Reviews
>>>Click here to post your own reviews <<<
New review in german!
"Beautiful, intellectual, riotous, it fits in no box..."
Naomi Klein, author "No Logo"/ The Take (movie)
...more
-
“i” is a galloping, careening, tornado of a film..."
Chris Anderson- The New York Indypendent ...more
-
"Essential viewing for all of us."
DeeDee Halleck, media activist - Author of "Hand Held Visions" ...more
-
"...With a delicacy, elegance and a vibrancy that is irresistable."
John Jorden author of: "We Are Everywhere"...more
-
"...Buenos Aires, the Indymedia staff, the protesters and that dead chicken."
The Providence Journal, 8.30.2006, A Journey Outside the Mainstream.
...more
------------Complete Review Texts---------------
NAOMI KLEIN
When the world turned briefly upside down, this film fell out. “i” positively vibrates with the energy and creativity of the movement it documents. Beautiful, intellectual, riotous, it fits in no box (and no blurb), just see it!
Naomi Klein, author No Logo/ The Take
-
Review of New Indymedia Film, "i," From This Week's INDYPENDENT
7/19 | "i" has its community premiere at Bluestockings Bookstore on July 20.
By Chris Anderson
(ONLINE VERSION)
"i,” the powerful and occasionally frustrating new film by independent directors Raphael Lyon and Andres Ingoglia, tells of one such democratic moment, the Argentinean economic collapse of 2001 and the social uprisings that accompanied it. Along the way it also functions as one of the first, if not the very first, feature length films about the Independent Media Center (IMC, or Indymedia) movement, which chronicled the Argentine struggle as it unfolded.
Political theorist Sheldon Wolin has written movingly of what he calls “fugitive democracy”: the pure democratic moment, unencumbered by institutionalized hierarchy and vibrating with the strength of the revolutionary multitude. “i,” the powerful and occasionally frustrating new film by independent directors Raphael Lyon and Andres Ingoglia, tells of one such democratic moment, the Argentinean economic collapse of 2001 and the social uprisings that accompanied it. Along the way it also functions as one of the first, if not the very first, feature length films about the Independent Media Center (IMC, or Indymedia) movement, which chronicled the Argentine struggle as it unfolded.
“i” is divided into three parts. The first, “Microscope,” examines the Argentinean uprising and the birth—or rather the rebirth-- of the Argentina IMC; the second, “Telescope,” continues to ground its narrative in Argentina but expands the conversation to include more general ruminations and debates about the meaning and purpose of the Indymedia movements; the third, “Mirror,” briefly shifts its focus to New York City during the massive February 15th anti-war protests and then returns to Buenos Aires and the Plaza Mayo for the first anniversary of the December 19 uprising against President De la Rúa.
It is the focus on Indymedia activity in Argentina that is one of the strongest aspects to this beautifully shot, often profoundly moving film. In Western Europe and North America, even within the Indymedia movement, the activities, organization, and struggles of radical media of the global south are often overlooked or misunderstood. “i” is a galloping, careening, tornado of a film, often pausing briefly to listen in on one collective debate about the nature of Indymedia before moving on to the next crisis. One senses that the film’s directors are straining mightily to remove themselves and their own perspective from the narrative, letting members of various social movements and IMC collectives speak for themselves, even when their viewpoints conflict or seem contradictory.
It is this barely controlled chaos, this sense of being dropped into history in medias res, that, paradoxically, is also “i”’s greatest weakness. Its hard to imagine that anyone not already familiar with the history, structure, and background of the Indymedia movement will learn much about the network or what makes it tick—there is simply too much information for anyone not schooled in radical media history and leftist politics to absorb easily. In this way, of course, “i” resembles the websites of the media movement that it chronicles: intuitively understandable for many, a collection of sprawling, disorganized, headache-inducing data for some.
The film ends on an odd, ambiguous note. Back at the Plaza de Mayo in December of 2002, the insurrection largely over, one IMC member complains that the “ideologues have returned,” and one suspects that he is referring less to right-wing ideologues than their leftist counterparts. Many of the Argentina IMC members speak about their disillusionment with concepts such as “journalism” and “news,” the dangers of media consumerism, and the need to dissolve the Indymedia Argentina into social movements themselves. What this means in practice, of course, is not entirely clear. “What may be needed is a new communication paradigm,” the film’s voice-over narrator concludes. “What may be needed is a leap of faith.”
By Chris Anderson
---
DEEDEE HALLECK
Not since the Battle of Chile have the passionate conversations that make revolution possible been available on the screen. I laughed, I cried, I winced, I got energized for the next battle. Essential viewing for all of us.
DeeDee Halleck, media activist - Author of "Hand Held Visions"
---
JOHN JORDEN
"i" is stunning, it manages to show the magic of a global network
in ways that no other film hasdone before, and it does so with
delicacy, elegance and a vibrancy that is irresistable.
With its decentralised narrative, rich multitude of voices and
characters - i is an example of how a film can tell a story without having to revert to spectacular specialists or charasmatic singular individuals, a fallacy that most documentaries, even "radical" ones find impossible to resist. Like the networks of resistance that it explores, which attempt to merge means and ends, seeing rebellion in the present and the everyday, I is staying close to its roots and using the myriad alternative networks and DIY media outlets for distribution. I is not just about the swarm of resistance, but by the swarm and for the swarm.
John Jorden is the author of:
"WE ARE EVERYWHERE: THE IRRESISTIBLE RISE OF GLOBAL ANTICAPITALISM" and an original member of the Reclaim the Streets movement.
---
A Journey Outside the Mainstream
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
BY MICHAEL JANUSONIS
Journal Arts Writer
The documentary made by Raphael Lyon and Andres Ingoglia called i, which will have its local premiere tomorrow night at the Columbus Theatre, is a colorful, sometimes harrowing, always intriguing ride. It looks at the worldwide mess created by globalization as seen through the eyes of a small band of observers at the Indymedia worldwide Web site. They hope to provide people an alternative to mainstream media reporting which they feel is woefully selective and incomplete.
The film concentrates mainly on the economic crisis in Argentina in 2001 when banks failed, funds were frozen and the middle class, which usually quietly goes along with the status quo, turned out in massive protests that filled the streets of Buenos Aires.
The protests fueled the fervor of social activists, some of whom reported what they saw on Indymedia and posted film footage and photos on the site.
Five years in the making, Lyon and Ingoglia have edited some remarkable and vibrant footage in between interviews with many of the people behind Indymedia.
Although at times those interviews threaten to become self-indulgent philosophizing with a group of lefties, the proof lies in the footage of thousands of protesters filling the streets while police watch ominously.
Here are things you don't see everyday, such as a dead chicken nailed to a protest sign or a man smashing the screen of an ATM that refuses to cough up his money.
There's a quick, painless history of how Argentina came to this crisis point, as well as the story of how the dedicated and passionate Indymedia staff came together, working for a time out of a shuttered bank that they commandeered for their offices.
Sometimes the filmmakers bite off a little more than an 84-minute film can chew, taking side trips to a Brazilian commune, a New York City terror-threat roadblock, the battle-scarred world economic summit in Genoa, the U.S. invasion of Iraq and a protest in front of the Fox News Network in Manhattan.
These things take one away briefly from the core of the film and put us someplace else.
But i gets back on track once it returns to Buenos Aires, the Indymedia staff, the protesters and that dead chicken.
i will be screened at 8 p.m. tomorrow at the Columbus Theatre, 270 Broadway, Providence. Admission is $5.
---
i the film
Argentinien, Indymedia und die Frage der Kommunikation
Am 19. Dezember 2001 beginnt ein neues Kapitel in der Geschichte
Argentiniens. Nach Jahren von Wirtschaftskrise, Sparprogrammen und
Verarmung sagen Hunderttausende im ehemaligen Musterland des
Neoliberalismus: Basta! Que se vayan todos! Es kommt zu massiven
Aufständen. Die Regierung wird gestürzt. In unzähligen Versammlungen,
Aktionen und sozialen Gruppierungen diskutieren die Leute, wie sie ihre
Geschichte selbst in die Hand nehmen.
Einer dieser politischen Akteure ist das Indymedia Kollektiv. Mitten im
Sturm des politischen Umbruchs und aus dem Bedürfnis heraus die
Geschehnisse selber von der Basis aus zu dokumentieren und eine
Alternative zu den kommerziellen Massenmedien aufzubauen, finden sich
mehrere MedienmacherInnen im Indymedia Kollektiv zusammen.
Die ersten Fotoapparate werden bei Plünderungen angeeignet und die
ersten Räumlichkeiten in einer besetzten Bank eingerichtet.
Indymedia existiert nicht nur in Argentinien, sondern an vielen anderen
Orten der Welt in denen gegen Neoliberalismus gekämpft wird. Es ist ein
globales Netzwerk, dass Ende der 90er Jahre entstanden ist und heute
über 100 Kollektive und Portale weltweit betreibt. Durch die globale
Vernetzung gehen die Berichte über die Piqueteros, die Asambleas und die
besetzten Fabriken in Argentinien rund um die Welt. Die Stimme
derjenigen, die sonst nie zu Wort kommen inspiriert jetzt Menschen weltweit.
Mit ihren alltäglichen Erfahrungen, stellen die Indymedia AktivistInnen
die Frage nach der Kommunikation im Kampf um eine Gesellschaft ohne
Unterdrückung. Wie soll die Medienarbeit von unten aussehen? Wie agiert
sie innerhalb eines horizontalen Netzwerkes? Welches Verhältnis hat sie
zu Macht? Welche Rolle spielt sie in und außerhalb der sozialen
Bewegungen? All das sind Fragen, die uns im Film begleiten.
Wer die Vergangenheit kontrolliert, kontrolliert die Gegenwart. Wer die
Gegenwart kontrolliert, kontrolliert die Zukunft. Bewegungen müssen
Spuren und Dokumente ihrer Leidenschaft hinterlassen, damit ihre
Visionen als Erinnerungen für kommende Generationen lebendig bleiben.
„Möglicherwise ist am wichtigsten, wer die Geschichte schreibt ist“,
meint eine Indymedia-Aktivistin.
Zur Illustrierung dieser Gedanken macht der Film mehrere Sprünge zu
Widerstandsmomenten auf dem G8- Gegengipfel in Genua, den Protesten
gegen die Republican Convention in New York oder einer Landbesetzung in
Brasilien. I the film ist genau so unübersichtlich wie etwa die
Indymedia Webseiten auf den ersten Blick und doch ist es ein Film der
mit seiner dezentralisierten Erzählung, seinen vielfältigen Stimmen und
wechselnden Blickwinkeln fasziniert.
84 min, Spanisch / Englisch mit deutschen Untertiteln
>>>Click here to post your own reviews <<<