We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, April 27, 2012

Oblivion: manifesto for the OVNI festival in Barcelona

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Reflections of a Revolution. 

The article describes two films--The Mahabharata and La Commune, scheduled to be shown at this event in Barcelona in May--that serve to raise consciousness about the current state of affairs facing people all over the world. Cultural work that raises people's awareness of their power as well as their dire situations is critically important revolutionary work.
The Mahabharata...deals with conflict but rather than taking a historical approach it positions itself outside of history, outside of linear time. It plays out in mythical time, the time of constant return and of the dialectic tension between the oblivion and remembrance of true human nature.
La Commune offers a vision of contemporary conflict that transcends political oblivion. A cinematic reflection that looks back to a historical milestone – the emergence and disappearance of the 1871 Paris Commune and, at the same time, questions our own social reality and its representation in the media....