“L’ultima spiaggia” sbarca in America
NEW YORK – Il documentario ”L’ultima spiaggia. Saggio di geografia disumana” del regista calabrese Massimo De Pascale sarà proiettato negli USA. Il video (riprese e montaggio di Nicola Carvello; Produzione DoKufilm), sul traffico dei rifiuti tossici che riguarda la Calabria, e non solo, sarà oggi ospite (dalle ore 19.30 ora locale) presso il “Brecht Forum” di West Street a New York, uno dei luoghi storici della sinistra newyorkese, grazie all’impegno e al’organizzazione di Micheal Leonardi.
Brecht Forum http://brechtforum.org/ PHONE (212) 242-4201
451 West Street
New York, NY
SHIPS OF POISON, Discussion and Film Screening
Ships with toxic and radioactive wastes have been intentionally sunk across the Mediterranean while NATO, State governments and the Italian mafia keep their silence.
These Ships, at least 55 acknowledged by the former head of Italian intelligence Bruno Branciforte, and more than 100 according to research from the Italian Daily il Manifesto’s Andrea Pallidino are a serious threat to the health of the citizens and the ecosystems of the Mediterranean. But the story goes beyond the Mediterranean and down to the coast of Somalia where ocean ecosystems have been destroyed, livelihoods devastated and journalists killed as they sought to uncover the truth of this story.
The story of the Ships of Poison and the the use of Italy’s Calabria region as a hazardous and radioactive waste dumping grounds has been captured in a documentary called “The last Beach, a sample of the inhumane geography”, which was screened at the Gaia International Festival and was awarded a special jury prize.” The film talks about the trafficking of waste in Calabria and the sense of the work is captured in the subtitle,” said the director and author Massimo de Pascale. ” it’s a documentary in which the denunciation of an extreme situation comes across in a language of images, seeking to join anthropology with poetry and expanding the discourse of a particular situation to a more general reflection of the damaged relationship between man and nature.” the film is around 50 minutes in length was written and directed by Massimo de Pascale and was shot and edited by Nicola Carvello; a Dokufilm production.
This evening will be facilitated and presented by Michael Leonardi. Leonardi has been active in movements for social and ecological justice for decades. He heralds from Toledo, Ohio. This city is best known in labor circles for the Autolite strike of 1934 and the formation of the UAW, along with being the birthplace of the Jeep. Growing up in Toledo and witnessing the ravages of industrial capitialism first hand in this rustbelt epicenter helped form Michael’s political outlook and inspire his work. in Italy he continued his activism and started publishing articles, contributing regularly to Counterpunch on issues ranging from the death penalty, the wars in afghanistan and iraq, italian politics.
A 3 part series on the Ships of Poison story was published in Counterpunch last autumn, as a mass movement rose up to confront this issue. Leonardi, who lived and worked in Calabria, was able to provide an eyewitness account of this story as it developed to Scientific American journalist Madhursee Mukejee and EU investigators who took an interest in this shocking news and the Italian government’s subsequent and largely successful attempts to cover up the story. Inspired by this dramatic attack on the Seas and his 2 year old daughter, Gaia, Michael spearheaded the organization of an International gathering that took place from the 19th-27th of June, 2010. This gathering included 61 events in over a dozen local communities stretching from Maratea in Basilicata to Aiello Calabro in Calabria. The Gathering focused on finding alternative economic structures and modes of resisting the Neoliberal stranglehold on the South of Italy in the context of International solidarity.
