Episode Information

Laura Flanders & Friends - Third World Newsreel: Six Decades of Activist Media for Social Justice

It's almost unheard of for an independent media collective to survive as long as Third World Newsreel has. Since 1968, they have chronicled some of the most pivotal movements in human history and continue to expand on their collection of over 700 titles. There's lots to learn about how they've adapted through technological revolutions, political persecutions, philanthropic booms and busts -- and how the oldest media arts collective in the U.S. is making do in today's "media carnage", as Laura Flanders puts it. Joining us are JT Takagi, an independent filmmaker, sound recordist, and the longtime executive director of Third World Newsreel. Tami Gold is an artist and activist whose documentaries grapple with everything from imperialism to sex work. Her films include My Country Occupied, Another Brother and Land Rain Fire among many more. Puerto Rican-born Juan Carlos Davila works in film as well as TV, where he reports on social movements around environmentalism, militarism and the struggles of the working class on the island. His films include The Stand-By Generation, Viequez: An Endless Battle and Drills of Liberation. Join us as we look at the past, present and future of Third World Newsreel and ask how film can be used as a tool for organizing. "I'd say we feel more urgent now than ever before. Every day there's something happening that makes it clear that our rights and liberties, and people's lives all over the world are at stake. Not being in touch with the history and media that shows the truth of what's going on is really decimating people's ability to, as Juan said, know what to follow and what to do." - JT Takagi "We need to retake the theater, the physical space that is being ignored by the corporations. Perhaps now that is the opportunity that we have . . . A theater is being rented by people who are organizers, and they're using their collective spirit and know-how to organize huge, huge crowds to come." - Tami Gold. "People can shoot stuff with the phone . . . I see a lot in Puerto Rico that people are still wanting to produce with the corporate industry standards. Many young filmmakers like myself tend to think that we need so many personnel to be doing films. Right now we can actually make films with less." - Juan Carlos Davila. Guests: Juan Carlos Davila: Documentary Filmmaker, Multimedia Journalist, Puerto Rico Correspondent, Democracy Now!; Tami Gold: Filmmaker, Artist, Activist; JT Takagi: Executive Director, Third World Newsreel.

Series Website: https://www.lauraflanders.org

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11.33/1 6:00 am