[BES Friends] Afghan film

[peaceethics at comcast.net]

Those of you who missed the presentation at BES on Jan. 30 about Afghanistan as well as those of you who braved the snow and attended may want to attend the following event:

Don’t forget Afghanistan!
Documentary screening and discussion with the filmmaker

Come watch…
“Taliban Country”

-- Catalyst for two US military investigations --
-- The only independent documentary of US military activity in S. Afghanistan --
-- Winner of the Walkley Prize and recognized at the Int’l Festival of Biarritz --

… and hear Carmela Baranowska, the award-winning filmmaker from Melbourne Australia, talk about her work and what she found documenting U.S. military activity in Afghanistan

Wednesday, February 9th 2005
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Stony Run Friends Meeting
5116 North Charles Street, Baltimore
Questions or more information, contact Alicia at aluckste at psych.umaryland.edu or 410/235-0186

Afghan handcrafts for sale to benefit the Afghan Women’s Fund empowerment projects in Afghanistan!  (cash, check, credit accepted)

Sponsored By: 
The Afghan Women’s Fund
Phil Berrigan Memorial Baltimore Chapter of Veterans for Peace. 
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Baltimore Branch.
and hosted by the Stony Run Friends Meeting

Carmela Baranowska’s (partial) description of the film and its story:
       For three weeks in May/June 2004 I am embedded with eight hundred US Marines, in one of the most remote and dangerous parts of Afghanistan. The UN and aid agencies do not work here. The US Marines claim that they are "hunting Taliban and Al-Qaida". They work alongside local warlord and governor Jan Mohammad whose brutal militia controls the area from where 80% of the heroin reaching Europe originates.  I live in a city of one man tents. I sleep on rocks in a desert. I eat MREs and travel with the US Marines on military and civil operations. I begin to feel extremely frustrated by the censorship I am experiencing.  I decide to travel back to Oruzgon Province independently of the US Marines and Afghan militia. During this time I am reported "missing" in early July. The source of reports of an abandoned vehicle & Taliban abduction of a Western woman has never been uncovered.   I am the only independent witness to document US operational areas in Afghanistan this year. What I find is that the US Marines act with impunity….. As a result of this program first airing on SBS TV "Dateline" both the US Army and US Marines have announced inquiries into the allegations. I am calling for an independent inquiry.  
For more info on the film:  http://www.walkleys.com/2004/winners/baranowska.htm