A narrative film challenging the official story of 9/11 premiered in Los Angeles in January and continues to show on weekends, including President's Day. This film is a damning look at the media's coverage of 9/11, propaganda, and a piercing look at the complex search for truth. The Reflecting Pool--a narrative film that recently premiered in Los Angeles-- opens with a television interview of a journalist who has just written a book on Communist propaganda in the Soviet Union.

The journalist, Alex Prokop, is asked by his editor to review a video about September 11th and write an article comparing the official narrative--as expressed in the 9/11 Commission Report--to the facts about the event. Guided in his task by Paul Cooper, the father of one of the victims who has become an ardent researcher on the topic, Prokop spends two weeks in New York and Washington D.C., interviewing people and discovering damning information never mentioned in the 9/11 Report. The FBI becomes involved, and Prokop is attacked by a lawsuit and the media in an effort to discredit his story. From the newswire: The Reflecting Pool by Carol Brouillet

Since the late 1990s, activist Reverend Billy has been using his “surreal inventiveness” to raise awareness about the consequences of modern consumerism—including, among other things, the destruction of communities and products made with sweatshop labor.

The Reverend was created shortly after actor Billy witnessed his home, Time Square, being “turned into a mall." As he recalls: "Disney was signing this amazing Manifest Destiny deal to evict small vendors, and police were picking up anybody who didn’t look as if they were in possession of a credit card. And that was happening before my eyes. . . . I had to ask myself: 'Who’s shouting here? Who’s really getting out there raising their voice a little bit?’ It was the sidewalk preachers."

From the newswire: "What Would Jesus Buy?" (review) by R. Plesset

July 20, 2007: On Friday night, Neighbors for Peace & Justice presented Red Hill, a student project from the Echo Park Film Center about the history of activism in Echo Park. (The film is described here on page 10: Epian Ways. ) In all, at least 70 people were present. Many veteran activists attended as well as newer activists.

Echo Park became known as Red Hill (as well as Red Gulch, Mt. Moscow, and Lenin’s Hill) in the 1940s because of the large concentration of activists, including communists. Jean Torre of Neighbors for Peace & Justice introduced the movie and facilitated a discussion afterwards. Full story: High Turnout for "Red Hill" Screening by RP

In December 2001, faced with a collapsing economy and a government that failed to respond to the people’s needs, Argentina exploded into massive protests. What we saw were the four successive presidents thrown out of power, dramatic roadblocks called piquetes, and the masked protesters who organized them. But behind some of the piquetes lay an intricate network of neighborhood organizations that had as their ultimate goal autonomy and self-sufficiency for their community.

This video is a compilation of interviews and visits with four Unemployed Workers’ Movements of Argentina. Come hear about their projects: everything from bakeries and soup kitchens to organic farms and gardens, even their own schools and neighborhood health centers. And listen to the organizers discuss their operating principles—autonomy, horizontal decision-making and direct democracy—and the day-to-day challenges they face.

LOS ANGELES, August 31, 2006 - A public hearing with two of the five commissioners of the FCC was held Thursday this past week on the USC campus. This was the first of six such hearings to be held around the country. The hearing was presented by the Latino Media Council in partnership with Media Alliance and Free Press. The focus of the hearing was diversity in the media and media ownership. After opening remarks by the two commissioners the public was able to address the commissioners. All speakers were united in their opposition to any further consolidation of media ownership.

Full report with mp3 audio: Report Back: FCC Public Hearing on Media Ownership

"This is just too good a story not to share. Obviously, the corporate media here has not been interested in telling this tale, as it could give people ...ideas. This story, from Narco News, shares the inspiring story of women who took matters into their own hands when their government oppressed them and the corporate media refused to tell the tale. Banging on pots and pans, they took over Channel 9, ousted the staff, occupied the station themselves, and began broadcasting, for the first time, the TRUTH. More...

"Mercenaries 2: World in Flames," created by Los Angeles based [Pandemic]/[Bioware Studios], simulates a mercenary invasion of Venezuela in the year 2007. Pandemic is a subcontractor for the US Army and CIA funded Institute for Creative Technologies, which uses Hollywood techniques to mount war simulations in California's high desert in order to conduct military training. "Mercenaries 2: World in Flames" simulates destruction in downtown Caracas, and promises to leave no part of Venezuela untouched.

U2's Bono, well recognized for his campaigns to reduce poverty and treat AIDS in Africa is backing a videogame which promotes the invasion and destruction of Venezuela in order to check "a power hungry tyrant" who has "seized control of Venezuela and her oil supply." Bono has failed to respond to concerns raised by the Venezuelan Solidarity Network about his funding of this project.

"Mercenaries 2: World in Flames," created by Los Angeles based Pandemic/Bioware Studios, simulates a mercenary invasion of Venezuela in the year 2007. Pandemic is a subcontractor for the US Army and CIA funded Institute for Creative Technologies, which uses Hollywood techniques to mount war simulations in California's high desert in order to conduct military training. ...
Full report: LA Based Pandemic Studios Creates Videogame with Venezuela Invasion Theme by Venezuela Solidarity Network

HOLLYWOOD -- Underneath a [Disney] marquee promoting “pirates”, The Mexica Movement, an Indigenous Rights Educational Organization, called for an immediate international boycott against The Walt Disney Company and all of its holdings. The announcement was made in front of Disney’s El Capitan Theater on Hollywood Boulevard before local media (including a Fox affiliate from Hong Kong which later broadcast the story across China).

The Mexica Movement is launching this boycott because Disney employs talk show hosts PAUL HARVEY and DOUG MCINTYRE, who have spread the Minutemen/SOS white supremacist agenda against the Mexican and Central American communities in the United States. (Mexican and “Central American” descent people are in their vast majority an Indigenous people, both Full-blood and Mixed-blood). ...
Full report: MEXICA MOVEMENT LAUNCHES DISNEY BOYCOTT by John Q Public

John Earl of the OC Organizer website, a lighting rod of activist news in OC, has sent a call out for interns to work at this new venturem OC Voice. Their publication will be supported by ads, and they are looking for ad sales interns. They are also looking for reporters.