4th November 2006, 01:42 am by DeAnander
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‘Classified X’ is a documentary film by Black American writer/director Melvin van Peebles (perhaps best known for Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) which he not only wrote and directed — he plays the title role). In Classified X (1998) the ageing cineast raids the film archives to build an historical account of racism in American cinema, and puts his own ‘greatest hit’ into context in the continuing story of white supremacy and Black resistance in America. [The Friday Film Review is slightly late this week due to a bad case of Lazy Reviewer Syndrome.]
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2nd November 2006, 03:10 am by DeAnander
Alyssa Peterson, 27, from Flagstaff AZ, was the third American servicewoman to be killed in Iraq — on Sep 15 2003. Two years later, an investigative reporter started digging into the details of her death. He was stonewalled by the US military and ended up invoking FOIA to get access to relevant documents. It turned out that Peterson had objected to the interrogation techniques being used on prisoners on the US base in Tal-Afar, and had refused to participate in interrogations taking place in “the cage.” Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed. [from the article]
