Although I was impressed with production value throughout, and often agree with the angle you take regards American foreign policy, American politics etc., the piece is not balanced enough for addition to our catalog. (..) This is a piece that appeals strongly to those who agree, but that has little credibility to a mixed audience that is comprised of liberals and conservatives. I commend you on your extensive time investment in the piece. Many of the interviews are outstanding.” – Yogi Graham, The Video Project, San Francisco “Thank you for letting me keep the DVD. I will promote the series the better I can. “Bravo” again for this program.” – Annabel Bighetti, Senior Executive VP TV SALES & ACQUISITIONS TF1 INTERNATIONAL “Sorry, unfortunately this series doesn’t fit with our editorial strategy.” – Ann Julienne, Responsable des Acquisitions de programmes et des Coproductions internationales, France 5 – Groupe France télévisions

AND THOSE WHO REALLY LOVE US!!!
“I have no interest in what you are persuing, along with many on my college campus. I am a republican, very pro-Bush. Keep your foolish opinions away from me.” – Steve Levandusky, D’Youville College, Buffalo, New York “It will be a cold day in Hell before I sponsor your film, or have anything to do with it.” – MacGregor Knox, The London School of Economics and Political Science “When you die, enjoy your lives in hell.” – Dale Trumble, USA “Move to North Korea.” – Chris Gallagher, The University of British Columbia, Canada “Communist rats” – Anonymous

“Powerful testimonies! This certainly deserves to be seen by a broad audience. You have done an excellent job.” – Howard Zinn, Historian Author of “A People’s History of the United States” “Absolutely indispensable! An important resource in the struggle.” – Ken Loach, Film Director Director of “Bread and Roses” “An exceptionally well done panorama of significant political events and ideas surrounding September 11, 2001 and The American Empire. Superbly edited, with a cast of leading progressive thinkers and activists, it touches all the bases.” – William Blum, Historian Author of “Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II” “Your book is just what we need at time when the American left gets no coverage in the world’s press and yet remains the hope for America and the world” – Tony Benn, President Stop the War Coalition “Challenges the simplistic perception of Americans as SUV-driving, war-loving couch potatoes. There’s a movement for peace and justice and this book gives it a voice.”

Mickey Z., Writer Author of “50 American Revolutions You’re Not Supposed to Know: Reclaiming American Patriotism” “Highly revealing! A documentary which celebrates the peace movement while fuelling your rage to danger levels” – Elizabeth Block, Red Pepper “Encourages viewers to take an active role in the peace process… [a] fascinating insight into the modern era” – Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide/The New York Times “The Cat’s Dream is terrific!” – Rocky Anderson, Mayor of Salt Lake City “It provides a rich and disturbing overview of the New World Order.” – Larry Daressa, California Newsreel “Due autori da tenere d’occhio!” – Roberta Ronconi, Liberazione “I just think it is phenomenal. You guys have done something that is not only powerful and extraordinarily important politically but your documentary is also an impressive piece of filmmaking”. – Jenny McPhee, Writer; Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University “The people walking out of your films were clearly very moved. I walked in and saw a few women crying. Amazing.

It was a wonderful event. Thank you so much for your participation!!!” – The organizer of “Little Rock Political Documentary Film Festival” “XXI CENTURY is a masterpiece of documentary filmmaking!” – Indymedia Sheffield “Thank you very much for creating this excellent documentary film series. I’m looking forward to showing all of these treasures to our community.” – Timothy Baer, Bloomington Peace Action Coalition “Thank you so much for sending me the DVDs, they are awesome. I had no idea how big the project was that you were putting together. I am honored to be a part of it.” – Jim Page, Songwriter “I saw the tapes, and was impressed by the thorough analysis and critique it presents on American Politics and Society.” – Natasja van den Berg, De Balie, Amsterdam “Brilliant!” – Dirk Adriaensens, President SOS Iraq “A series like XXI CENTURY is essential in covering what the media doesn’t.” – Claudia Leczynski, Founder and President ‘ReAct’, Truman College, City Colleges of Chicago “Thank you for the truth!” – Ted and Robyn Moore, Minnesota, USA “Excellent! Powerful! Artistic!” – Ayda Lucero, Oakland, CA, USA

“Highly revealing! A documentary which celebrates the peace movement while fuelling your rage to danger levels.”
- Red Pepper

Synopsis: There are years when nothing happens and then days that change the course of History. From September 2002 to May 2003 we met with intellectuals, journalists, university professors, writers, historians, political analysts, international observers, human rights organizations, civil rights fighters, religious leaders, peace and anti war activists, asking questions to understand these years in which we are living and try to put together the many pieces of a complicated puzzle. The picture that comes alive is – to paraphrase James Baldwin – “longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it”.

2000 Presidential Elections and September 11, 2001. Afghanistan, Iraq, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein and the inspections. The axis of evil, the coalition of the willing and collateral damages. News, media, concentrations of power and censorship. The Middle East and the old and new colonialism. Civil liberties and human rights. United Nations, International Criminal Court and the Old Europe. War, peace and patriotism. The anti war movement, oil, blood and the voices of dissent. Is it possible to find interconnecting links?

“The PEACE! DVD” tries to give some answers but above all wants to keep asking questions. It tries to regard problems from a new angle since we agree with Albert Einstein that “the mere formulation of a problem is far more often essential than its solution”.

Featuring: Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn, Arno Mayer, Amy Goodman, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Scott Ritter, Susan Sarandon, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Jesse Jackson, Desmond Tutu, The Nation, Danny Glover, Angela Davis, Jessica Lange, Greg Palast, Ossie Davis, American Civil Liberties Union, Al Sharpton, Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, Democracy Now!, Veterans for Peace, United for Peace and Justice, FAIR, Pacifica Foundation, MediaChannel, Not in Our Name, and many other voices of dissent.

“Absolutely indispensable! An important resource in the struggle.”
- Ken Loach

From the Foreword by William Blum: You are holding in your hands a book that would make an excellent time capsule; one to be opened, one would hope, in a future time when the United States was no longer on a rampage of imperial war and oppression around the world, no longer acting like a police state at home.

From the Introduction by Gabriele Zamparini and Lorenzo Meccoli: We wanted to tell the story of the American anti-war movement from the voices of its protagonists. The result was far behind our expectations. The picture that comes alive is—to paraphrase James Baldwin— “longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.” In times of danger and madness, voices of reason are voices of dissent.

Synopsis: With contributions by five Nobel Peace Prize winners, former government officials, scholars, religious leaders, journalists, activists, and prominent cultural figures, the documentary film XXI Century explores American reactions to recent global events captured through the lens of interviews and political rallies. This book presents selected excerpts from the filming of prominent U.S. citizens voicing their views on Bush administration policies in the new century. These events include the much-contested 2000 election, the September 11, 2001, attacks, the impact of the USA Patriot Act, the accelerated growth of peace movements, the recruitment of U.S. soldiers, U.S. policy and attitudes toward the Middle East, sanctions and war in Iraq, and human rights violations. The speakers also consider how the rise of media spectacle and punditry at the expense of quality journalism inhibits the ability of Americans to react to these events as informed citizens. The voices of Americans, both ordinary and famous, resonate with passion and urgency in response to the injustice and far-reaching effects of the current U.S. foreign policy. American Voices of Dissent highlights the other side of the story and makes a case for global solidarity against U.S. imperialism.

Featuring: Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn, Arno Mayer, Amy Goodman, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Scott Ritter, Susan Sarandon, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Nelson Mandela, Jesse Jackson, Desmond Tutu, The Nation, Ramsey Clark, Danny Glover, Angela Davis, Jessica Lange, Greg Palast, Ossie Davis, American Civil Liberties Union, Indymedia, Al Sharpton, Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, Democracy Now!, Vetera

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, historians and international scholars will deconstruct the arguments relative to human rights and bringing democracy to Iraq that were brought by the Bush Administration as the main reasons to go to war.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the connections between the Bush Administration and the Sharon Government; the geopolitical scenario after the war in Afghanistan and Iraq are discussed by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, historians and international scholars. The Israeli filmmaker Udi Aloni will add his passionate point of view.

We also take a look at who’s who in the Bush Administration and beyond and propose an interesting point of view on the “Old Europe business.”

Noam Chomsky recalls the 80s and reminds us that in Washington now there are the same people. Howard Zinn, Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky, and Arno Mayer will try to see and foresee the century that has just – and so tragically – started. The XXI Century has begun.

UN and the International Criminal Court. Weapons of mass destruction and the inspections. Oil, US military bases in the Middle East and the doubts of part of the American Establishment.

What’s the connection between Iraq and Venezuela? Why did BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast go to Venezuela?

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, historians, free thinkers and the former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter tell us “the other version” and help us to question and deconstruct the lies which we have too often been told.

Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn share their critiques and propose their point of views. Finally the historian Arno J. Mayer opens new horizons and talks about a missing link.

World War I, the collapsing of the Ottoman Empire and the partition of the Middle East. Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party. The close ties between the Reagan and Bush Administrations with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war. The use of gas against the Iranians and the Kurds. The weapons of mass destruction and the money behind them. Finally the invasion of Kuwait, the first Gulf war, the UN sanctions against Iraq and their effects on the civilian population.

All of this and much more are discussed by historians, international law scholars, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark and many others.

We asked Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch about the military spending and the new weapons. The Nobel Peace Prize Nelson Mandela reflects on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs while a Hiroshima survivor, remembers that tragic event.

With the help of Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn we go back to the anti war movement. Angela Davis, Susan Sarandon, Desmond Tutu, Jessica Lange, Tim Robbins, Ossie Davis, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Patti Smith…

“God bless America”, Bush says. “God bless the world”, they reply.

In this third part of the documentary we dare to put under trial the media complex, and particularly those news outlets which sold their soul and worked as the propaganda machine of the power. A meaningful list of concrete examples is told to us by some of the most irreverent, honest and bravest journalists and news people.

Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn, Arno Mayer, Greg Palast of BBC and The Guardian, Katha Pollitt of The Nation, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, Emily Reinhard of Indymedia, Danny Schechter of MediaChannel.org and many others will enumerate examples of how the mainstream media abdicated its public role as watchdog of the power.

Everybody in the world knows what September 11th, 2001 means. But how many people know what really happened that day? Who were the terrorists who attacked us? Why did they do it? How and with whose money? And how was it possible? Has there been an investigation? Why did Henry Kissinger resign from the presidential commission? The BBC and The Guardian investigative reporter Greg Palast tells us the “most censored story in America”. Gore Vidal and Arno Mayer reflect critically on this event and with extraordinary clarity of mind open new views and formulate new challenges.

XXI CENTURY: PART 2 of 7 – … and the pursuit of Happiness
The second part of “XXI CENTURY” tells us the story of what has happened in America after September 11th, 2001. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Freedom, democracy and the First Amendment. The Patriot Act and Guantanamo. We asked these questions to American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International and many other civil rights fighters. Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn and many others question the “official version” and the status quo.

In this part we also see and analyze the response of the people of the United States of America. Rallies and demonstrations had never before been so crowded and frequent as in this anti war movement which – to use Noam Chomsky’s words – “it’s not just opposition to war, it’s a lack of faith in the leaderships”. We go back over the fear to speak out against the Bush Administration and record the rising of the biggest anti war movement the United States has ever had. How effective has the peace movement been? What’s its future?