Undercurrents reports

'Ethical loneliness’- Sheffield Documentary Festival

2025-04-23T08:53:00.005+01:00

'Ethical loneliness’ - the experience of being abandoned by humanity, compounded by the cruelty of wrongs not being heard.  

I first heard this phrase at the Sheffield Documentary Festival, coming from the mouth of Bongani Kona, a writer and podcaster from Cape Town. His deep velvet vocal tones narrated a story of Anti-Apartheid violence. The phrase relates to the dangerous occupation of uncovering things which political institutions or corporations would prefer to keep secret. Introducing a camera or microphone into a tense and volatile situation is not a role that everyone craves. The filmmakers, podcasters and writers presenting their documentaries at Sheffield have spent years and in some cases most of their lives uncovering dark and dirty things about people and institutions. Some of it is unpleasant to hear or watch, let alone experience. Many of us are experiencing ‘Apocalypse anxiety’, according to Munya Chawawa as he launched his Channel 4 series on ‘How to Survive a Dictator: North Korea’. That feeling of stress is justified with the brutal invasion of Ukraine and the Genocide occurring in the middle East as our chaotic climate creates mass flooding one day and severe droughts the next. These events are the exact reason why festival gatherings are so important- as Banksy quipped 'Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable’. 

 
DocFest manages to both challenge our preconceptions of the world and also re-confirms our sense and understanding of it. State of Silence is a new documentary film from Mexico about the failings of the ‘War on Drugs’.Directed by Santiago Maza, his story manages to highlight the Humanity in truly awful situations. Shocked and fearful reporters displayed solidarity following the murder of one of their fellow newspaper colleagues by ‘Narcos’-cocaine smugglers. For the next edition of their newspaper, every reporter used their colleagues name as their byline. Being heard is what saves people from loneliness, and documentary makers are calling for your help.One Mexican journalist who had featured in the film spoke afterwards, in Spanish to the Sheffield audience saying he can handle the loneliness of his job as long as he knows that people are listening. Understanding, and then amplifying the message loudly is what documentary makers set out to do, using whatever resources they can to engage a wider audience. Their rationale is that if the message gets to the right ears, things can and do actually change. DocFest is seen as a vital part for that amplification judging by the high number of World premieres. The call goes out to the audiences that they need help in promoting and sharing their stories. 

Amongst the many films being shown in Sheffield, other examples of storytelling are presented. Audiences were invited to place a set of heavy looking googles and headphones on and be transported into the 360 degree immersive story of a Bedouin which begins in a desert, at dawn. With the headset tightly wrapped around the head, a viewer can look left, right or up and down to explore the scene they find themselves in. The sun was rising behind the distant mountains as a woman speaking Arabic told her story of displacement. The scene disappears and you are in a Beduoin tent complete with carpets and a bed in Western Sahara. It is ironic perhaps that to engage in someones story about loneliness via Virtual Reality means being cut off from everyone else in the room. 

 
The actors Michael Sheen and Idris Elba lent some Hollywood heavyweight to the festival. The Welsh actor who had performed as an angel in Good Omens alongside David Tennant explained how he walked straight into a story about environmental scandal. Sheen launched the investigative podcast thriller series, Buried: The Last Witness. The story of the production demonstrated that even the resources of an A-list celebrity aren’t enough to avoid the loneliness that comes with exposing an injustice. The actor explained ‘Here was a massive story that no one was writing about it, and it involved a community where I come from (in Wales) so I felt there was some urgency about this, it wasn’t just something about the past, it was about the future as well’. Sheen was so gripped by the ‘thrilling tale’ that he spent two days recording interviews with the key scientist. Sheen’s memory cards filled up with his tale of toxic PCB chemicals being poured into Welsh quarries by Monsanto. ‘I was drawn to it because his story was so extraordinary and itwas crying out to be a drama which was connected too a much bigger, and much more disconcerting and worrying story’ the actor explained. ’But dramas takes years to make and there was something much more pressing about this, that needed to be addressed’. The celebrated actor couldn’t convince anyone to investigate the story. As months, and then years went by, he couldn’t stop himself from digging further into the story, ‘if you get obsessed with something, all you want to do is talk to someone about it, and I had no-one to talk too about it!’ recalled Sheen. ‘I was waiting to meet someone who could do something with these recordings’. It took years but eventually he met two investigative journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor. They had been trawling through the court affidavits and confidential documents belonging to the same, now deceased, scientist. The trio joined forces and went on an investigation in which one of the main witnesses ‘was accusing one of the most prestigious chemical companies at the time of contaminating the British food chain. A very serious allegation’ added Dan Ashby.

Buried: The Last Witness is now available on BBC Radio 4 website

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020jnd/episodes/guide

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Sol Cinema gives Wales the Royal Treatment

2022-05-27T13:44:00.002+01:00

Sol Cinema gives Wales the Royal Treatment

An award-winning Swansea mobile cinema will be performing once again for the first time in 2 years.   Sol Cinema has been booked to perform in North Wales as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebratory weekend.

Royal Rhyl will be held on Saturday, June 4 on the town’s high street and includes a first-time visit from an historical regal guest, royal-themed crafts and activities, and traditional seaside activities. The highlight of the day-long event will be a visit from the Sol Cinema, the world’s smallest picture house, powered entirely by the sun.

A Glastonbury Festival favourite, the Sol Cinema draws big crowds wherever it goes. The tiny picture house was hired by the band Madness last year to premiere their new film.

Town Council clerk Gareth Nickels said:
“There are lots of laughs in store with old-fashioned funfair stalls, a bubbleologist, the charming Sol Cinema with its quirky films, and a visit from a regal figure from way back just some things residents and visitors can look forward to.”

People who come dressed as a prince or princess will be given a prize.

Paul O’Connor, co-founder of the Sol Cinema, said: “We love coming to North Wales and are always made to feel very welcome. Sol Cinema is delighted to give the people of Rhyl the Royal treatment with our red carpet, usherettes and popcorn”

Royal Rhyl will be held on the town’s high street between 11am-4pm on Saturday, June 4.

Ends

http://www.thesolcinema.org

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Free radical counter culture videos to good home

2022-04-06T11:39:00.002+01:00

Free to good home- Undercurrents alternative News VHS and other videos like Operation Solstice and Reclaim the Streets. Contact Alan Dearling on adearling@aol.com

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Majority of Government press meetings are with right wingers

2021-12-30T08:08:00.002+00:00

81% of Downing Street Media MeetingsHeld with Right-Wing Newspapers

Sam Bright

14 December 2021

The overwhelming majority of official Downing Street and Cabinet Office ministerial meetings conducted with journalists have been with members of right-wing newspapers, Byline Times can reveal.

From the beginning of 2020 to June 2021, ministers in Downing Street and the Cabinet Office have held 86 official meetings with members of the media – 70 of which have been with journalists or executives at right-wing newspapers. A further 12 of these meetings have been with members of the broadcast media, while only two meetings have been with liberal or left-leaning titles.

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Watch LIVE reports from COP climate talks & resistance in Glasgow

2021-11-01T17:38:00.003+00:00

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Court rules undercover policing operation against protest movements were 'unlawful and sexist'

2021-09-30T12:26:00.005+01:00

Kate Wilson with her legal team outside Royal Courts of Justice

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal today handed down its ruling in Kate Wilson's epic ten-year legal battle over the use of undercover police against protest movements[i] The detailed, ground-breaking, 156-page ruling[ii] identified a "formidable list" of breaches of fundamental human rights by the Metropolitan Police without lawful justification in a democratic society[iii].

Spy Cops slammed in court

The Tribunal looked at evidence relating to the sexual relationships UCO Mark Kennedy had with Ms Wilson and a number of other women, and at the widespread practice of undercover officers (UCOs) deceiving women into intimate relationships, concluding that the police violated her Article 3 right to live free from inhumane and degrading treatment, as well as her Article 8 right to private and family life, and that they were guilty of sexist discrimination in their handling of her human rights.

The findings stressed that the police failed to put in place systems, safeguards or protections: training of UCOs in relation to sexual relationships was grossly inadequate, and there was a widespread failure of supervision of Mark Kennedy in his undercover role. The Tribunal ruled that the failure to prevent undercover officers entering into sexual relationships primarily impacted women[iv], to the extent that it amounted to sexist discrimination under Article 14.

"Don't ask, don't tell"

The Tribunal noted that the evidence showed a disturbing lack of concern on the part of the police about the impact on women of introducing undercover officers into their lives, and the likelihood that those officers would seek to have sex. The ruling stressed that the sexual relationship Ms Wilson was deceived into by Mark Kennedy was conducted with the knowledge of his principal cover officer, and that his deployment manager[v], and other senior officers of Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) level and above knew (or chose not to know) about the sexual relationship, concluding that the National Public Order Policing Unit's approach to its officers having sex while undercover was one of "don't ask, don't tell".

Unlawful operations violated the right to protest

Kate was spied on by 6 undercover officers. From left to right: Jim Boyling, Jason Bishop, Rod Richardson, Mark Kennedy, Lynne Watson & Marco Jacobs.

The ruling did not stop at the sexual relationships, as the Tribunal found that police took steps to interfere with Ms Wilson's political rights to hold opinions and with her Article 10 and 11 rights to freedom of expression and association; as well as violating her right to a private and family life.

The ruling stressed that the police had failed to give any proper consideration or put structures in place to limit collateral intrusion into the private lives of Ms Wilson or anyone else coming into contact with the operations. They described the breadth and open-ended quality of the authorisations for Mark Kennedy's operation, which were virtually meaningless as any kind of protection, calling the operation a "fishing expedition".

They ruled that the right to hold opinions and exchange information and ideas must include the right to do so without attracting the attention of the police, and being monitored and placed under surveillance. They concluded that in this case the claimant's political views were the reason why she was subject to surveillance.

"disturbing and lamentable failings at the most fundamental levels."

The judgment also criticised the Metropolitan Police conduct of the case, stating that many contemporaneous documents "crie[d] out for an explanation", and that there was "no reason that we can see why we were not provided with a statement from a witness with direct knowledge of these matters". The factual evidence provided by the police was deemed "unsatisfactory", and the ruling noted that, were it not for Ms Wilson's tenacity and perseverance, "much of what this case has revealed would not have come to light".
The ruling concludes:

"This is a formidable list of Convention violations, the severity of which is underscored in particular by the violations of Arts 3 and 14. This is not just a case about a renegade police officer who took advantage of his undercover deployment to indulge his sexual proclivities, serious though this aspect of the case unquestionably is. Our findings that the authorisations under RIPA were fatally flawed and the undercover operation could not be justified as "necessary in a democratic society", as required by the ECHR, reveal disturbing and lamentable failings at the most fundamental levels."

Ms Wilson commented

"This has been a long and emotional journey, and I am happy to receive this ruling today. The events in my case happened years ago, however the failure of the police to protect women from sexual predators within their own ranks, and police attempts to criminalise protestors are both still very live issues today. The Tribunal has gone some way towards recognising how deep the abuses run. We need to tackle the misogyny and institutional sexism of the police and there needs to be a fundamental rethink of the powers they are given for the policing of demonstrations and the surveillance of those who take part."

Harriet Wistrich, Director of the Centre for Women's Justice who acted as a layer for Ms Wilson in the early stages and as a witness in the case commented:

"This excoriating judgement could not have come at a more significant moment when we hear the details of the horrendous murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met police officer who used deceit with the opportunities of his job to entrap her. What is it going to take to transform the culture of policing so that resources are used to protect women from abuse from violence, not to abuse them?"

[i]The case was part of a marathon 10 year battle for justice by Ms Wilson and other women, following revelations that they had been deceived into relationships by undercover police. Having exhausted other routes, she took her fight for answers to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. This is a secretive court set up to examine human rights abuses by state agencies carrying out surveillance. It's rules are quite different from open court and it has the ability to exclude claimants from taking part in proceedings. Despite the restrictions, Ms Wilson was able to secure significant disclosure which throws a rare spotlight on the undercover policing units.

[ii]A link to the full judgement is here:
https://www.ipt-uk.com/judgments.asp?id=61

And this is a helpful summary by Ms Wilson's legal team:
https://sustainability.freshfields.com/post/102h7l7/specialist-human-rights-tribunal-gives-landmark-undercover-policing-judgment

[iii]The police had already admitted a number of violations including breaches of Articles 3 (degrading and inhumane treatment) and Article 8 (private and family life) and Article 10 (freedom of expression) as a result of being deceived into relationship by undercover police officer Mark Kennedy. However, Ms Wilson's case went further, arguing, among other issues, that 5 other undercover operations had interfered with her rights to privacy, free speech and assembly (Article 8 and Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, often combined as 'the right to protest'); and that the systematic use of sexual relationships with women by male undercover officers amounted to sexist discrimination under Article 14. The IPT ruled in her favour on all these points.

[iv]By reason of (a) the numbers of women affected and (b) the greater adverse impact on women's lives through either risk of pregnancy or interference with their child-bearing years.

[v]Known only as "Detective Chief Inspector O-24" throughout the proceedings

Exploding Cinema- video art in the 1990s- new book out

2021-09-26T18:44:00.003+01:00

Exploding Cinema 1991 - 1997

culture and democracy

a thesis by Stefan Szczelkun

Undercurrents is featured in this new book- A history of the first seven to nine years, of Exploding Cinema. Exploding Cinema are an open access film showing collective still active in London

It is also a critical evaluation of an open-artists collective as a form that, it is argued, is of fundamentally more value as a cultural force than the establishment's art institutions. How do we render these oppositional formations as ‘knowledge’? How do we argue for the importance of their, sometimes anarchic, vitality to an alienated world?

6 x 9 inches paperback

188 pages c47 b/w illustrations

index of about 400 names from body text

Publishing date 10th of October 2021

£9.95 or $15, €15

ISBN - 9781870736336

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Crane protest in support of Palestine at Vauxhall, London

2021-06-15T10:35:00.018+01:00

Exactly 48 hours after the 69 year old climbed a crane and dropped a Palestine flag, Nick Georges will descend to earth again. After a cold night and scorching sunshine, he will face arrest. His supporters are urging people to visit and welcome him down at 5pm today (Weds) from his perch near Vauxhall station, London. Elm street nearby is the closest point.

Undercurrents reports that a pensioner has climbed a tall crane amongst the skyscrapers of Vauxhall, London to fly the Palestine flag. Nick Georges (69) plans to stay for days to raise the awareness of the Israeli bombing of Gaza in May which has killed at least 230 and injured thousands of innocents, many of them children. Entire roads and power networks were destroyed, and high-rise buildings were flattened to the ground during the Israeli airstrikes.

Construction site shut down by Palestine campaigner. Costs expected at thousands as cranes and machinery stand idle at the billion pound Vauxhall skyscraper construction site.

Nick Georges was arrested recently for destroying the premises of British based Israeli Drone company Elbit. A spokesperson at the base of the crane said 'Hundreds of people are asking and bringing us food and tents'

News coverage has been wide with reports here, here, here and here

Nick Georges interviewed before his assent

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Rich man V skateboarders of Mumbles (beep beep)

2021-05-28T20:01:00.006+01:00

People in Swansea are protesting outside a rich man's McMansion by beeping their horns. The used car salesman is trying to stop young people from having a better skatepark opposite his mansion.

People beep their car horns when they pass his mansion. This has upset him so he made a video to show how it is for him. Watch below.

Trade Centre Wales Boss Mark Bailey is trying to stop a children’s skatepark opposite his McMansion on Mumbles road, Swansea. In protest against him, the people of Swansea beep their horn as they go by his house. The campaign used the hashtag #beepforthebellend to promote the beeping.

The used car salesman in South Wales known is livid that a skatepark opposite his Swansea house is to be redeveloped. Bailey has been caught on mobile phone footage challenging and threatening children whilst on their skateboards. The skate park design is here

Louise Adamson a local commented 'He's attempted to use his money to buy the removal of the skate park down the road outside someone else's house .Hes a bully and beeping the horns was the only way people felt they could make their protest against him and him alone .He has no concern where its moved to just not by his house .This is why the community has no respect for him'

Carley Sullivan added 'just shows how many people are unhappy about him trying to use money as a way to bully his way into getting what he wants'

In a sudden U-TURN Trade Centre Wales owner Mark Bailey has withdrawn his objections to the development of a skatepark along Swansea's seafront. The video footage of him threatening violence on a child skater probably was having repercussions on his business.

A day long skate celebration is planned for Saturday 29th May

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Solar powered Cinema accepts first cryptocurrency payment

2021-05-19T10:02:00.004+01:00

The award-winning Sol Cinema accepted their first payment in cryptocurrency this week.
The vintage mobile cinema has been hired to celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of Wales’ best digital media company. Sol Cinema requested to be paid in Cryptocurrency rather than in regular Sterling. Luckily the director of Tantrwm productions was willing, and now both companies are excited by the possibilities of this new form of currency,

Co-founder of Sol Cinema Paul O’Connor stated;
‘We decided to begin accepting cryptocurrency payments in 2021 because we pride ourselves upon being pioneers. So we were delighted when Tantrwm Productions agreed to become our ﬁrst customer willing to hire us in cryptocurrency”

Paul, who is also the Sol Cinema projectionist, added;
‘‘Sol Cinema loves embracing new technology, demonstrated by the fact that our vintage cinema has been 100% solar powered for more than a decade. We can be placed anywhere and perform without having to plug in.’

But the environment friendly cinema was careful in their decision on which cryptocurrency they would accept. One of the Worlds’ richest men, Elon Musk announced he would stop accepting Bitcoin payment for his TESLA electric cars. He tweeted recently “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel”

Sol Cinema uses renewable energy to educate the public about caring for the environment so it was vitally important they could ﬁnd a more planet friendly alternative for payment.

Co-founder of Sol Cinema projectionist Paul O’Connor stated;
‘Rather than using BITCOIN’s old method of energy intensive computing to generate funds, we discovered a newer cryptocurrency which uses an entirely diﬀerent method. We chose CARDANO once we learned that it is 1.6 million times more energy-eﬃcient than the 12 year old BITCOIN technology.’

The CARDANO blockchain relies on ‘Stake Pools’ across the World to share production costs by using their home computers to create the online Blockchain technology. Sol Cinema delegated their ﬁrst digital payment to a ‘Stake Pool’ who earlier this year became the ﬁrst people based in Wales to build blocks for the £50 Billion CARDANO decentralised network.

A spokesperson for the South Wales based ‘Oyster Pool’ said;
‘We were delighted to launch the ﬁrst CARDANO Stake Pool in Wales and we welcome Sol Cinema. Oyster Pool is now open to all CARDANO holders who would like to earn rewards while supporting decentralisation and sustainable technologies of the future.’

Since 2010, the diminutive cinema has entertained more than 80,000 people at music and ﬁlm festivals or community events in Britain and across the E.U. In May 2021 the Sol Cinema was hired by iconic British band Madness to host the World premiere of their new ﬁlm. Sol Cinema has performed in ﬁelds, factories, schools, city centres, on a farm and even in a Zoo. Being mobile, it can squeeze into the smallest spots and entertain with short ﬁlms, popcorn and usherettes.

Andrew Chainey, Director of Tantrwm productions explained his reasons for hiring Sol Cinema with payment in cryptocurrency;
“Tantrwm productions has been at the forefront of technology in Wales for two decades now so we were delighted to avail of paying the Sol Cinema in CARDANO. We believe in Open-Source, and peer to peer technology. If more organisations in Wales embraced the emerging technologies then there is a real possibility to create ’silicon-valleys’ where once there was only coal”

The Sol Cinema was created from a 1972 caravan by artist Jo Furlong. He added plush seating, LED lighting and surround sound to create a unique mobile venue. All the technology in the cinema, from digital video projector to a computer, lights and the sound system is powered solely by solar energy. The Sol Cinema won a Digital Hero award for best use of sustainable technology. It also won a Network Wales award for best communication project. Sol Cinema will be performing at Camp Bestival in July.

This is one small cinema that thinks big.

Sol Cinema VIP gallery: thesolcinema.org/vip-gallery

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

How i helped stage a Leicester Square cinema premiere for iconic band Madness during lockdown

2021-04-30T10:34:00.001+01:00

The infamous ska band Madness asked if we could help premiere its new three-part documentary TV series, Before We Was We. Since all the regular size cinemas were closed, the band thought it’d be fun to do its launch in the world’s smallest mobile picture house. So we dusted off the Sol Cinema and went to London and today we can reveal the wonderful results. Read the full story here in my article for WHY NOW

You can watch it here from 2pm on April 30th

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Did Police manipulate the media?

2021-03-26T23:23:00.005+00:00

Avon and Somerset police quietly admitted that no officers suffered broken bones during Sunday’s Kill The Bill protest. In a statement posted to their website, the force said: “Thankfully following a full medical assessment of the two officers taken to hospital, neither were found to have suffered confirmed broken bones.”

This is quite an admission given that, in the hours following the riot, the force was telling all and sundry that an officer had been rushed to hospital with a punctured lung after being stamped on by a baying mob, claims that were, of course, uncritically repeated by the likes of the Telegraph and the Times.

https://freedomnews.org.uk/bristol-cops-quietly-admit-no-officers-suffered-broken-bones-at-sundays-kill-the-bill-protest/

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Interfaith for Palestine UK release a video of support for member now facing 10 years in prison.

2021-03-26T23:18:00.001+00:00

I produced a short video for Interfaith for Palestine UK today

PRESS RELEASE
Date: Friday 26th March 202
A network of faith based people from across Wales have released a video in support of one their members who took part in a roof-top protest against the Israeli owned arms factory. Elbit is an Israeli firm that produces 85% of the drones used by the Israeli military in daily surveillance operations and attacks in Gaza.
Nick Georges is a member of the Swansea-based Interfaith for Palestine group. Motivated by his Christian belief to end the Genocide of the Palestinian people, Nick risked his life to climb over razor wire in February 2021 at the factory to make a dramatic protest. Windows were smashed and red paint was sprayed over the building. The 69 year old pensioner now faces a potential 10-year prison sentence for standing up for peace.

  Joseph O’Neill, chairman of Interfaith for Palestine said today.
"Nick's action will have saved Palestinian children from murder by Israeli regime drones. Nick's Christian witness against one of the ten Elbit factories of Death in the UK is an example to us all. We cannot rest till these moral blots on the landscape of Albion are removed."   

He continued to say
“ We have released this video today to help raise awareness of Nick’s protest and offer our support to him and to Palestine”

  Those who wish to support Nick, may join Christians and moderate Jews outside Shenstone Court for the pre-trial hearing. Stafford, ST16 2QQ at 9.30 am on Monday 29th March from 9.30 am. We ask that people join us in our peaceful interfaith demonstration of support. 

Palestine UK a group of Christians, Muslims, moderate Jews, and others, working towards the common goal of ending the Genocide of the Palestinians by the Jewish State.

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Performers fear loss of another entire season following the announcement of Glastonbury cancellation.

2021-01-22T15:48:00.000+00:00

I operate and tour the Sol Cinema, World’s smallest solar powered movie theatre. Following Brexit and COVID we issued this press release

PRESS RELEASE

January 21 2021

Performers fear loss of another entire season following the announcement of Glastonbury cancellation.

The award-winning mobile film theatre, Sol Cinema is based in Swansea.
 Following today’s announcement of the cancellation of Glastonbury festival due to COIVD, the performers now fear that their entire work will be once again wiped out for another year.

Booked to perform at Glastonbury festival and many other events in 2020, the Sol Cinema had to lie dormant all year. Today's’s news is a terrible blow, and they now fear that their 2021 season will also be wiped out with a total loss of income.

The Sol Cinema marked it’s 10th anniversary this year, but no celebrations were to had due to COVID.

Since 2010, the diminutive cinema has entertained more than 80,000 people at music and film festivals or community events in Britain and the E.U

Co-founder and Sol Cinema projectionist Paul O’Connor stated;

‘Sol Cinema has performed in fields, factories, schools, city centres, on a farm and even in a Zoo. Being mobile, we can squeeze into the smallest spots and entertain with short films and our smartly dressed experienced street performers.   COVID devastated all events and festivals last year, and now we have to be realistic and accept that 2021 will be the same. Brexit has also made it much more difficult to tour the EU for us. The increased paperwork and finance has resulted in not being able to tour European events too.’

The Sol Cinema has created from a 1972 caravan which was being used to house chickens on a small holding. Artist Jo Furlong added plush seating, LED lighting and a projector combined with surround sound to create the unique mobile venue. To boost its environmental credentials further the cinema is powered entirely by solar energy. Power is stored in a bank of Solar Panels from 120W panel.

The Sol Cinema won a Digital Hero award for best use of sustainable technology in 2014. It also won a Network Wales award for best communication project in 2010.

END NOTES TO EDITORS:

To arrange interviews contact; Paul O’Connor 07973 298359

E: solcinema@undercurrents.org

W: www.thesolcinema.org
 Photographs available : thesolcinema.org/press

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Reflecting on the journey of independent grassroots media

2020-09-29T07:39:00.003+01:00

Hamish Campbell has worked in video activism for decades.

Based on the #OMN This is the archive site that we use as an example https://oxford.indymedia.org.uk "It easy to keep crossing wires with "media" vs. personal. Media _should_ be open, with clear sources, except when protecting them. Whereas personal data should default to private"

My blog for more reading http://hamishcampbell.com A view of the political technology behind the indymedia project https://mako.cc/academic/collablit/wr...

This was the UK main site https://webarchive.loc.gov/legacy/200...

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

How news is reported.Spot the difference

2020-08-07T17:03:00.001+01:00

There is cctv footage from inside the mosque. Everyone was a tleast a metre apart, adhering to social distancing rules. BBC ignore this and the only photo they used is of the building itself.
We need a new media

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Police V our video cameras

2020-07-18T20:36:00.003+01:00

Police moaning that their version of assaults is being challenged by eye witness video.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/15/police-treated-unfairly-over-incidents-caught-on-video-says-senior-officer?CMP=share_btn_fb

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Howard Marks and Cannabis

2020-07-13T08:42:00.001+01:00

Undercurrents has reported on Cannabis protests for decades. A report from Freedom Seeds

The first time I met Howard Marks was the summer of 1997, he had come to Portsmouth for the annual Smokey Bears Picnic on Southsea Common.
We had arranged for him to drop in at my house to chat to a reporter from a local magazine before heading on to the picnic. Howard was smoking some black Nepalese hash.

I asked him if he would be taking any dope to the picnic, “Oh sure” he said in his Welsh accent, “I always have a bit with me, I’m bustable 100% of the time”.
The previous day Howard had been quoted in the local paper as being prepared to smoke cannabis at the picnic. So when we got there a police inspector asked him who he was. “I’m Howard Marks” he said with a big grin. “In that case” said the inspector, “because of statements attributed to you in the press, I am arresting you on suspicion of being in possession of a controlled substance”.
Another copper grabbed Howard’s other arm and they started to march him off the common. This was the first time he had been in custody since being released from his 25 year sentence in a federal penitentiary a couple of years earlier.
On seeing Howard being dragged off, some of the hundreds at the picnic ran forward and surrounded him and his escort. A police helmet flew through the air as Howard was pulled away from the overwhelmed cops and de-arrested. All of this time Howard had not stopped grinning, he loved every minute of it.
Soon more cops arrived and Howard was back in custody. They took him to a van, searched him, didn’t find the hash and released him shortly afterwards.
Next day it was all over the press. Good news for the picnic and good news for sales of Howard’s autobiography Mr Nice, which had been in the bestselling lists since being published the previous year.
There is a nice sequence of the 1997 picnic, including Howard’s arrest, in the Undercurrents film Grassroots.

When the book first came out Howard’s publisher sent him on the road to promote it, something Howard was more than a little apprehensive about.The usual format was Howard reading some excerpts from the book, a Q&A then queue up to get him to sign your book.. As he got more confident it turned into his one man show ‘An Audience with Mr Nice’, an evening of readings, random reminiscences, one liners and rabble rousing rebellion, oh, and live dope smoking on stage, always a massive crowd pleaser.

It got to the point when you couldn’t help bumping into the guy at one event or another.
I remember sitting on the hill overlooking the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury one sunny afternoon and not noticing a figure shuffling onto the stage in the distance.
Suddenly a deep toned and very Welsh “Hello” came over the PA
Howard had famously been described as sounding like Richard Burton and looking like a Rolling Stone – “I wish it was the other way round” he’d say.
The voice continued, “I have been asked to come out here to ask you not to piss in the hedge. You see, it all drains into the stream and kills the fishes, and we haven’t come here to kill the fishes”.
The crowd turned their heads. ‘That’s Howard Marks’, ‘Where?’, ‘There, on the stage’. People stood up to get a better look, at Glastonbury he was a man who needed no introduction.
I’m sure there are fishes in Somerset who owe their lives to Howard.

In 2009 they made a film of Mr Nice staring Howard’s mate and fellow Welshman Rhys Ifans.
By December the film was in the can and due for release in the New Year. Howard was booked at The Cellars in Eastney to do a small warm up gig before his upcoming tour. We booked the front two rows for our firms Christmas do.
At one point during the evening Howard showed us an unauthorised trailer for the film, it was cut to the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix – music they would never get the rights to use but it was bloody brilliant and raised a huge cheer.
I spoke to him that night about how he would be remembered. I suggested that when this is all over, and the dust has settled, his legacy would be the autobiography Mr Nice and this movie. “I’m happy with that” he said.
Smuggler, scholar, stoner, cultural icon, legend, to me he was all these but I just knew him as Howard, and I will miss him.

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Black Lives Matter

2020-06-04T10:20:00.000+01:00

What is happening in the US is the same struggle for justice that black people have in the UK.

This is a video we made in 1996. Many more black people have died at the hands of the British police since.

In 1996 the police were criticised for lacking training in the use of the new, long batons, after an inquest decided that Brian Douglas, a black man died after being struck over the head with the weapon had been lawfully killed. The comments follow a verdict of "misadventure" by nine of the 11 jury members at the inquest of Brian Douglas, 33, who died in police custody Police said Douglas's death was a tragedy, but added that the introduction of the baton had helped to reduce serious injuries.... to Police officers.

#blacklivesmatter

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Media and the Spectacular Society by Gillian McIver

2020-06-03T09:36:00.000+01:00

Media and the Spectacular Society by Gillian McIver

Activism and the Media

DIY Culture

"The struggle against mass culture can consist only in pointing out its connection with the persistence of social injustice." Max Horkheimer [48]
"To be radical is to grasp something at its roots. But for man the root is man himself." Karl Marx
According to Jon Dovey, the use of a technology is only as good as who is using it: the 1970's Utopian project of community video failed "because the political movements in which it was embedded failed." [49] In the mid-1990's there are new radical movements, which use video and computer technology, to doubly challenge the social and political status quo, and to offer a participatory alternative to the mainstream media itself. They reject what they see as an "official" culture sanctioned by the partnership of government, corporations and the media elite as being appropriate for public consumption. Further, they reject politics, believing that popular participation in the official political prcess is possible but pointless. [50] They use the tactics of direct action, and many were first influenced by the environmental movement. [51]
Direct action does work in the West to the extent that, since we don't live under the sort of oppressive regimes that exist elsewhere, propped up by Western-armed dictators and Western-owned multinationals, the activist is unlikely to be found headless and mutilated in a ditch. In the end, the main threat Western states can offer the activist is prison. According to activist Lotte Kronhild of Project Ploughshares, fear of prison keeps us inactive; by openly doing action which will send us to prison we break the power of the state. [52] In the eighteenth century, when the death penalty was laid down for crimes of property, particularly poaching, juries were reluctant to convict. Challenging the dominance of the State is not risk-free but it is not a life-or-death situation. However, the price of challenging the corporations can be high, for example, the gargantuan two-year libel suit McDonald's has brought against pro-vegetarian activists. [53] The main weapon Western regimes have toward activists is the weapon of silence, isolation. This doesn't always work., as activists have learned the skills of networking (e.g. persuading a popular music group to openly support them) and guerrilla publicity (e.g. AIDS awareness group ACT-UP).
Since the 1960s, the underground press, community television and radio, in small self-managed groups, usually co-operatives, have waxed and waned in the alternative scene. They have never entirely gone away. The underground press continues, especially in the USA, to thrive and produce interesting material. The promise of cable-access local television comes and goes; in parts of the US, several years ago, cable access was certainly serving the alternative movement, but the neo-Nazi alternative. Lately, however, the price of video equipment has dropped so dramatically that for the first time, real community and/or activist television is possible in the same way that pirate radio is possible. And alternative groups are making videos, setting up websites. Examples of current alternative campaigns are too numerous to describe fully, but instead of a single movement (e.g.socialist struggle) there are many, which together make up a sort of counterculture. The fact that there is no great plan or scheme is both a strength and a weakness. The Situationist ideas of direct democracy and reclamation of everyday life from consumer culture, are a large part of alternative practice. Do-It-Yourself culture is the expression of a generation which grew up into an adulthood of shrinking job opportunities, lowered expectations and a deep distrust of the political system, in which parties offer variations on the single theme of conservatism and the reign of "free market" economics at the expense of the environment, people and the future. "You don't sit around wait for something to be handed to you on a plate," says one woman involved in creating free festivals. However, rejecting the yuppie idea of "go and get it," the DIY culture attempts to provide as much as possible for free, funded by donations, or through co-operative means. They "create situations" rather than sloganeer and demonstrate (e.g. Reclaim the Streets festive urban street parties; the anti-roads campaign inhabiting Claremont Road and throwing vast free parties every week; Earth First proclaiming the "Cascadia Free State" in the Oregon forest, and so on). With the same sort of enthusiasm, the activist's disgust at the media's portrayal of them has led them to try and make an alternative media. How successful this will be remains to be seen.
The New Radicalism
In the past, governments relied on class divisions and the power of the state to crush popular radicalism, while at the same time it was buying allegiance with material goodies. Now, children of the middle classes reject as unattainable the certainties that their parents built their lives upon: career, marriage, nice home etc. since the reality they see is divorce, unemployment, underemployment, debt, environmental damage, corporate greed, homelessness and so on.
Alternative culture tries to counter the globalism of the media by forging grassroots global links with other groups around the world.
Alternative culture is carnivalesque. The whole ethos of DIY is to cast off passivity and embrace life, action, decision, in everyday life. According to Mikhail Bakhtin, the great theorist of carnival, carnival is oppositional. It is not simply a "break" from labour or everyday life, not a leisure or entertainment. It has no utilitarian motive. It is not to be observed, but to be lived. The point of the DIY culture as it exists in free festivals, squat centres and activist campaigns, is to live in a carnivalesque manner. Use of costume, mask and theatrical devices, which are "connected with the joy of change an reincarnation, with gay relativity and with the merry negation of uniformity and similarity," are common. [54] Gone is the sacrificial radicalism derided by Vaneigem:
Violence has changed its meaning. Not that the rebel has grown weary of fighting exploitation, boredom, poverty and death: the rebel has simply resolved no longer to fight them with the weapons of exploitation, boredom, poverty and death. For the first victim of any such struggle is anyone who engages in it full of contempt for their own life... If the ancient cry of "Death to the Exploiters" no longer echoes through the streets, it is because it has given way to another cry, one harking back to childhood and issuing from a passion which, though more serene is no less tenacious. That cry is "Life First!". [55]
Replacing the revolutionary tactics of the past, Vaneigem sees the activists of the present as "groups whose collective decision-making admits of no intrusion by political representation, shuns all organisers or leaders and combats all hierarchy."
One recurring theme in radical culture and the emphasis of many of the actions which are carried out, is a call for love and respect for the natural world. While there are echoes of a "golden age" mythology at work here, a hearkening after a lost state of innocence, it cannot be ignored that modern global capitalist practices are causing rapid depredation of both the natural environment and the cultivated/inhabited environment. Whether it is forced monoculture dependent on harsh pesticides, chemical-based animal-rearing practices, opencast mining, clearcut logging or pro-roads/pro-automobile policies, all of these practices are factored inot the global economy now. Short term profit there may be, but activists realise that the long term consequences are ones which we have to live with, in terms of health and quality of life, and these have the potential to be very dangerous. Instead of nostalgia, the activists of today seek to recoup that which we have lost and are losing by an insistence on direct democracy and radical action.
Anarchism is the one romantic idea that has not yet been tainted by corrupt practice, and so many people involved in creating alternative culture are self-confessed anarchists. Like the hippies of the late 60's, some glory in the fact that mainstream consumer culture recoils at their style and behaviour: a song accompanying an Earth First video of an action to protest Clinton allowing logging of old-growth forests had these lyrics:
"Hurrah for the riffraff. Come join our circle of jolly fools Squatters and crusties who make their own rules. Rebels and beggars, carousers and thieves. Our only motto: Anarchy!"
and has other references to Luddites and Diggers, and ends with "go ahead and stare, we're everywhere!" [56]
Rejection of the mainstream is more than just about wearing dreadlocks and mohawk hairstyles, or adopting veganism. One anti-logging protester says from his camp in the Oregon wilderness "the collective spirit that's evolved up here is nothing like anything that exists down below. It's truly the Cascadia Free State, nothing to do with the Babylonian US principles of individuality and everyone for themselves and greed." [57] As stated earlier, the rebels of the 1990's differ from those of the 1960's and early 70's in that they have much less to lose by rebelling. They know that most of the old hippies became yuppies, as Vaneigem notes, "became career bureaucrats and covered themselves with glory as cogs in the apparat of State and marketplace." [58]
Alternative culture is not afraid to use the mainstream. Undercurrents (of which more later) sells camcorder footage to television to help finance its activist video projects. The band Zion Train, interviewed at a free rave, acknowledges that the label they have signed to, Time-Warner, are "arms manufacturing completely cold-hearted capitalist pigs." Zion Train defend their decision to sign however, by saying that Time Warner can now "spread the message much further than we ever could, and that way we are able to provide an alternative to Quentin Tarantino, Ice T, the Fugees, glorifying sex, death and money, coz that's not what we're about! We've had chart entries and as a result we've had people come up to us who've never heard of Newbury or RTS [Reclaim the Streets] or anything like that and say "I've joined the animal rights movement," or "I was down at Newbury..." We do what we can." [59] In the summer of 1996, the activists opposing the Newbury bypass joined forces with mainstream group Friends of the Earth (prominently sponsored by Tory-supporter Andrew Lloyd-Webber) and a number of artists to create a huge one-day art festival on the land immediately adjacent to the bypass site, and spilling over into the site. The event was well-attended, as genteel Guardian readers mixed with dreadlocked stewards for a day of performance and visual art with an anti-automobile theme.
The representation of activists in the mainstream media has long been one of "shiftless, lazy hippies." This dates back to the 1960s when many in the counterculture adopted a distinctive aesthetic style which made them very easy to identify. Creating a common bond using subcultural style has its assets and its drawbacks. It can help to create a sense of an identifiable community, but it can also serve as a "uniform" which excludes as much as it includes. What is interesting in the contemporary scene is that increasingly people who might once have been identified as "straight" or mainstream are starting sympathise with alternative culture. [60]
In the video "Celtic Enemy" the dispute is between local people in rural Wales and Celtic Energy over open-cast mining in their area, documented on video and distributed by Undercurrents [52]. The locals, mainly elderly and middle aged, describe how they tried "all conventional routes as far as campaigning is concerned" but "for three years we tried all the legal channels and got nowhere." As news of their protest filtered outside of the community, numbers of activists arrived in the village. At first they shocked the locals by their appearance ("some of them had dreadlocks...") but soon the locals realised that "somebody cared" about what was happening, and together they embarked on a fierce protest. The vile images of environmental ruin wreaked in the end by the mine contrasts with the beauty of the countryside in its original state, but the locals state that they feel that the struggle has given them the courage to continue the fight. The video shows clearly the brutality of the police, directed by big-business interests and the government, and the equally-brutal destruction of the landscape; the vaunted "reconstruction" of the countryside after the mining companies have gorged their fill, is shown to be a surreal joke: the the new landscape is hideous and artificial and nothing like what was there before.
By making a video like Celtic Enemy, the activist video-makers and Undercurrents want to provide information about the struggle of the Welsh villagers against the Establishment of big business and the government, but also, and more subversively, they want to show the gradual alliance of the villagers with the counterculture activists.
Today the ennui of the assembly-line has been replaced by the ennui of the dole queue and the McJob. [61] Unless things change drastically, there is no real reason not to put energies into creating a viable radical critique and an alternative way of life.

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Alternative Media, Undercurrents and Indy Media Centres

2020-06-03T09:32:00.001+01:00

Alternative Media, Undercurrents and Indy Media Centres

Paul O' Connor

Technology will cure cancer, America is the land of freedom, violence is natural, there is no life on Mars, the planet can not feed this many people, too much sun causes cancer, women are a minority, genetically engineered food is safe, nuclear power is not safe, Mars has life on it, global warming is happening, global warming is not happening, governments wants to end poverty, technology causes cancer .....

And on and on it goes every day we are assaulted by the media with opinions and facts from so called experts stating one point of view or the other. However, in the last twenty years, the flow of information worldwide has been controlled by an ever-shrinking number of transnational media corporations led by a handful of giants -Telecommunications, Time Warner, Disney, General Electric, Viacom and Rupert Murdochs News Corporation. The power of these organisations lies in the fact that they can produce a movie and distribute it through their cinema chain, promote it through their own TV networks, play the soundtrack on their own radio stations, and sell merchandising spin offs at their own amusement parks. A movie becomes a book, a music CD, a Broadway show then a TV series, a video game, an amusement ride.... what does freedom of speech mean in this kind of mental environment?

Undercurrents is a an alternative news organisation set up to educate and inspire people to take direct action as a way to bring about personal and global change. In 1993 direct action was making a radical return to the streets of Britain. The conservative government had embarked on a massively destructive road building scheme as well as bringing in laws aimed at making any effective protest tactic a criminal offense. The mainstream television news was largely ignoring environmental protests or relegated the concern of campaigners to lifestyle features. Television features would concentrate more on people's hairstyles than how many trees would be cut down. Anyone who went against the establishment's view of progress were routinely classed as NIMBYS (not in my back yard) or outsiders, troublemakers or depicted as a strange breed of human called eco-warriors. Local news was never put into a national context. Undercurrents set out to put local politics into an international context. Villagers trying to stop a multi national company from destroying their nature reserve are linked with similar campaigns worldwide via our videocassettes.

So what exactly is alternative media? Views are varied but generally have the same aspects of being non-profit making, against capitalism, against consumerism, and being pro environment, pro movement for change, pro action and pro community.

Two frustrated television producers who could not get their environmental programs accepted and two environmental activists who had picked up video cameras to highlight police abuse on protests created the organisation. We teamed up and released Undercurrents, an alternative news video distributed on VHS. The plan was to train activists to use domestic Hi8 camcorders to record edit, distribute and screen their own news. We coined the term Video activist to describe this new form of social activism.

In April 1994 we released the first 85minute edition VHS tape that included one 35min traditional documentary and a series of short features. While we edited much of the first issue, most of the Images came from activists who had had only basic video training. While the footage was shaky and wobbly, it was also very dynamic and very immediate. It was years ahead of its time when shaky angles from handheld camcorders would be used extensively for reality programs on television. Undercurrents succeeded in presenting a grassroots viewpoint of social change, which captured the publics' imagination.

What have we learnt?

1. We wanted to re educate video makers on how video could be used. Having viewed a number of lengthy, and very worthy videos made by people who classed themselves as 'community video and filmmakers" we figured that video could be exploited much more successfully. We wanted activists themselves to make and use the videos, rather than have the so-called "experts" do it for them.

2.While gaining an audience is very important, we focus more on how video can be used as a tool in itself rather than only concentrating on the final product of the videocassette. We train people to treat each and every time they go out with a camera as a direct action seeking a direct result. We found too many video makers focus on getting their documentaries transmitted on TV, which normally meant a broadcast at 3 in the morning rather than thinking whom the most effective audience would actually be. A good example of targeting a particular audience was when a community contacted us about noise pollution in their area. A local metal factory was working through the night and disturbing people's sleep. While the factory was in Britain, the owner actually lived in New York. This was the person who had the power to change the situation. So producing a video for local television would have proven useless, as he would never have seen it. Instead we worked with the 25 people from the local community to produce a video letter displaying their concerns. Two elderly people hand-delivered the tape to the owner in New York. The visit was broadcast on New York TV cable news and reported in the newspapers and embarrassed the owner into dismissing the manager and stopping working at night. The factory was also fined $60,000 for pollution due to our video evidence.

3.Length of video features is an important lesson we have learnt. While our first 35minute feature won an international documentary award for its unique use of camcorders, activists found it difficult to use in their campaigning. A five to ten minute video feature proved to more useful to a campaign than a lengthy documentary. Activists tend to use video to focus an audience before a debate or a presentation so humour and music and short cuts work very well and have become prominent in the undercurrents style. We have trained hundreds of video activists now and training people how to tell a story in 5 minutes is a very good skill for people to learn. With the rise of streaming video on the Internet, this skill will become invaluable.

How do we fund ourselves?

Funding any alternative media organisation is difficult and undercurrents recognised this from early on. Our funds are still erratic. Our current funds come from

25% come from selling archive material to television networks worldwide
30% from grants for training video activists
20% from selling videocassettes
25% from commissioned productions, awards, and donations and benefit parties

We rely hugely on a broad range of voluntary skills and the "Do it your self" culture of the activist movement. Our video distribution has grown organically. While only 1000 copies of each news videocassette were ever made, we figure that over 10,000 copies exist worldwide. Activists continue to copy them and translate them as well as taking images off them and using in their own productions. With limited resources and a lot of energy, undercurrents videos are being screened in music festivals, music clubs, in the open air at many protest sites, in abandoned churches, local cinemas and student unions as well as in hundreds of thousands of individual houses.

Author filming a cannabis protest

What does undercurrents set out to achieve?
We want to challenge what television broadcasters were defining as news so we would take our video images to the newsrooms and say ' your reporters were not at this dynamic direct action but we were, so why not show this?

In the beginning we had two main obstacles with this approach- one was the response of ' Hi8 images are not good enough to broadcast on TV'. A decade of camcorder images being associated only with badly recorded home movies took a while to over come we guessed .The argument we used was that the quality of our images matched the images BBC regularly screened of reports recorded on Hi8 from their foreign correspondents series.

The other obstacle that was put in out way was that we were viewed as protesters rather than reporters. Our argument was that while we didn't believe in hiding behind the myth of objectivity, we could still be independent reporters similar to the many openly biased mainstream political journalists. The difference would be that we would be reporting from the grassroots movement for democracy and social change rather than the establishment's viewpoint. Many of the broadcasters saw the invaluable potential of our contacts and now our exclusive images of protesters locking themselves underground in tunnels or battling with chainsaws in trees are regularly used in hundreds of documentary and news programs.

We feel our work with mainstream TV is important. The first few days of any large protest are the most important in guiding all the following news coverage. News presenters would either take the time to get to know the campaigners and file informative and fairly balanced reports or they would ignore any view other than the establishments and issue a hostile and ill informed report giving the airtime to the perpetrators rather than the victims. Once the first report is broadcast, the TV network then feels that they have taken a particular stance on the subject and this is what future programs will continue to base their reports upon. Thus campaigners are either classed for the public as terrorists, brave heroes, warriors, a violent mob, concerned citizens, or troublemakers depending on the mood or values or access of one presenter in the first days of a campaign.

Six years on and undercurrents has produced 10 editions of our alternative news video, inspired many others to set up in Germany, Netherlands, Australia, USA, Poland, Britain and Israel. We have also set up Britain's first training workshop for video activism, which even mainstream reporters now attend to find a new way of reporting.

Undercurrents role in the growing anti capitalism movement worldwide

The media constantly tell us how many people were killed by fascism and communism but never how many people capitalism has killed and is still killing. Perhaps when capitalism has been replaced by another system we will find out.

In the meantime, alternative media is playing a strong role in bringing together the various worldwide groups battling against the World Bank, Intentional monetary fund, the World trade organisations and the spreading culturally destructive fast food chains. Undercurrents has played a major part in the inspiration for setting up of new outlets for independent reporters. At most of the recent protests in America, Australia, and Europe an independent media center has been set up as a coordinating point for media activists to distribute their written reports, photographs and video images. Using the Internet and a new open access website designed by activists in Australia in June 1999 and built upon ever since, the indymedia.org network is growing rapidly.

At the recent protests against the World bank and IMF meeting in the Czech republic, Undercurrents and the Indymedia crew put the news on the website throughout the day. People from 45 cities in 20 countries also logged on to the site and freely published their own reports of solidarity actions occurring in their own countries. The international story grew in front of our eyes presenting the wider picture of the grassroots movement for change.

Where video activism and the Internet takes us next in the movement for changes is largely unknown and who knows what else will be invented to be used by media activists. But what ever happens it is vital that we have some alternative outlets to challenge the mainstream definition of news and to continue to offer a message of hope and inspiration to the world.

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Orwell fits the news today

2020-06-01T23:41:00.001+01:00

George Orwell quote from 1984 fits these Sun front pages

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

TV crew shot LIVE on air by Police

2020-05-31T14:12:00.000+01:00

A TV crew were shot with pepper bullets by an LMPD police officer LIVE on air during Louisville protests. Photojournalist James Dobson and reporter Kaitlin Rust. A 'little bruised' they said.
This is the result of Trump's repeated attacks on the media.

Watch is here
https://twitter.com/ChrisBishopL1C4/status/1266546753182056453

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

'Propaganda' what does it mean?

2020-05-09T08:28:00.003+01:00

'Propaganda' derives from a committee of Catholic cardinals set up in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (the Sacred College for Propagating the Faith), called Propaganda for short.

It's aim was to spread the Catholic faith in non-Catholic countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org

Mainstream or Alternative Media

2020-05-05T18:10:00.003+01:00

Me filming Police surveilance squad on a protest. Photo: The Telegraph

When I began reporting on environmental and social justice issues, i was proud to be supplying an alternative narrative to the mainstream news. While BBC news was highly supportive of the Governments road building plans or arms deals or GM food production, I was helping to present a different viewpoint. We established an alternative video news organisation called Undercurrents in 1994. We trained people to make their own news about events or issues. It captured the imagination and in the time before the internet (ar at least video on the internet) we had to rely upon posting VHS tapes out with 10 micro documentaries on each one. The tapes were boot legged and subtitled into different languages and sent on to groups worldwide. Completely independent of us.

We ridiculed the mainstream reporting of issues and showed what they left out. I never thought that 20 years later I would be hearing the President of the USA demonising the media. I was more used to seeing the media being used by the Government to spin lies and falsehoods to shape public opinion.
So when a President dismissses all media as 'Fake' it sets up a very worrying time.

Who do we believe anymore?

Undercurrents is an award winning alternative news service producing videos of people taking inspiring actions. http://www.undercurrents.org