Indymedia Screening Mixes Art and Politics

The films were the best type of alternative media, radical in content and experimental in form. First came some excellent shorts, including the satirical "Gaybar", one of the best pieces of "scratch video" I've ever seen, showing just how close Bush and Blair really are. Following the defeat of their hangers-on in the Spanish election, we eagerly wait to see if it's really true that each man destroys the thing he loves. Next came an amazing short from the Yo Mango "ethical shoplifters" in Buenos Aires - tango-dancing, champagne-stealing performance art. Corks were popped outside one of the banks that illegally profited from Argentina's financial collapse. The power of simple direct action was seen in a film where a GM trial crop was scythed neatly out of existence. The company responsible subsequently gave up the trial. Then came a film showing indymedia in action at a demo in Brussels, including punchy contributions from our own Hamish from undercurrents. It was great to hear a BBC reporter admit they had to learn from indymedia coverage of the Genoa protests in 2001, which had left the corporate media standing.

The main feature was Fifth Sun Archive's "A Road to Ruin", a haunting film of the resistance to the Newbury bypass in 1996. Vertiginous shots of campaigners perched on the top of old-growth trees set to powerful music made this film much more than mere radical reportage. An excellent discussion on the lessons from the protest was led by Phil Pritchard, one of the original Newbury campaigners. A police and security operation costing £26 million had sounded the death knell for the Conservative government's road-building programme. In a final up-to-the-minute flourish, the screening concluded with eerie, snow-covered footage from Oxford campaigner Lucy Pearce taken just last week at Blackwood, south Wales. Oxford activists are part of the resistance to a road being blasted through ancient forest in order to benefit, among others, two arms companies.

Deftly compered by Claire Fauset, the screening was a great demonstration of the power of alt media at the point where politics and art meet and embrace.

For the next screening on April 15th, ox indymedia is hosting the marvellous Schnews crew from Brighton. Schnews is Britain's leading direct action newspaper, touring the country to celebrate their ten-year anniversary. After this screening, I would say to all: Just be there!