S10.E7 ∙ Land Inceptions

An absurdist history of trade protectionism. Throughout history, our world has allowed simple misunderstandings, greed, and an all-consuming love of nachos to divide us. To succeed as a people, we must understand that our individual success is based on our collective success. More importantly, we must also understand that there are enough nachos for everyone.

AMERICA'S LONGEST WAR is a documentary about the extraordinary costs of the US government's 40-year war on drugs. Drug prohibition has failed. Drug usage rates have not declined, and illegal drugs are more available-and cheaper-than ever before. At the same time, the costs of the drug war are staggering. More than $1 trillion taxpayer dollars have been spent. More than 50,000 SWAT raids occur each year. Hundreds of thousands of non-violent drug offenders are wasting their lives away in prison at our expense. And more than 60,000 people have been murdered in Mexico over the past six years. AMERICA'S LONGEST WAR tells the stories of some of the victims of the drug war and, more importantly, points to a viable alternative approach to drug policy.

Before Iraq, before Afghanistan, the United States bombed Kosovo. 10 years later, the former Serbian province remains impoverished, ethnically fractured, and dependent on the international community. Two Summers in Kosovo is about what it means to live in a perpetual frozen conflict, a purgatory forgotten by the rest of the world. The film documents the lives of Kosovo Serbs and Albanians six months before and six months after last year's declaration of independence. In 2007, the film introduces us to six Kosovo Albanians and five Kosovo Serbs. Through the lives of these 11 subjects, the film explores Kosovo's segregated education system and entrenched political corruption, its refugee centers and ethnic enclaves, and finally, the international 'nation building' projects and folly at the center of it all. The second part of the film takes place in the summer of 2008, where we rejoin our subjects six months after Kosovo's Albanians unilaterally declare independence from Serbia. Through the fog of transition, the film's characters emerge, deeply shaken by the terror of their actuality. Their plights have worsened. So little has changed, so few promises have been delivered. Now each character, regardless of their ethnicity, is faced with a dire question: can they survive in Kosovo without hope?

The documentary 'Young Syrian Lenses' was born from the meeting of two authors Ruben Lagattolla and Filippo Biagianti. Ruben Lagattolla, in May 2014 managed to enter Syria from the Turkish border. Once across the border with the support of some media Syrian activists, the group manages to reach Aleppo. The intent is to film the activities of the guys working in the information network and document their work of photographers. This opportunity is offered by the fact that the network of media activists in Aleppo has plans to organize a photo exhibition / event to witness the tragic incidents that occur every day in Aleppo free, under siege of the regime of Bashar al Assad, almost four years. The photo exhibition will never be realized, the school where they were to be exposed photos is bombed and destroyed a few days before the arrival of Italian photographers. The documentary was filmed in Aleppo between April 30 and May 9, 2014. Once in Italy Lagattolla seeks help for the production and edit of the documentary. So he began to collaborate with Filippo Biagianti, a journalist videomaker of Urbino, who directed with Ruben the editing of the film. The project 'Young Syrian Lenses' was carried out and concluded with no budget, in a totally independent and voluntary way. Of critical importance was the extraordinary work of reportage done by Lagattolla during the days he spent in Aleppo.

How does a nation slip into war? Dateline-Saigon profiles the controversial reporting of five Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists -The New York Times' David Halberstam, the Associated Press' Malcolm Browne, Peter Arnett, and legendary photojournalist Horst Faas, and UPI's Neil Sheehan -- during the early years of the Vietnam War as President John F. Kennedy is secretly committing US troops to what is initially dismissed by some as 'a nice little war in a land of tigers and elephants.' 'When the government is telling the truth, reporters become a relatively unimportant conduit to what is happening,' Halberstam tells us. 'But when the government doesn't tell the truth, begins to twist the truth, hide the truth, then the journalist becomes involuntarily infinitely more important.'

Thirteen years, two inspiring women, both radical activists-one conversation. MOUNTAINS THAT TAKE WING is a historically rich and unique documentary about two formidable women who share a profound passion for justice. Through conversations that are intimate and profound, we learn about Davis, an internationally renowned scholar, writer and activist, and 88-year-old Kochiyama, a revered grassroots community activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Their shared experience as political prisoners and their dedication to Civil Rights embody personal and political experiences as well as the diverse lives of women doing liberatory cultural work. Illustrated with rarely-seen photographs and footage of extraordinary speeches and events from the early 1900s to the '60s and through the present, the topics of this rich conversation range from critical, but often forgotten role of women in 20th century social movements to the importance of cross-cultural/cross-racial alliances; from America's WWII internment camps to Japan's "Comfort Women"; from Malcolm X to the prison industrial complex; and from war to cultural arts. Davis and Kochiyama's comments offer critical lessons for understanding our nation's most important social movements while providing tremendous hope for its youth and the future. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by EMRO. DISTRIBUTED by WOMEN MAKE MOVIES: http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c796.shtml