Iconmedia Documentaries and Videos

These are a selection of documentaries and videos produced by Iconmedia

DRIVING SPRAWL
DVD / 20 minutes
A 20-minute documentary about Advanced Micro Devices' move to the Barton Springs watershed.
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Dennis Kucinich Speaks To Greens
VHS / 26:10
Dennis Kucinich spoke at the Campus Green's Super Rally on Aug. 9, 2003, as part of their weekend-long national conference. Kucinich, a Democratic candidate for President, introduced himself as a "Green Democrat." He said the fundamental question of our time is whether war is inevitable, adding that it is only through thinking in terms of "us versus them" that creates the mindset for war, and Green politics has a more holistic view which seeks to unite, not divide the world.

Kucinich spoke about the special role students have in shaping public opinion and inspiring larger societal change. He said that on college campuses students need to rekindle the effort to stop the nuclear arms race now being pushed by the Bush administration. He said that right now there's a clear need for teach-ins "to shake the consciousness of America" and "to wake this country up."

Anti-Redistricting Rally
VHS / 82:20
Dubbed the "Enough Is Enough" rally, Democrats and supporters of democratic principles from all over Texas converged on Austin Aug. 9 for a rally against the Republican's attempts to re-draw Congressional lines and to support the Texas 11, eleven Texas Democratic State Senators who went to New Mexico to block a redistricting vote.

Busloads of Texans came to Austin from Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and the Valley. Family members of each of the Texas 11 spoke to the thousands gathered, and then over the phone, the eleven Senators spoke as well.The video documents the pre-rally gathering at Waterloo Park and the speeches delivered in front of the Texas state capitol.

The Machinist Strike At Lockheed Martin
VHS / 26:45
Iconmedia produced a video documenting the April 2003 strike by workers at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, Texas - the facility which manufacturers fighter jets for the U.S. Air Force and foreign militaries.

The Machinist Strike At Lockheed Martin represents the views of union leaders and members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District Lodge 776 who went on strike for 2 weeks in April.

By a wide margin union members rejected Lockheed Martin’s original contract offer that attempted to push more healthcare costs onto the workers, at a time when the company was making record profits on its defense contracts.

The 27-minute documentary speaks to a trend of labor fighting back against regressive contracts and to the problem of healthcare coverage in America. It screened locally in Austin, was broadcast on TV in San Francisco as part of Laborfest, and broadcast on TV in Philadelphia and Austin.

The Texas AFL-CIO and the Central Labor Council of Travis County contributed to the production of this documentary. The Machinist Strike At Lockheed Martin was shot on miniDV by Stefan Wray. Pam Thompson conducted the interviews. Both were involved with editing and post-production.

Howard Dean At Saltillo Plaza
VHS / 29:20
On June 9, 2003 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean visited Austin and spoke to an estimated crowd of 3,200 supporters Event organizers said that at this early stage in the game, that many people coming out for a candidate was unusual. Dean gained support among some for his criticisms of Bush's war with Iraq and he has garnered lots of supporters through the use of the Internet.

This video is not just Dean's speech. In this half-hour piece we interviewed Dean supporters about why they feel Dean is a better presidential hopeful than any of the other contenders.

Austin Texas Rallies For Peace
VHS / 26:00 minutes
This 26-minute video documents Austin action the day after war with Iraq started. It includes the Guadalupe St. lockdown near the University of Texas, the march to the Capitol, the Capitol speakout, the Congress St. march, the Bridge sit-in, arrests, and the last releases from Jail.

Iconmedia documented unprovoked police use of pepper spray on a peaceful protest. See the Austin IMC web site. Iconmedia submitted these images to city officials who met with the Austin Police Department on March 24 to urge restraint. The City of Austin is officially opposed to the war with Iraq.

The shorts are a series of outtakes from a number of pro-peace and anti-war protests that took place in Austin after March 20. The last short is a 15-minute segment about Computer Science Corporation's merger with Dyncorp.

DEFYING GRAVITY
Texans Take On Longhorn Pipeline
VHS / 59:00
In DEFYING GRAVITY, Texans from El Paso to Houston reveal the dangers of the Longhorn Pipeline. The new owners of the old Exxon crude oil line plan to pump gasoline through urban neighborhoods and across sensitive watersheds in a pipe known to leak and spill.

DEFYING GRAVITY features Texas ranchers, homeowners, lawyers, environmentalists, and experts opposed to the conversion of this 52-year-old pipeline from one that until 1995 carried crude oil downhill to Houston to one that will carry petroleum products uphill under pressure to El Paso.

DEFYING GRAVITY premiered at the Alamo Drafthouse, an independent theater in Austin on Feb. 15, 2003. It was screened at the Rice Media Center in Houston on April 10. It has been broadcast repeatedly on cable access TV in Austin and has been submitted to film festivals.

DEFYING GRAVITY was shot with a digital video camera on miniDV tape between February and September 2002. It was edited on a PowerMac G4 between September and December 2002. A director's cut (88 min.) was completed in January 2003. A 59 minute version is now available. It was filmed in Houston, Austin, The Hill Country, West Texas, and El Paso.

Noam Chomsky in Austin Texas
VHS / 80:27 minutes
On the weekend of Oct. 19 and 20, 2002, Dr. Noam Chomsky, world renown linguist and critic of U.S. foreign policy, visited Austin for the first time in 20 years. He came originally at the request of the Texas Civil Rights Project to speak at its annual fundraiser dinner.

But while in Austin, Noam Chomsky spoke at other venues including a student conference on fair trade, a discussion hosted by UT's Linguistics Department, with community activists in East Austin, and on Sunday, Oct. 20 at UT's LBJ auditorium.

This 80 minute video includes an introduction by Rahul Mahajan, followed by Chomsky's Oct. 20 talk which focused largely on the war on terrorism and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

United We Stand Against War:
Voices For Peace and Justice
VHS / 59:41 minutes
Iconmedia produced a video called “United We Stand Against War: Voices for Peace and Justice” which documents a series of national demonstrations and events in Washington, DC between April 19 and 22, 2002.

Nearly 100 voices are represented in the one-hour program, which covers the April 19 Global Intifada Conference, the April 20 national anti-war march and rally, the April 21 and 22 Colombia Mobilization festival and civil disobedience action, and the April 22 demonstration against U.S. support for Israel.

Billed as a national march against Bush’s endless war on terrorism, the April 20 demonstration - which drew between 75,000 and 100,000 people - also ended up being the largest pro-Palestinian solidarity demonstration in U.S. history.

Iconmedia’s two-person team, award-winning videographers and Free Speech TV reporters Pam Thompson and Stefan Wray, conducted interviews with a range of people including students, union leaders, peace activists, global justice advocates, constitutional attorneys, policy analysts, religious figures, and retired workers - all of whom oppose the Bush administration’s approach to combatting terrorism and long for a new direction in U.S. foreign policy.

Among the people featured in the video are: Amy Goodman, Democracy Now; Clarence Thomas, International Longshore and Warehouse Union; Darrell Rogers, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy; Erica Smiley, Black Radical Congress & National Youth and Student Peace Coalition; Gail Taylor, SOA Watch; Javier Correa, Colombia’s National Food Workers Union; Kevin Martin, Peace Action; Leah Harris, Jews for Peace; Mark Lance, SUSTAIN; Martin Luther King III, Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange Founding Director; Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights; Njoki Njoroge Njehu, 50 Years is Enough Network; Peter Shaw, Veterans for Peace; Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies; Rafeef Ziadah, Sabra and Chatilla massacre survivor; Rania Masri, Institute for Southern Studies; Rep. Janice D Schakowsky, U.S. House of Representatives; Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, United Church of Christ; Roberto Perez, President U’WA Traditional Authority; Ron Daniels, Center for Constitutional Rights; Sandra Alvarez, Global Exchange; Sanho Tree, Institute for Policy Studies; Tariq Ali, Pakistani British Writer; Tony Murphy, A.N.S.W.E.R.; and Vernon Bellecourt, American Indian Movement.

Crawford Texas Rally For Peace
And Justice in Palestine and Iraq
VHS / 59:59 minutes
While George W. Bush met with Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair in Crawford, Texas, people from around Texas converged on the small town for an April 6 Rally for Peace and Justice in Palestine and Iraq. The video chronicles the days events that began with a news conference and other preparations in Waco. Between 1200 and 2000 people rallied in Crawford's football stadium. The rally was organized by the Dallas Peace Center and other north Texas groups. It was initially called in anticipation of a joint Bush-Blair statement on war with Iraq. But the focus shifted to include opposing Israeli's recent incursions into Palestinian terrority. The Arab-American community in Dallas and the rest of Texas mobilized in a big way to bring this many people to Crawford. According to the police chief, the largest previous protest in Crawford - where Bush has a ranch nearby - was 35 people.

Rolling Thunder Austin Texas
VHS / 58:42 minutes
At the Rolling Thunder kick-off event in Austin Texas on March 23, ICONMEDIA spent a lot of time talking to many of the local activist groups that had set up information tables. This video begins with a wonderful theater piece about the shredding of democracy performed at the Rolling Thunder news conference on March 22 at the AFL-CIO in downtown Austin. It moves into Hightower and Ivin's opening remarks. The rest of the video is a series of short interviews with OVER 50 people tabling that day - from Cine Las Americas and Campaigns for People to the Yellow Bike Project and the Youth Liberation Network.

Michael Moore
VHS / 53:10 minutes
Michael Moore was one of the featured national speakers at the Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tour here in Austin on March 23, 2002. He told the amazing story of his new book "Stupid White Men" - once slated to be pulped and now on the top of the charts. He also took the opportunity - while in Texas - to blast George W. Bush and put aside any illusions that this selected president has majority support. Part of his program for political action is for us to quit complaining about media monopolization and to start our own media outlets.

Taking on TEX DOT
VHS / 29:55 minutes
Robin Schneider of the Texas Campaign for the Environment and others counter the Texas Department of Transportation's public relations campaign by pointing out the hypocrisy in that agency's request that motorists reduce emissions. TEX DOT itself is responsible for deisel emissions that foul the air. The video captures Schneider interrupting an official news conference and demanding an answer from TEX DOT as to when they will clean up their fleet of deisel vehicles.

"Granny D" and Clean Campaigns
VHS / 30:00 minutes
"Granny D" came to Austin for the Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tour and spoke on Friday, March 22, 2002, at an event for Clean Campaigns for Austin. She tells the story of how she came to walk across the country for campaign finance reform and about recent victories nation-wide. She put in a good word for Austin's clean campaign initiave that will be before voters on May 4. Speaking along with "Granny D" and featured in the video are Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, Fred Lewis of Campaigns for People, Craig Smith of the Save Barton Creek Association, John Williams of Austin Area Interreligious Ministries, and Lesley Ramsey, a Green Party candidate for the State Board of Education, District 10.

Face The Music Festival
VHS / 38:09 minutes
In December 2001, Travis County Sheriff Dept. officers shot and killed Tony Martinez during a pre-dawn drug raid in Austin. Tony had been asleep on the couch and was unarmed. On March 3, 2002, the Anti-Prohibition Coalition, the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, the ACLU, the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) and a number of excellent bands from around Texas joined forces for a Face The Music Festival # 1 that raised money for Tony's family and raised awareness about the horrible consequences of an out-of-control drug policy. The video includes the keynote speakers - Ann Del Llano (ACLU), Craig Schroer (DPFT), and Jim Harrington (TCRP) - and segments from all the performers.

Pipeline Action
VHS / 25:28 minutes
Members of the Austin Safe Pipeline Coalition, Save Barton Creek Association, Texas Campaign for the Environment, Edwards Aquifer Conservation District, and candidates for Austin City Council and U.S. Congress, along with residents who live near the Longhorn Pipeline, speak out about why the pipeline should be rerouted and not be allowed to transport gasoline through urban neighborhoods and over environmentally sensitive watersheds.

The War On Terrorism and Its Effect on Immigrants
VHS / 57:40 minutes
Four speakers - Mohammed Malley of the Islamic Center of Greater Austin, Corina Farias, an attorney with the Political Asylum Project of Austin, Dina Ibrahim, a journalism doctoral student and former BBC reporter, and Sahar Aziz, with an M.A. in Middle Eastern studies and a Law degree - address the subject of the War on Terrorism and its Effects on Immigrants at a teach-in sponsored by Austin Against War on Feb. 20, 2002 at the University of Texas.

Ralph Nader Speaking In Austin
VHS / 59:40 minutes
A complete video recording of Ralph Nader's one hour speech at the Nader Super Rally held in Austin on January 26, 2002.


Talking With Austin Activists
VHS / 56:26 minutes
A compilation of short interviews with representatives from 38 of the more than 100 activist groups which participated in the Nader Super Rally held in Austin on January 26, 2002.

No To The FTAA VHS / 22:35 minutes
On April 20, 2001, while thousands of people from across North America converged on Quebec to resist the Summit of the Americas where leaders from this hemisphere's nations were negotiating the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement, people in Austin gathered for an anti-corporate crawl through downtown, passing by media and financial giants, and for an anti-FTAA rally at the State Capitol. This video includes footage from these events as well as from an FTTA teach-in.