am not up for suicide. Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I almost could, except for the children, the poor, bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? Whose heart could be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and loneliness? Not mine, dear friend, not mine.”

Here is a brief reflection written by 92-year-old Sister Madeleine Dorsey, who knew these incredible women.

Ghosts of Jeju (documentary)

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A documentary about the struggle of the people of Jeju Island, South Korea, who are opposing the military advance of the United States, just as their parents and relatives did in 1947. They are being arrested, jailed, fined, and hospitalized for nonviolently resisting the construction of a massive naval base that will accommodate America’s “pivot to Asia,” and will destroy their 400 year old village and their UNESCO protected environment.

 

Nightly candlelight vigil. (Photo credit: Korean Quarterly)

With careful attention to detail and chronology, Tremblay lays out the case justifying the Gangjeong villagers’ fervent protest against yet another military oppression of their island, highlighting the role of the anti-base activists, including many Korean Catholic priests and nuns, ordinary Korean people, and activists from many other countries. He also explains the endangered marine life on rare coral reefs now being dredged out of existence, and the villagers’ simple and sustainable lifestyle that will be lost once the base is built…

Tremblay was still in the early stages of learning about Jeju history when he was on the island to film the protests in 2012. He described how he was told by several people how he would not really understand the history until he visited the April 3 Museum, which documents a massacre that took the lives of thousands of Jeju Islanders. The massacre occurred starting on that date in 1948, in response to an uprising of the people there, and the oppression and genocide continued in several incidents until 1950. The uprising was then characterized by the government as a Communist plot; it is now seen as simply a peasant rebellion.

The cruelty of that massacre, during which over 30,000 women, children, and elderly people were shot down and villages were burned, is seared into the cultural memory of that place. The leadership of the Korean military by the U.S. military at that time is documented in detail in the museum exhibits.

Ghosts of Jeju: The history behind the resistance to a naval base on Korea’s island of peace | Twin Cities Daily Planet

Here is another article from The Heights at Boston College: Chomsky, Activists Protest Base on Jeju Island

From Christian Soldier to Christian

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TEDGlobal 2009

emmanuel_jal-211x300In the mid-1980s, Emmanuel Jal was a seven year old Sudanese boy, living in a small village with his parents, aunts, uncles, and siblings. But as Sudan’s civil war moved closer—with the Islamic government seizing tribal lands for water, oil, and other resources—Jal’s family moved again and again, seeking peace. Then, on one terrible day, Jal was separated from his mother, and later learned she had been killed; his father Simon rose to become a powerful commander in the Christian Sudanese Liberation Army, fighting for the freedom of Sudan. Soon, Jal was conscripted into that army, one of 10,000 child soldiers, and fought through two separate civil wars over nearly a decade.

But, remarkably, Jal survived, and his life began to change when he was adopted by a British aid worker. He began the journey that would lead him to change his name and to music: recording and releasing his own album, which produced the number one hip-hop single in Kenya, and from there went on to perform with Moby, Bono, Peter Gabriel, and other international music stars.  Shocking, inspiring, and finally hopeful, War Child is a memoir by a unique young man, who is determined to tell his story and in so doing bring peace to his homeland.

from War Child: A Child’s Story

“I didn’t know what the war was for…but I went to my training and I wanted to kills as many Muslims and Arabs as possible. I wanted revenge for my family and revenge for my village. Luckily now things have changed because I came to discover the truth. What was actually killing us wasn’t the Muslims, wasn’t the Arabs. It was somebody sitting somewhere manipulating the system and using religion to get what they wanted to get out of us, which was the oil, the diamond, the gold and the land.” Emmanuel Jal.

Listen to his TED Talk here! Emmanuel Jal: The music of a war child | Video on TED.com

“Music is My Weapon of Choice,” The Telegraph, Feb. 28, 2009

The documentary: War Child

war-child

 

Poster Girl now on Netflix

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I had the pleasure of meeting Robynn Murray, the subject of this documentary, almost exactly three years ago. I was living in a community in Western Massachusetts and we were hosting a weekend event on peace. Murray was one of the speakers. About 50 college students were staying in the retreat house that weekend, and they were unloading from cars and vans, five, ten, fifteen at a time, all throughout the night on Friday. My job was to receive them, get them settled in.

She showed up on the porch, very late, maybe close to two a.m., with a friend. I invited them in, groggily, and showed them one of the free spaces left on the floor where they could possibly find enough room to unroll their sleeping bags. They dropped their things, and she asked if she could have some water. We stepped back over the snoring bodies, headed to the kitchen and started chatting, in whispers so as not to wake anyone up. I asked which college she was from.

“I’m not in college.” She said, “I’m Robynn Murray. I’m speaking tomorrow.”

I couldn’t believe it. She looked no different than the kids that had been showing up all night, except with maybe a few more piercings. Of course I apologized and explained that she would be staying in my room on the top floor: there was no way I was going to make her sleep on the floor! She would have the room to herself. She shrugged, like, “Okay. Whatever.”

Poster Girl, 2010

Poster Girl, 2010

Her speech the next day was raw, brave, and powerful. She focused a lot on the lies she was told by her recruiter, and she told stories of not just hardship, but regret and disillusion. I have been trying to view the documentary, Poster Girl, for three years, and last night, I saw it on Netflix. It did not disappoint.

While watching it, I couldn’t stop thinking about how young she was when she was in Iraq. A few years ago, when The Hunger Games was getting popular, parents were freaking out because it was about children, children!, killing each other. But the main characters in that book are 15, 16, 17 years old. Is there really that much of a difference between a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old?

 

Joshua Casteel (1979-2012)

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Be careful, ladies. You might fall in love. And sadly, he’s gone.

Let’s redefine our idea of a “hero.” This man was a graduate of West Point and an interrogator at Abu Ghraib, before he converted to Catholicism and became a conscientious objector. He also wrote a book, Letters from Abu Ghraib.

Once a soldier, now he’s fighting Caesar | National Catholic Reporter.

▶ The Invisible War

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An important documentary about the epidemic of rape and sexual assault in the military. This should be required viewing for every woman considering enlistment.

It is interesting to hear these women speak about their reasons for joining the military, whether because military service was a proud family legacy, they had a desire to leave their small towns and see the world, or the opportunity  gave them a chance to challenge themselves mentally and physically. Many of them said that they loved being in the military; it was only their sexual assault that tarnished the experience. It is a good reminder that each one of us wants to “be all we can be,” to live a life that is in some way heroic. That impulse and desire should always be applauded; it is part of what makes us human.

WWW.NOTINVISIBLE.ORG