BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//The Sanctuary For Independent Media - ECPv6.17.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:The Sanctuary For Independent Media
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Sanctuary For Independent Media
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20070311T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20071104T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20080309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20081102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20090308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20091101T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080310T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080310T180000
DTSTAMP:20220404T161713Z
CREATED:20080310T164000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220404T161713Z
UID:10000892-1205168400-1205172000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:The Great "Virtual Jihad" Controversy with Wafaa Bilal
DESCRIPTION:The Sanctuary gives refuge to artist Wafaa Bilal after he is banned from the RPI Campus.  On Monday\, March 10\, Iraq-born video artist Wafaa Bilal will be on hand for a reception at 6 PM followed at 7 PM by a presentation about his installation Virtual Jihadi which was to have been displayed at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. The installation was scheduled to be open to the public through Friday\, March 15 from noon to 2 PM as well as before and after regularly scheduled events through April 4\, 2008. For full details\, watch this 22 minute video documentary about the controversy produced by the Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout the Controversy:\n\n\n\nThe exhibit was shut down–along with The Sanctuary for Independent Media itself–on trumped-up code violation charges by City of Troy officials on the morning of Tuesday\, March 11\, just minutes before the show was to open to the public. The Sanctuary remained closed until a grand re-opening celebration on April 26 capped off two months of fundraising and renovations. \n\n\n\nAnother version of this installation had opened on March 5\, 2008 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute but as reported by the Times Union it was abruptly closed the following day. Coverage of the controversy has spread around the country\, with stories appearing in the Washington Post\, Chicago Tribune and NY Newsday. Writing from Paris\, France cultural critic Brian Holmes offered his analysis of the art panic at RPI and Inside Higher Ed wrote about the episode in the broader context of campus censorship\, followed by another story when the show opened at the Sanctuary. \n\n\n\nA local Republican operative on the payroll of the City of Troy\, Rensselaer County and NY State called for protests at the Monday\, March 10 show opening at the Sanctuary in an article in the Troy Record. \n\n\n\nIn the widely marketed video game Quest for Saddam\, players fight stereotypical Iraqi foes and try to kill Saddam. Al Qaeda did its own take\, creating an online video game using the structure of Quest for Saddam but adding a new “skin” to turn the game into a hunt for Bush: The Night of Bush Capturing. Now artist Wafaa Bilal has hacked the Al Qaeda version of the game to put his own more nuanced spin on this epic conflict. \n\n\n\nIn The Night of Bush Capturing: A Virtual Jihadi\, Bilal casts himself as a suicide-bomber in the game. After learning of the real-life death of his brother in the war\, he is recruited by Al Qaeda to join the hunt for Bush. This work is meant to bring attention to the vulnerability of Iraqi civilians to the travesties of the current war and racist generalizations and stereotypes as exhibited in games such as Quest for Saddam\, along with vulnerability to recruitment by violent groups like Al Qaeda because of the U.S.’s failed strategy in securing Iraq. The work also aims to shed light on groups that traffic in crass and hateful stereotypes of Arab culture with games like Quest for Saddam and other media. \n\n\n\nWafaa Bilal was named 2007 Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune\, which wrote\, “No artwork created in Chicago in 2007 received as much attention as Wafaa Bilal’s ‘Domestic Tension\,’ an interactive performance piece that subjected the Iraqi-born artist to a month of bombardment by paintballs from Internet viewers.” \n\n\n\nAccording to Wafaa Bilal:\n\n\n\n“My art is most influenced by the pain and suffering of growing up under Sadaam Hussein’s repressive rule from 1968 to the recent “Iraqi Freedom War”. I experienced violence on a daily basis\, and visions of death and terror together with the anguish to the Iraqi people are irrevocably etched in my memory. My generation in Iraq is defined by decades of war. Since coming to the United States I have also seen great injustice and suffering in the forms of poverty\, racism\, and many other forms of discrimination and hatred. From this point of departure\, through art I strive to uncover an overarching human condition while creating a space for provocation\, dialogue\, and contemplation. As my friend and colleague Gregg Bordowitz has written\, when we are exposed to violence on a daily basis\, how can we\, as political artists\, convey this experience clearly to the viewer and leave a lasting impression that is fresh and solid in its conclusions\, not cliché? \n\n\n\nA constant negotiation must take place in order to embrace the aesthetic pleasure of the image’s surface\, which is so necessary to capture the imagination\, and to convey the aesthetic pain of the content. The failure of this negotiation can easily result in the alienation of the viewer\, while a successful negotiation may result in active engagement and an opening of the viewer’s perspective. While I do not wish to impose narrow interpretations of my work but struggle to create complex and muli-dimensional images\, I also do not feel we currently have the privilege to enjoy art purely as aesthetic pleasure. It is a misconception that art has ever been pure; historically it has been a means of expressing personal and societal realities and interpretations. We must actively employ the tension and incongruence produced by the coexistence of aesthetic pleasure and aesthetic pain to attract and jolt the viewer in a thought-provoking manner. As an active player in society and as both educator and agitator\, the artist must keep pushing these boundaries. \n\n\n\nThe photographs I create are highly symbolic\, “hyper-real” landscapes\, landscapes of possibilities existing just beyond reality\, expressing emotions and conditions that permeate reality. They equally could be called “interior landscapes\,” representative of the psychology of human suffering in a society ruled by oppression\, domination\, and fear. Figures exist in equal balance with the landscapes\, the images drawing their complexity from this dramatic polar tension. Within the frame\, time and place loses specificity to become transcendent and expressive of a broader human condition. \n\n\n\nVideo installations provide another level of impact besides the content of the image: we observe movement\, a physical language the body understands. I play with the viewer’s presence and engagement or lack thereof\, allowing this to directly impact the action and outcome of the piece. As the viewer may be far removed from the conflict addressed within the work\, it is important to communicate to the viewer through a recognizable visual language\, and so I filter the subject through historical and psychological contexts of the subject’s specific locale. The frame acts as a historical window to the past\, while the moving image exemplifies a persistent-present\, a current condition influenced by internal or external circumstances that inhibit change. The moment something is done to change a situation\, the persistent-present becomes a progressive present where change can occur. \n\n\n\nMy memories of Iraq and my disenchantment with politics have not left me cynical\, nor drained of hope for humanity. On the contrary\, I am filled with belief in the power of the people to control their own destinies\, and I continue to believe in social justice. I hope to foster a sense of self-empowerment in my audience and to counter the sense of powerlessness people feel in the face of inhumanity.” \n\n\n\nAbout Wafaa Bilal:\n\n\n\nWafaa Bilal was born in Iraq on June 10\, 1966. Because a member of his family had been accused of disloyalty to his country\, Wafaa was denied the opportunity to pursue his dream of being an artist. Instead\, he was to attend college to major in geography. While in college\, he continued to pursue his art and was arrested and tortured for his political art work against Saddam Hussein. \n\n\n\nShortly after the Gulf War\, Wafaa was inspired by President Bush’s message to the Iraqi citizens that if they attempted to overthrow Saddam\, the US would stand behind them. He became involved in organizing opposition to the government and was scheduled for arrest and execution when he escaped into Kuwait. There he was accused of being a spy and was close to being shot when his student ID convinced them he told the truth. \n\n\n\nWafaa was sent to a refugee camp on the Kuwaiti border. In the camp\, people laughed when rather than accept life in a tent he began forming brick that he dried in the sun and fashioned into a home. The adobe served a practical purpose\, for it provided relative safety from abduction by Kuwaiti soldiers who sneaked into tents in the middle of the night to kidnap young people for sale to Iraqi soldiers who tortured\, raped and executed them or the Turkish soldiers themselves would rape and kill them. \n\n\n\nFor two years\, Wafaa lived in limbo not knowing if each day would be his last. Still Wafaa worked to improve his art\, cleaning toilets in the camp to earn the money for art supplies\, buying supplies for children for art therapy to help them to work through the horrors witnessed. His experiences developed within him an abhorrence of violence and oppression and strengthened his inner resolve. \n\n\n\nIn 1992\, Wafaa came to the United States and took classes to learn English. Then\, he began art studies at the University of New Mexico where he excelled. His art is of a political nature that speaks to oppression of the human spirit\, including that of women who are bound by the rules of culture. He has won many awards for his art as well as a scholarship to the Chicago Institute of Art for post graduate study. He is now teaching at that institution. \n\n\n\nIn addition\, Wafaa travels to give lectures on the oppressive nature of Saddam’s regime in the hope of informing people of the complexities of the situation as well as the atrocities committed and the importance of nonviolent means of ending conflict. It has been 14 years since he was last able to see his mother and younger siblings. He speaks to them on the phone to hear how they flee from one war torn city to another in an effort to find safety. His 21 year-old brother who was staunchly apolitical lost his life to stray American gunfire. His father died when his health deteriorated after the death of his youngest son.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/the-great-virtual-jihad-controversy-with-wafaa-bilal/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080318T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080318T210000
DTSTAMP:20220518T162404Z
CREATED:20080318T171000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220518T162404Z
UID:10000895-1205866800-1205874000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:The Yes Men Live!
DESCRIPTION:Anti-corporate pranksters give the inside scoop on their latest impersonations\, from representing Halliburton at a Gulf Coast reconstruction conference to being Exxon at Canada’s largest petroleum industry gathering. The Yes Men agree their way into fortified compounds of commerce\, ask questions\, and then smuggle out the stories of their hijinks to provide the public a glimpse at the behind-the-scenes world of business. The Yes Men are team players… but they play for the opposing team. \n\n\n\nEver wondered what makes The Yes Men tick? Check out this live-in-person presentation by The Yes Men and see clips from their upcoming film! NEW LOCATION: Christ Church United Methodist\, 35 State St. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHighlights of Yes Men Adventures:\n\n\n\nVivoleum: Exxon’s Climate-Victim Candles (June\, 2007). Imposters posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council (NPC) representatives delivered an outrageous keynote speech to 300 oilmen at GO-EXPO\, Canada’s largest oil conference\, held at Stampede Park in Calgary\, Alberta. \n\n\n\nWharton: WTO Proposes Slavery for Africa (November\, 2006). At a Wharton Business School conference on business in Africa\, World Trade Organization representative Hanniford Schmidt announced the creation of a WTO initiative for “full private stewardry of labor” for the parts of Africa that have been hardest hit by the 500 years of Africa’s free trade with the West. \n\n\n\nHUD: HUD Secretary Jackson Announces New Direction for Agency (August\, 2006). Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco speak. After pitching his administration’s policies in the usual way\, Nagin tells a long story in which truth and lie go skinny-dipping; lie steals truth’s clothes\, and truth chases after. “What you have is truth running naked after well-clothed lie.” \n\n\n\nSurvivaball: Halliburton solves global warming! (May\, 2006). “The SurvivaBall is designed to protect the corporate manager no matter what Mother Nature throws his or her way\,” said Fred Wolf\, a Halliburton representative who spoke today at the Catastrophic Loss conference held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Amelia Island\, Florida. “This technology is the only rational response to abrupt climate change\,” he said to an attentive and appreciative audience.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/the-yes-men-live/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Screening,Speaker
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080325T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080325T210000
DTSTAMP:20220614T170955Z
CREATED:20080325T171900Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220614T170955Z
UID:10000898-1206471600-1206478800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"State of Fear" with Filmmaker Pamela Yates
DESCRIPTION:Filmmaker Pamela Yates presents a screening of her award-winning film\, State of Fear\, bringing a new level of documentary storytelling to an epic tale of one nation’s journey through a war on terror. How can an open society balance demands for security with democracy? State of Fear dramatizes the human and societal costs a democracy faces when it embarks on a “war” against terror\, a “war” potentially without end\, all too easily exploited by unscrupulous leaders seeking personal political gain.  The film follows events in Peru\, yet it serves as a cautionary tale for a nation like the United States.   \n\n\n\nThe Truth Commission granted Skylight Pictures access to its extensive testimonial evidence from 20 years of violence\, as well as hundreds of hours of rarely seen archival material and thousands of exquisite still photographs that will help bring this timely story to an international audience. \n\n\n\nStill from State of Fear.\n\n\n\nAbout the Film:\n\n\n\nHow can an open society balance demands for security with democracy? State of Fear dramatizes the human and societal costs a democracy faces when it embarks on a “war” against terror\, a “war” potentially without end\, all too easily exploited by unscrupulous leaders seeking personal political gain. The film follows events in Peru\, yet it serves as a cautionary tale for a nation like the United States. \n\n\n\nFilmmakers Pamela Yates\, Paco de Onís and Peter Kinoy masterfully blend personal testimony\, history and archival footage to tell the story of escalating violence in the Andean nation and how fear of terrorism was used to undermine democracy\, making Peru a virtual dictatorship where official corruption replaced the rule of law. \n\n\n\nTerrorist attacks by Shining Path guerrillas provoked a military occupation of the countryside. Military justice replaced civil authority\, widespread abuses by the Peruvian army went unpunished\, and terrorism continued to spread. Nearly 70\,000 civilians eventually died at the hands of the Shining Path and the Peruvian military. Old-fashioned police intelligence finally subdued the terrorist threat but Peruvian leaders continued to use the fear of terrorism to gut the democracy\, making Peru a virtual dictatorship where a vast web of corruption replaced the rule of law. \n\n\n\nIn 2000 this autocratic regime collapsed beneath the weight of its own corruption\, and the new democratic government established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that opened a door to the past\, throwing light on the relentless violence that had engulfed this Andean nation for twenty years. \n\n\n\n“A brilliant and moving film\, which is both a portrait of Peru and a chronicle of terror and response–fanaticism\, bravery\, heroism\, abject fear and the way everyone is affected by such events. It is what Orwell called the aim of great art\, which was both imaginative in craftsmanship and politically committed at its heart.” –Paul Theroux\, author
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/state-of-fear-with-filmmaker-pamela-yates/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Screening,Speaker
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR