The Insular Empire - Launch Week

I'm super excited (and a little stressed-out) to be finally premiering The Insular Empire next week in California and Hawaii. (See sidebar at right for screening dates, times, and locations.) The film was actually completed last fall, but it's taken this long to pull everything together for a proper launch.

And since, in the meantime, SO MUCH has been happening with the proposed military buildup on Guam, I decided that audiences might need a little update. So with the generous help of Jason Triplett and the folks at We Are Guahan, I've edited together a short video about the buildup resistance, to screen after The Insular Empire and before our panel discussions.



For those of you who want to join the Famoksaiyan listserv, here is the link.

This Valentine's Day, Come Show Your Love in Oakland!

The rockin' folks at Famoksaiyan have decided to add a second screening to The Insular Empire's Bay Area premiere... Evidently we had more RSVP's than seats at the Galeria! So for those of you in the East Bay, please come check out the film on Valentine's Day, February 14...

SMACC Youth Center
1608 Webster Street
Oakland, CA

The show will start at 5:30 pm, and we'll have t-shirts, DVDs, artwork, photography, literature, and books on display and for sale. And (because hey, it's a Chamoru event) there will likely be super yummy refreshments to boot!

This is a family-friendly affair – I'll be bringing my mom and my son and my long-suffering husband – and best of all, Famoksaiyan is offering the event for FREE. (Though it would be super if you could plan on making a donation to them of whatever you can afford, as they are incurring significant costs to make this event happen.)

Please spread the word! You can download the flyer here.

See you at the movies!

Hafa Adai, Mr. President! Can we have our island back, please?

Marianas Variety just published an article on Obama's upcoming visit to Guam. The fact that the US President has decided to fly 9000 miles to visit the Marianas is HUGE news... and speaks to how vital these tiny islands are to America's global strategy.

On the same day, the Associate Press reported this story about thousands of protestors in Tokyo (not Okinawa - Tokyo), asking the US military to GO HOME.

Something tells me these two things are related.

The real question now is: how do we get Obama to watch The Insular Empire? I've read Obama's book Dreams From My Father, and I really believe that Obama understands, first-hand, what it means to be colonized. I'd like to believe that if he understood the Marianas' colonial history, he'd start doing something to help the people of Guam - and the Northern Marianaas - achieve true self-determination.