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Voices, Images, and Hearts: Celebrating global solidarity

By Kerri Meulemans

The Barrymore Theatre, 2090 Atwood Ave., recently hosted "Voices, Images, and Hearts: Celebrating Solidarity from Latin America to the Middle East.” Part of the sixth annual Cinefest, the event featured an evening of solidarity films and ethnic food aimed at promoting cultural utility, unity, and togetherness. Special appearances were made by directors Saul and Greg Landau, renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler, and rapper "The Iron Sheik.” The event was a benefit for the Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua, Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP), and Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project (MASCP).

The evening’s events and screenings spoke to the basic idea of “sistering,” the foundational core of the event’s sponsoring organizations. Barb Olson of MRSCP and Marc Rosenthal  of MASCP define sistering thus: “At its most basic level, sistering is simply people-to-people organizing at the community grassroots. Sister cities develop relationships that are in themselves valuable, allowing people from widely varying parts of the globe to meet and exchange ideas and experiences in affirmation of our common humanity.  

“Even more importantly, sistering opens up a window of opportunity to humanize, support, and learn from people who are resisting oppression and struggling to build a better future for this planet.”

The evening began with a reception and social hour where Arabic and Latin American food were available for purchase. Attendees had the opportunity to sample ethnic delicacies, network, and celebrate their individual diversities among friends.

The evening’s entertainment kicked off with the showing of a documentary titled “The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas,” directed by Saul Landau in 1996. The documentary honed in on the recent history of the relationship between the Mexican government and the Mayan Indians.

Just before dawn on New Years’ Day 1994, armed Mayan Indians declared war on the Mexican government. They seized eight towns in the province of Chiapas and set the stage for the decentralization of prosperity and stability in the country, all in the name of unveiling “the other Mexico.” Calling themselves the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), the brigade demanded land, public services, and Indian autonomy. The documentary film featured in-depth interviews with people from EZLN and others involved in the conflict and examined issues surrounding global and domestic economic integration.

With global and domestic economic integration now at the forefront of our own nation’s economic and political agenda, this documentary illuminated the vitality of the causes and consequences of global and domestic separation and spoke to the historical implications of sistering.

“Together, as organized groups on the local, national and international levels, sister cities seek to build globalization from the grassroots. Historically, sistering helped to save lives and bring an end to war in Central America. We are convinced that it can play a similar role in what has now become the flashpoint of world crisis, the Middle East, and forge a new global model for economic development based on human and environmental needs,” Olson and Rosenthal stated.

 The evening then turned to examining another part of the world with the screening of “Syria: Between Iraq and a Hard Place,” directed by Saul Landau, Sonia Angulo, and Farrah Hassen in 2004. Landau ushered in the Wisconsin premiere of this film, which examines present-day Syria. Syria is a country living in political and economic turmoil fueled by the tension of maintaining centuries-old traditions in the face of modern culture and economics, the aftermath of the war in 1973, and the decline in U.S.-Syrian relations since the War in Iraq.

The film’s context is especially relevant, given the recent assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri last month. Syrian military forces are suspected in the attack. This, coupled with unwanted Syrian military presence in Lebanon, provoked an upsurge in anti-Syrian sentiment, with the United States and France leading the international campaign against Syrian presence in Lebanon. Syria has long argued that it needs to retain troops in Lebanon because of Israel’s continued occupation of the Golan Heights, which were seized from Damascus in the 1967 Middle East war; but this claim falls on deaf ears in the international community.  

Meanwhile, President Bashar Al Assad is saying that peace in the Middle East will not be possible without the return of the Golan Heights currently possessed by Israel.  

“Peace in our region will never be achieved unless our land that is occupied is returned to us,” he said in a recent interview.  

Assad is also issuing a subtle caution to Iraqi leaders not to exclude any segment of society from the drafting of a permanent constitution that would be put in a referendum in October. “Otherwise, there will be a civil war and complete breakup of the country,” he said.

Assad again blatantly refuted U.S. and Iraqi accusations that Damascus was providing sanctuary to former members of Saddam Hussein’s regime or turning their backs to fighters slipping through the border into Iraq. In terms of sistering, this documentary speaks not only to the vitality of global and domestic stability, but also to international peace.

“Sistering works to challenge the structural injustice that underlies both the drive for war and the "ordinary" economic and political inequality between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots.’  It builds on the dignity and self-determination of both partners.  It is a model of dialogue, joint planning, and, above all, friendship between peoples that stands in sharp contrast to relations of dominance and exploitation,” said Olson and Rosenthal.

“Today, a ‘shooting’ war has erupted full-force in the Middle East, where violence is the daily price of the dual occupations of Palestine and Iraq, and reinvigorated ‘neo-con’ imperial ambitions threaten to expand the war to countries like Iran and Syria. Here, too, we hope sistering will play an important role in reaching out and humanizing those who are so often demonized, in order to justify what would otherwise be unacceptable.”

The evening concluded with “Rock Down Central America,” directed by Greg Landau, 1989. This musical documentary follows a Nicaraguan reggae band back to its original hometown. Filmed during the Sandinista revolution in 1988, it captured the cultural and political aspirations of the people of the Atlantic coast region of Nicaragua, accompanied by upbeat musical transitions and melodies.

“Historically, sistering with Latin American communities proved to be a successful way of organizing internationally around peace and justice issues.  It was an important part of the resistance to the Reagan-era wars against people's movements in places like El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. Sistering continued to be important as these struggles ceased to be ‘shooting wars’ and moved into the ‘neo-liberal’ era of economic and political warfare against the poor,” said Olson and Rosenthal.

Besides providing quality cultural entertainment, the evening was bound by a common thread: contemporary globalization and revolution at the grass-roots level. The evening sought to embrace global and cultural similarity and set aside differences. It spoke to the idea of sistering advocated by the evening’s sponsors.  The evening’s goal was not just to create awareness about the consequences of global and domestic segregation, but to provoke a sense of economic and political urgency that prompts ordinary citizens to take a second look at their own country’s international politics.