Synopsis: Explore the 50-year journey of Third World Newsreel, a pioneering independent media collective that has chronicled pivotal human rights movements and social justice issues. Description: It’s almost unheard of for an independent media collective to survive as long as Third World Newsreel has. Since 1968, they have chronicled some of the most pivotal movements in human history and continue to expand on their collection of over 700 titles. There’s lots to learn about how they’ve adapted — and how the oldest media arts collective in the U.S. is making do in today’s “media carnage.” “I'd say we feel more urgent now than ever before. Every day there's something happening that makes it clear that our rights and liberties, and people's lives all over the world are at stake. Not being in touch with the history and media that shows the truth of what's going on is really decimating people's ability to, as Juan said, know what to follow and what to do.” - JT Takagi Guests: • Juan Carlos Dávila: Documentary Filmmaker, Multimedia Journalist, Puerto Rico Correspondent, Democracy Now! • Tami Gold: Filmmaker, Artist, Activist • JT Takagi: Executive Director, Third World Newsreel Watch on YouTube this episode that includes video clips referenced in this episode from Third World Newsreel; PBS World Channel 11:30am ET Sundays and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio (check here to see if your station airs the show) & available as a podcast February 25th, 2026. Full Conversation Release: While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast on Public TV and community radio, we offer to our members and podcast subscribers the full uncut conversation. Music Credit: 'Thrum of Soil' by Bluedot Sessions, 'Steppin' by Podington Bear, and original sound design by Jeannie Hopper Support Laura Flanders and Friends by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/c/lauraflandersandfriends
Synopsis: What’s it take for an independent media collective to last for almost 60 years?
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Description: It’s almost unheard of for an independent media collective to survive as long as Third World Newsreel has. Since 1968, they have chronicled some of the most pivotal movements in human history and continue to expand on their collection of over 700 titles. There’s lots to learn about how they’ve adapted through technological revolutions, political persecutions, philanthropic booms and busts — and how the oldest media arts collective in the U.S. is making do in today’s “media carnage”, as Laura Flanders puts it. Joining us are JT Takagi, an independent filmmaker, sound recordist, and the longtime executive director of Third World Newsreel. Tami Gold is an artist and activist whose documentaries grapple with everything from imperialism to sex work. Her films include My Country Occupied, Another Brother and Land Rain Fire among many more. Puerto Rican-born Juan Carlos Dávila works in film as well as TV, where he reports on social movements around environmentalism, militarism and the struggles of the working class on the island. His films include The Stand-By Generation, Viequez: An Endless Battle and Drills of Liberation. Join us as we look at the past, present and future of Third World Newsreel and ask how film can be used as a tool for organizing.
“I'd say we feel more urgent now than ever before. Every day there's something happening that makes it clear that our rights and liberties, and people's lives all over the world are at stake. Not being in touch with the history and media that shows the truth of what's going on is really decimating people's ability to, as Juan said, know what to follow and what to do.” - JT Takagi
“We need to retake the theater, the physical space that is being ignored by the corporations. Perhaps now that is the opportunity that we have . . . A theater is being rented by people who are organizers, and they're using their collective spirit and know-how to organize huge, huge crowds to come.” - Tami Gold
“People can shoot stuff with the phone . . . I see a lot in Puerto Rico that people are still wanting to produce with the corporate industry standards. Many young filmmakers like myself tend to think that we need so many personnel to be doing films. Right now we can actually make films with less.” - Juan Carlos Dávila
Guests:
• Juan Carlos Dávila: Documentary Filmmaker, Multimedia Journalist, Puerto Rico Correspondent, Democracy Now!
• Tami Gold: Filmmaker, Artist, Activist
• JT Takagi: Executive Director, Third World Newsreel
Watch on YouTube this episode that includes video clips referenced in this episode from Third World Newsreel; PBS World Channel 11:30am ET Sundays and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio (check here to see if your station airs the show) & available as a podcast February 25th, 2026.
Full Conversation Release: While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast on Public TV and community radio, we offer to our members and podcast subscribers the full uncut conversation.
Music Credit: 'Thrum of Soil' by Bluedot Sessions, 'Steppin' by Podington Bear, and original sound design by Jeannie Hopper
Support Laura Flanders and Friends by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/c/lauraflandersandfriends
RESOURCES:
Full Episode Notes are located HERE.
Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:
• Dolores Huerta & Ellen Gavin: Creative Courage in the Face of Fascism- Watch / Listen: Full Uncut Conversation and Episode Cut
• BIPOC Press for the People: Bursting the Corporate Media Bubble- Watch / Listen: Episode Cut
• Meet the BIPOC Press: Is Worker-Owned Media the Future of Journalism?- Watch / Listen: Episode Cut
Related Articles and Resources:
• Documentaries Ripped From the Headlines Are Becoming Harder to See, by Marc Tracy, December 18, 2024, The New York Times
• My Country Occupied, Documentary by Tami Gold
• La Generación Del Estanbai (The Standby Generation), Documentary by Juan C. Davila and Third World Newsreel, Trailer
• Why Frederick Wiseman Was the Greatest Documentary Filmmaker Ever, by Richard Brody, February, 17, 2026, The New Yorker
•. Fredrick Weissman Filmmaker, Producer and Theater Director, Zipporah Films Inc
• Drills of Liberation, Documentary by Juan C. Davila
• Third World Newsreel (TWN) Brings Historic Newsreel Retrospective To BAM, Anthology Film Archives, And DOK Leipzig, October 2025, Third World Newsreel
• Have You Seen It Yet? The Algorithm Problem In Movie Marketing, by Charity Maxson, January 27, 2026, TR!LL
0:00
123.
While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast on Public TV and community radio, we offered to our members and podcast subscribers the full, uncut conversation.
These audio exclusives are made possible thanks to our member supporters.
0:25
Founded in 1967 amid the anti war, anti colonial and black freedom struggles of that time, Third World Newsreel has survived for nearly six decades through technological revolutions, political persecutions, philanthropic booms and busts to now a time of media churn and let's just say it, carnage.
0:48
It is an almost unheard of lifespan for an activist media organization of any kind.
And this time on Laura Flanders and Friends, we're going to look at the past, present and future of Third World Newsreel.
Today.
It's a progressive alternative Media Center working to advance storytelling and media arts for cultural and social justice.
1:10
In 1967, it was called The Newsreel.
Here's a glimpse from back then.
START - AUDIO CLIP - Third World Newsreel Trailer:
Everybody knows that all the people don't have liberties, all the people don't have freedom, all the people don't have.
Justice and all the.
People don't have powers.
That means none of us do.
1:28
And we're going to.
Grow in Chicago until Tom is out of jail.
Until Wolf is out of.
Jail until the Indian who was walking down the street.
Is out of.
Jail, the newspapers and television more or less branded our husbands as criminals.
1:47
The police were not here to create disorder.
The police were here to preserve disorder.
We believe that politics.
Is the way you live your life.
We are also divided because men don't see US women as workers by themselves.
2:09
The United States spends.
Annually, 1/2 of its national budget on.
Defense costs the business of.
War.
Our interest in Latin America has.
Always been high.
The military killed 7000.
People.
END AUDIO CLIP - THIRD WORLD NEWSREEL TRAILER:
That was just a taste of the work of the original newsreel.
2:32
Today, the Third World Newsreel Collection features over 700 titles from more than 400 film makers.
We have two award winners with us now.
Tami Gold is an artist and an activist whose documentaries grapple with everything from imperialism to sex work.
2:48
Her films include My Country Occupied, Another Brother and Land, Rain Fire, among many, many more.
Puerto Rican born Juan Carlos Davila works in film as well as TV, reporting on social movements around the environment, militarism, and the struggles of the working class on the island.
3:07
His films include The Standby, Generation, Fierce, An Endless Battle, and Drills of Liberation.
And last but not least, we are joined by JT Takagi, A filmmaker and sound recordist in her own right.
She's also the executive director of Third World Newsreel, where she has been for many years.
3:27
So how do they do what they do?
Why do they keep it?
What lessons do they have to teach?
I am very glad to welcome you all to Laura Flanders and friends.
Thanks for joining me.
Let's start, as I often do, on these programs just to kind of settle us because there's so much happening in the world.
3:43
What, what is the on the top of your, your mind, in your heart as we begin this conversation, Tami?
Well, the fight to keep the right to speak, the fight to keep the channels open of all media, specifically and 1st and most importantly, alternative media, progressive analytical media, investigative media, both journalism, news, documentary and all its forms.
4:15
And we see that the attempts on crushing that every day.
So to me, that's first and foremost, and one of the reasons why I'm so happy that we're having this conversation with JT and 3rd World Newsreel is because that's a place that has the history, the contemporary, and the tools to fight for where we want to go and where we need to go.
4:39
Thank you, Tami.
What about you, Juan?
What is on the top of your mind or or in your heart?
Who are you bringing into this conversation as we begin?
Well, really what's happening these days for me is I'm, you know, thinking out about the noise, the noise that is on the media and a lot of information and this information pulling different audiences into very different directions.
5:04
And as a filmmaker and also as a communicator, I, I am thinking of how, how to break through that noise to make sure that, that the message that, that, that is important for, for people to, to understand and information that is important to understand gets to the people.
5:26
And right now I feel we are so over drained with AI social media that people are confused.
And this noise brings a lot of confusion and, and I think it is very important what US film makers and other type of workers of the media are doing right now.
5:48
And and it's important that that we we take a stance all.
Right, so I'm hearing how to breakthrough the noise, how to keep making a proud noise.
What about you, JT?
Who?
Who are you thinking of as we begin this conversation?
Who or what?
Well, I'm thinking about each of our organization and groups like ours, you know, and, and the ability of everyone to be able to stay alive.
6:12
I mean, basically people are being attacked in every level, whether it's education, their health, their housing, all those things are coming under attack.
And, and our communities, our histories are, there's huge attempts to erase them.
6:29
And that's I think part of what the duty of thorough news reels is, to preserve and keep the films that have been made by the organization and by groups like ours, which is why we distribute so many other things.
Because people are attempting to actually get rid of those films and to not show them and to change what history is.
6:50
And we're hoping to stave that off while we're also focused on training the next generation of conscientize film makers.
Well, that's why I'm so glad to be having this conversation.
And let me ask you, JT, to continue a little bit with the story of Third World newsreel began as the newsreel in the 1960s.
7:10
Can you take us back to that time and describe the kind of political context in which it was born?
Sure.
I mean, in the late 60s, we're talking about it was in the height of the Vietnam War, was it the growth of black empowerment, Latinx empowerment?
7:29
There were a lot of groups.
That was also a time period when Asian American movement just came into a concept among people, women's movement.
Well, a lot of things were in motion, but in some similarities to now, I mean there was a unpopular and UN unfair war going on where millions were being killed and for what?
7:53
Not for anything that was helpful to anybody.
And people were growing in protest against it as well as fighting.
At that time, you know, the government was very much intent on seeing every group as a the way that we're referring to them now.
8:13
Outside agitator is their favorite term all, all the time for people who are just trying to stand up for their rights.
So there's some similarities to what's happening now in terms of repression and attempted censure of groups.
8:29
So at that time, though, you had a bunch of film makers who were activists on their own right, making films about protests and things like that and not seeming to make headway on their own.
And they decided finally to work together as a collective, to pull their footage together and start making films as a group and figuring out ways to get that somehow funded.
8:53
Because at that time, everybody, they didn't shoot on video.
There was no video.
They were shooting on 16mm film, which is a expensive and bulky kind of thing to work with Tami, but they managed.
You know, I was going to have you come in on this to sort of add your own perspective.
9:11
Tami, did I correctly that you were 20 when you first connected with Third World newsreel?
Yes, I was 20 years old and I had just come back from hitchhiking in South America and Latin America and Central America.
9:27
And I had all these photographs and when I went to show them to people in newsreel to say, hey, you know, look what I've, I have all this rich material, they said it's still photography.
Go back, get film, get a camera and do the same thing and film it.
9:46
And so we were lucky.
We got a grant, very small grant at the time was $2000 and I guess that was a lot of money back then.
And we were told we were connected to meet with somebody to buy a camera and we met with somebody who sold us a camera in a brown paper bag.
10:06
We met him on 42nd St.
He gave us the bag.
We gave him $200.
We had never shopped with a 16mm camera, any camera, and we learned really fast.
I think the way to look at it is newsreel was my college.
Newsreel is where I learned filmmaking, social justice, organizing and consciousness of who I was.
10:30
As very much the struggle with in newsreel was to take hold of who we were, White women, sis, the whole 9 yards and also the struggle around class.
And so, within newsreel, many of us say it was our college.
10:48
Well, we have a clip here from from your 1972 film My Country Occupied, which was filmed in Guatemala.
I think it was your first documentary collaborative with the newsreel, is that right?
Check it out.
START AUDIO CLIP - MY COUNTRY OCCUPIED - DOCUMENTARY BY TAMI GOLD & THIRD WORLD NEWSREEL:
I am Guatemala.
My country occupied, my home a United Fruit plantation.
11:13
We have good soil here.
The volcanoes and the rain make it so rich.
We only have to drop the seeds and everything grows.
Banana Asuka Cafe de Todo.
But this land, this land has been robbed from us.
11:32
We plant the seeds, we take care of them, and then we pack them to be sent to the United States away from our hungry people.
END AUDIO CLIP - MY COUNTRY OCCUPIED - DOCUMENTARY BY TAMI GOLD & THIRD WORLD NEWSREEL:
That was a clip from Tami Gold's.
I think you could call it docudrama.
11:47
Would that be fair?
My country occupied.
Docudrama.
Juan Carlos coming to you, your films focus on occupations too, specifically the occupation and politics around Puerto Rico.
What's been the significance of Third World News reel to your to your life and how did you come to connect with these two?
12:08
Yeah, to tell a bit of a history Rio about how I I, I got involved with Turtle Newsreel as as time did I, I was living in New York 2016 I believe and and I was showing my documentary The Standby Generation on the Workers Unite Film Festival.
12:31
And the folks over there talk to me that I should reach out to Turtle Newsreal because they distribute films that are politically and socially oriented in the educational market.
12:47
So they made, I think I'm not sure, but they made some sort of e-mail introduction with me and Roselli at a turbo newsreel and and then I showed my project and then we actually did 2 distributions at that same time because I was also finishing the a longer piece on vehicles which is biggest and endless battle.
13:15
So I started my relationship with Turbo Newsreel through those two films, a short film standby generation and and be I guess, an endless battle.
And I think, you know, one of the things that for me very important about Turbo Newsreel, I already knew about them and had a lot of admiration before actually, you know, meeting them.
13:40
And I think one of the things that for me as a, as an independent filmmaker, that I am committed to making films that that have some sort of social impact is that they present a model on, on how you can sustain, you know, making films.
13:59
And and that model also involves A consistency because as you mentioned earlier, you know, so many decades doing this, it is very important.
And also when I, when I go back and you know, there's so many obstacles when you make a film and you and I have even thought is this film gonna be my last film?
14:16
Because there's, I mean, every film is such a hassle, such a hassle that then you go, well, the ones that have stayed for a long time and has made great contribution is the consistency regardless of having difficult times.
So for me, Third War Newsreel is one of those media organizations that really reaffirms the calling that I have to make films and.
14:42
I want to stop you for a second because you mentioned Vieques Endless Battle, the title of your film, but it's also the name of a part of Puerto Rico, a place where people live, a community where the US military many years ago decided to create and maintain a military base.
14:57
They've done testing there.
Your films and others have documented the horrendous impact on the environment, on people.
The reality that there is AUS military base in Puerto Rico came back into focus recently with the Operation invasion abduction of the leader of Venezuela.
15:17
In that context, did you get a sense of how people had or hadn't retained their knowledge about Puerto Rico as a military base?
I guess I'm wondering, you know, I feel like we should play your film all over the place all over again because that information has so been so invisible in our media coverage.
15:40
Yeah, I think one of the one of the things or the flags that the people who advocate for independence in Puerto Rico for many years have been saying that the US, the USA keeps Puerto Rico because of military purposes.
15:59
That the US has no interest of a, of freely, you know, of that the, that the relationship, the territorial relationship that the US and Puerto Rico has has nothing to do with the US being a good neighbor or looking out for the well-being of Puerto Ricans, But it's actually for military purposes.
16:19
For so many years, many people have said your argument.
I mean, and when I, I say people are people that are pro statehood, that there's a big sector in Puerto Rico that that advocates for Puerto Rico to become a part of the United States.
16:35
And there's also, you know, many people in the same United States that don't want to acknowledge, you know, how exploitative the US has been of Puerto Rico.
And, and a lot of the counter argument has, has been that that the US has no military interest anymore in Puerto Rico because there's new technologies, there's drone there, electronic warfare, there's other technologies that have been involved that the that the geographical location is not as important.
17:04
But you will see that regardless of what what just transferred recently and what is happening right now in the Caribbean, what it evidences is regardless of whatever technology the the US may have for military purposes, the the closeness, the location to Latin America and to the rest of the Caribbean and to the Panama Canal and to the Atlantic.
17:27
It is very important.
It is very important that those planes and those military weapons are as close as possible where they from the place that they want want to have it or have it available for any possible strike or any possible attack.
17:43
So in that sense, it just, it reinforces again that, yeah, that the reason that the United States States have maintained Puerto Rico for so many years is because of our geographical.
Location.
I mean, everything you're saying just reminds me how urgent the work of Third World newsreel and the film makers that are part of the collective remains.
18:06
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18:23
Thank you.
Coming back to you, JT, that question of urgency, do you still feel it as keenly as you did back when you began with the newsreel?
I'd say we feel more urgent now than ever before.
18:39
I mean, every day there's something else happening that makes it clear that our rights and our liberties and people's lives all over the world are at stake at this point.
And that the not being in touch with the history and media that shows the truth of what's going on is really decimating people's ability to, as Juan said, know what to follow and what to do.
19:07
So.
So how are you cultivating the next generation of film makers?
I would imagine it's a pretty daunting message.
This is really, really, really hard work.
Come join us.
Well, it's hard and it's not as hard as, I mean, at least now people have can film on their on their phones.
19:24
So that can make things easier.
I think people still are lacking access to will.
What do you do once you have that phone and what can you do with the material Afterwards?
We do a series of free seminars during the year, both fall and spring.
19:42
We also have a production workshop that takes 9 to 10 people over a six month period and gets them from basically zero to creating a short film.
And we specifically select people who are either directly involved in activism or have the mindset where they you could see that their work will go that way.
20:04
And then we just recently started a secondary workshop that helps people get past their first short film into something longer.
So we do a quite a bit of training.
And you've been teaching for years, Tami, I believe you finally wrapped up your your appointment at Hunter College.
20:22
But you've seen this field change tremendously, both as a as a teacher and as a practitioner.
Where do you think we are right now in the world of independent media?
Best good, you know, best of times, worst of times which?
I think that the capacity to make media is that one of the best of times, the funding from media is at a very hard time.
20:46
But as Juan was saying, we have to sustain ourselves and not be dependent on institutions to fund us.
The biggest problem is real estate.
It's real estate over the channels of, of cable, of television, the whole thing.
21:03
That's, that's, that's what we have to push against.
We have to push against closed doors.
So more people are making dogs or more people showing them?
Aren't there more platforms where you can show them?
Netflix.
All the rest.
No, I mean Netflix has a it's AI mean.
21:19
We could talk about the corporatization of the different venues, whether it's Netflix or Amazon or any of them.
They're really closed shops.
Some people get money from them and they can have their films on those cable stations particularly.
21:35
If they're making films about Melania Trump, for example.
Well, yeah, that's an extreme.
And I mean, in a way that's almost like a comic book.
Look at documentary.
Amazon having put up 10s of millions of dollars for the making, which was unusual, and then again for the acquiring, which they didn't really need to do. 42,000,000 and then for the promotion.
21:59
So but that's like a whole, you know, I mean, that's propaganda on steroids and I would hate for us to kind of spend time even looking at that because it's so vacuous.
It has nothing to do with what the issues and they're actually birth of what nonfiction documentary is.
22:18
I guess the thing to me is right now we really the struggle is to have the work be seen, whether it's the older films in newsreel or the current films that we are making now.
And we have to push, we have to be creative.
Not only are channels on cable television very limited, PBS very limited and also challenged right now by the you know, the the efforts to silence all independent alternative media, but also the film festivals.
22:51
They grow, they're massive every day they're new film festivals that come into my you know, just to submit work and to film festivals every day I'm getting so many opportunities to submit.
It has become an A corporation unto.
23:08
Itself.
And does that submitting pay off at the end of the day?
Does it result in picking being picked up by distributors?
No, not for me.
Juan, let me let me come back to you, Juan Carlos, on this question.
So with the performance of Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl, has everything changed with respect to how receptive people are here in the US for films like yours, Juan Carlos?
23:30
No, not at all.
I mean, I obviously I think that that the participation of Bad Bunny and, and his success globally just opens the doors for, for many Puerto Rican artists, regardless of you know what, what actually his political message can change.
23:46
But it's so difficult as I found as a Puerto Rican artist sometimes because people think that you only can speak for Puerto Ricans.
And I think that Bad Bunny has shown that he can speak for Latinos, for for people of for all people of color and for many other people, regardless of, of race and country around the world.
24:11
So, you know, his read just shows you and being actually very authentically Puerto Rican just shows how maybe because of all these marriage of cultures that we have in Puerto Rico historically just shows, you know, that that how how the struggle of Puerto Ricans, how what we feel, how our emotions are something that people globally can connect with us.
24:34
So he opens a lot of doors for people to to not think twice or not think twice, but but but explore the possibility that actually you can give a chance to a Puerto Rican artist.
And I think we're going to keep seeing it through the upcoming years.
24:50
But but how do we make those political claims and, and, and, and those demands that that he has tried to make, you know, a change in the in our society, then that's something that we need to have a more profound discussion.
25:07
Is it still important for you, especially Juan Carlos, to have your films part of the Third World Newsreel collection?
Yeah, of course I I that as much as much films I have through my career.
I I have them with Trey World News reel and the educational because I think, you know, it being a wonderful experience because that exploitative is very transparent.
25:33
I, I've had my films and other projects distributed by other, by other distributors and, and, and also knowing about the experiences of other colleagues working with more a corporate distributors that the experiences are not, you know, are not a really the best.
25:56
And I'm going to give you one example here as we're moving towards streaming, you know, I have a lot of collaborators and colleagues and musicians and to Spotify, for example, you can see how exploitative, you know, how, how many, how many streamings they need to have to just have like $50, you know, as as royalty.
26:18
So, so it is very exploitative.
So I think that it is important that we develop, you know, more projects like Turbo newsreel, not just perhaps the educational market, but perhaps beyond, because it's, we need to find a way that a artist can keep making a living, you know, have some, some way of a fair and transparent deal.
26:43
And it's not and, and right now this, even with the streamers, it's so it's so worrisome of, you know, even if your film gets picked up, how much are you going to be able to, to, to make afterwards and how much your, your projects going to keep being exploited.
27:00
JT, you recently held a sort of retrospective there at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, or I should say the Brooklyn Academy of Music held a retrospective of some of the early films like the ones we showed in the trailer from the newsreel.
27:16
Why did you think that was important?
And then what was the reaction to those screenings?
Well, a couple things.
First, because it's film and they were very old, we were concerned about being able to make sure that these films last into the future.
27:32
And we all thought it was a good moment, given everything that's going on, that people be reminded about how people did organize, how people worked to work with their different communities and the struggles they had 50 years ago and how people can learn something from them.
27:50
Every time we show some of these films, there's a younger activist who come up to us and say things like, no, I didn't know people were doing that then.
So we think it's helpful for people to be reminded of not only the kind of work people we're doing it, but the spirit in which people were doing it and then how that can continue.
28:11
So we're really pleased to be able to digitally preserve these films.
And, and the other aspect is that we're hoping that more people will get to see them.
And and I wanted to go back to what Tami was saying earlier in terms of the ability to show things that one thing we want to mention that people are organizing around right now is to block the merger, the purported Netflix, all those guys.
28:37
Because every consolidation of the media industry basically comes down against independent film makers, limits what the possibilities are, who's going to be able to make films, who being able to show films.
And so we're asking people to check into, there's a website called Block the merger right now that they're trying to get people support to block whatever, whatever Netflix parent, all those guys are trying to do by making basically like one company that owns everything.
29:14
Tami, do you miss those old times?
I will say when I was coming up in the 80s and I too was inspired by many of the film makers in Third World News Reels collective, there was such a sense of internationalism amongst independent media.
29:30
And maybe it's just me, I've been here in this little box for a long time, but does that sort of spirit of internationalism survive?
Do you?
Are you connected with your peers around the world?
I think that we have to make that we do it.
29:48
We have to do it.
Like right now with the film.
I've just finished sex work.
It's just a job.
We have screenings all over the world.
I've just come back from Mexico.
We had amazing events there.
We had events coming up throughout England.
30:04
We have Italy, there's many countries.
But we are cultivating it.
It's not happening because we have avenues already, you know, open to us.
It's really about us maintaining and cultivating so.
You, you in those days there were more internationalist movements and you say they don't exist.
30:25
Well, we had the, we had the anti apartheid movement which had a automatic connection between the work that we were doing back in the 70s and connecting it with the anti apartheid movement, not only in South Africa but throughout Western Europe.
30:41
Those things we, if we want it, we have to build it.
Now we had back when I started these amazing relationships like to the film industry in Cuba.
I mean, that's where that's what I miss.
I miss the intensity of people from different countries going and meeting in Cuba and doing not just working in Cuba, but doing the cross international connections that we were building.
31:10
When when I think back to some of the early works and the time in newsreel back in the 70s, what was so amazing was the creative ways that we showed work.
We did not rely on the corporate structures and that makes it hard.
31:26
If we're independent and we try to raise money independently, hold on to the content of our product and we need these corporations.
It's almost like a contradiction because we I am opposed to the corporations, but yet so I don't want to place myself in the position of having to have them validate my work because the political content of my work is in opposition.
31:54
It's interesting that we haven't mentioned so far the ending of federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the whole PBS network that airs this program, as well as so many documentaries.
In the past, some of the core documentary operations within the public television world have gone, you know, gone dormant, gone defunct.
32:16
With the decline ending of that funding coming to you, Juan Carlos, how would you describe the sort of sea you swim in today?
And, and is there an alternate universe that that you are in, your fellows are creating, that you want to talk about?
32:36
Yeah, I think, I think right now we are in a very good opportunity in the sense of of technology for film like JT was mentioning, you know, how people can can you know, shoot stuff with a phone and it could be, you know, even 4K with some phones right now, right.
32:55
So, and I see sometimes, you know, I sit out in Puerto Rico that people are, are still think, are still wanting to produce in a corporate way, you know, with the corporate industry standards.
And they, you know, and, and many people think that many young film makers like myself tend to think that we need so many personnel to be doing films.
33:22
And right now we have actually, we can actually make films with less.
We just need and the craft is easier to learn.
I would say for operating a camera, I go many times by myself with a, a producer and, and we just shot a bunch of stuff, which maybe in the, you know, it for 30-40 years back, it was impossible.
33:49
So, you know, we have some advantages the, the issues that we have not been taking, you know, making the, the spaces and that, and I think that's the where the conversation needs to go and, and it's not happening.
And also one thing that I see that we are focusing a lot is on social media and on YouTube and all the other platforms that we can distribute stuff through the Internet.
34:12
And that's an opportunity.
But again, I'm starting to think otherwise with that, especially because of the noise.
Now we have to think about algorithms and I am and me and the collective I have here in Puerto Rico, we are thinking more towards that.
34:30
We need to retake the theater, the physical space that is being ignored by the corporations.
So perhaps now that is the opportunity that we have.
We need to go back to community screenings.
We need to go back if if theaters do not have, you know, if they have spaces.
34:48
Let's try to find a way collectively to start getting in the in the theaters, because the corporate is focusing so much on the Internet and the and and eventually the the experience of cinema is is a collective experiences.
It's meant to be seen with a lot of people.
So I think we need to, you know, take the the opportunity that the corporate industry, the the corporate media and the and the corporate film industry needs abandoning theaters and moving to streaming.
35:14
And perhaps it's our moment to to retake.
Their their failure could be our success.
Yeah, with Tami.
You want to add something to that ONJ.
T too.
OK.
I mean, I'm so happy, Juan, that you said that.
I really am.
I think that.
I mean, you said it and you put words to it.
35:31
I haven't thought that, but we are doing that.
I mean, right now that is what I am doing.
I'm working with people in different parts of the country.
They are renting theaters.
We just came back from Pittsburgh.
35:48
A group of sex workers raised over $5000.
They rented a theater.
They brought people from the film there.
They had a huge event in a theater in the center of Pittsburgh.
It's happening in Los Los Angeles.
A theater is being rented by people who are organizers, and there they're using their collective spirit and know how to organize huge, huge crowds to come.
36:15
I have a feeling the third world newsreel is going to be around for a long time to come with energy like all of yours.
JT, I hope that's the plan.
If not, please tell us now.
I think there's a couple things.
One is that with the reduction in fundings and PBS and things like that, people are going to have to collaborate more.
36:33
There's going to be more collectors rising up because people are going to say they're going to have to share gear, share labor, things like that.
That's one aspect.
I think the other thing is that, and we're seeing this in Latin America and other places, even in New York City, is the growth of micro cinemas, where people are creating theaters in tiny spaces but showing films and making some kind of go out of it.
36:57
And that might be the alternative to, you know, our expectation to get into a big theater.
That may not happen, but you could organize with people in your neighborhood and I think that's the other part in terms of what we're seeing is the new kind of new distribution where does more relationship with communities in order to have them as partners in getting one's film well, so.
37:18
So if that's the story that JT thinks the future may tell of now, well, what's the one that you think the future will tell Juan looking forward?
I don't know, 2500 years.
What do you think will be the scene then and what will they say about us now?
37:37
So, so difficult right now to imagine and, and it should be the opposite.
So I hope, I hope that we retake and and you know, the the spirit of imagining a good than imagining bad.
And you know which, which is that what is going to motivate us eventually for, for changing and making things better.
37:58
But the way I, I'm seeing and hopefully I'm seeing is that people are going to get tired of all social media of, of being so hooked up to a computer and this virtual world.
And because people are, you know, we're human beings and our biology will demand a physical connection.
38:18
And I hope that when, when that happens and when the, the boom of, of being in, in a virtual space, you know, just starts to die down, which I think I'm already seeing that in some way with, with younger generations younger than me, people in their 20s, people in their teens do not post as much in social media as my generation of millennials post, although they're immersed in other ways through Meta and other stuff that I'm not up to speed with.
38:46
But I, I hope that, that the future that I hope is that people will get tired of the virtual world.
I mean, which is going to be here to say, I'm not against it.
I mean, it helps us to make this type of conversations, but that we but, but that is, is, is more limited.
39:04
The time we we spend in the virtual space and we go back because our bodies are are going to need it.
We are humans after all.
Tami, what do you think?
What do you think's the story the future will tell of now?
I think if we do our job right and we educate, the next generations of film makers will only succeed if we do the same with activists and organizing.
39:26
One can't live without the other.
And to me, that's the question.
I don't want to make films in a vacuum.
I want to make films and in the making of the films, build an audience and to have films be watched collectively in a room in a space, whether it's a big theater, whether we can't make these little small theaters like we see developing in New York City.
39:52
We need to do it in conjunction with the belief of what we're saying in the film.
And that means that we have to organize.
I wish the organizing was done for me because it's very, it's hard to make a film.
It's such a heavy lift to make a film.
40:08
When you're done, you say that is my last until a few weeks later, and then you're.
Well, that's true.
If it's you, Tami, I'm not sure.
Taking films is a heavy heavy.
Lift and then to have to do all the distribution is an entirely different job.
I I hear you absolutely JT coming back to you.
40:25
I don't know whether you had a chance to to think about it a little, but what do you think is the story the future will tell of this moment?
Well, I'm just hoping that in the future we'll have organize enough that things will have changed a great deal.
And then in fact, we'll be able where artists are supported by their country and people are able to speak and do as they believe and are able to live as they want.
40:51
So that's my hope.
Ohala, all right.
Thank you all so much.
Thank you for the time, the work that you do, for keeping up the work all these years and for spending this time with us.
Really appreciate it.
Thank you, Laura.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thanks for taking the time to listen to the full conversation.
41:11
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