Ten Thousand Things

"Ten Thousand Things" is a Buddhist expression representing the dynamic interconnection and simultaneous unity and diversity of everything in the universe.

WHAT THE #$*! BLEEP?!? Beppu City, Japan and Orlando, Florida host the 2006 GLOBAL PEACE FILM FESTIVAL – Interview with Festival Director Nina Streich

Googling the UN-sponsored International Day of Peace landed 13,800 results in 44 seconds on September 21. Nations (albeit not all of them), communities, organizations, and individuals around the world honored this day of global cease-fire, stopping hostilities for the entire day. And millions people around the world observed a minute of silence at 12 noon local time. The IDP website includes many photos and descriptions from past International Day of Peace events throughout Asia.

In Tokyo, activists from GPPAC Japan, supported by Peace Boat, Japan Lawyers' International Solidarity Association (JALISA), WORLD PEACE NOW, Art Network Japan, Palestinian Children's Campaign, Femin Women's Democracy Club, Amnesty International Japan, and Nonviolent Peace Force Japan, and more, held candles spelling out "Heiwa," which means "peace" in Japanese, to appeal for peace in Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, and Palestine. They also centered their thoughts on peace in Asia, reaffirming the principle stated in Article Nine in the Japanese constitution, that peace does not rely on force.

In Winter Park, Florida, students, professors, and staff at Rollins College formed a peace sign to highlight the last day of the Global Peace Film Festival in Orlando – a global event that began in Beppu City, Japan, earlier this year.

Rollins College students, faculty and staff forming a human peace sign in recognition of United Nations International Day of Peace during the Global Peace Film Festival on September 21.
Photo courtesy of Rollins College. Photo by: Stephanie Page Duesing

The film What the Bleep Do We Know was shown at both film festivals, so I did not feel too rude asking the film festival director, Nina Streich, "How the bleep did such unlikely backwater cities, without strong peace activist communities, become involved in a globally connected peace film festival?"

GPFF-Japan Ceremony: Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, UN Under-Secretary-General; Dr. Noel Brown, President, Friends of the United Nations; Takeo Senju, Chairman, GPFF-Japan; activist Bianca Jagger; Nina Streich; Kim Jackson; Katsuya Abe

And Streich's answers revealed strangely random and quantum activity at work in this connection – actually a much more interesting example than the simple ones that the creators of "What the Bleep" were able to demonstrate in their film.

She said that she originally wanted the Global Peace Film Festival in Nagasaki or Hiroshima, but the festival's Japanese representative came back to her with Beppu City as the venue, because, frankly, the city's business leaders thought it might boost tourism there. In my assessment, I found that although the city sponsored the festival for not purely selfless reasons, the festival demonstrated great moments, connections, and potential.

Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, who borrowed an old-fashioned Japanese concept "mottai nai" (don't waste!) and shared it with the world, participated in the 2006 festival. And Ritsumeikan University, site of the Kyoto Museum for World Peace, was a partner.

Streich, a life-long peace activist and gentle, powerful woman, graciously answered some more questions about the festival, her life's work as a peace activist, and her favorite peace films in an interview.

Her responses reflect the myriad mundane issues and obstacles that many peace builders face, no matter what kind of activism they choose to focus upon, and demonstrate the tenacity and focus necessary to create collective peace actions in unlikely and even largely unresponsive communities. Some of her tactical choices and changes were small, but brilliant and sharply effective, creating snowball effects, starting buzzes, and slowly, quietly, changing the cultures of these communities, with rippling global effects, towards more active peace awareness.

How did the GPFF get started?

The GPFF was the idea of founder A.T. Alishtari, an American born Moroccan businessman who believes profoundly in peace and wanted to direct his philanthropic efforts to creating an event that would make a difference. As film is such a powerful medium, he felt that a film festival could be that event. He had the idea around the time the Iraq war started.

He hired me in June, 2003 and I began working on the festival right after July 4, 2003. Although it was a ridiculously short amount of time to organize the first festival for December 2003, he said that we had to do the first festival in the year the war started – and I couldn’t disagree with his intention!
So, although I’d never been to Orlando other than two visits to the theme parks, I worked to make it happen in that very short amount of time and in a place I didn’t know.

An interesting note about Mr. Alishtari and myself: he is a devout Muslim and a conservative Republican. I am Jewish and I’m a progressive Democrat. Mr. Alishtari funded the first festival so that was one thing that I didn’t have to do – at least for the first year.

The hardest thing to do, however, was to get any community support. The Orlando community, in general, is not very welcoming to an outsider trying to get something done here and the activist community is not easy to find! The prevailing attitude that I got was “Oh, you’re just going to do your event then leave – so why should we help you?” However, as I found something of a dearth of activism and such a weak activist community, I began to believe that this fact could be the most positive reason to have the festival here. (A little bit could make a big difference!) And this also informed the programming. How could we present an issue-oriented festival to an audience that might not go out of its way to attend something of this nature?

So the programming had to be accessible to that nascent activist community yet not alienate that mainstream audience. And with the festival founder being a conservative Republican who, while he does not impose himself in the programming of the festival, it is important for him not to be alienated by it either! It’s an interesting juggling act, and something we continually pay attention to.

I think it’s very important to maintain this “home base” of Orlando, even though it’s an unlikely venue.
I decided that, to give the festival some “cache,” I would get an honorary committee together with names of leading activists as well as celebrities who support peace activism. And I decided that I wanted to try to get a luminary such as a Nobel Peace Prize winner to open the festival. I was able to get names such as Richard Gere, Philip Glass, Lee Grant, Martin Sheen, Yoko Ono and others on the honorary committee. And Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias was able to come to the opening of the Festival.

We showed 57 films from 30 countries the first year. Mr. Alishtari was so pleased with the outcome of the festival that we decided to make it an annual event. Unfortunately, Mr. Alishtari had a major business setback that has not allowed him to financially support the festival since the first year and funding has been the number one difficulty… While there are so many positive reasons for keeping the festival in Orlando, so far the financial support has been minimal from here. And it is difficult to get funders from other areas to support an event that is not in their own locations…

I had committed to do the second festival but in June/July, Mr. Alishtari told me he could not contribute anything towards it so I had to really drastically downscale and start fundraising at that very late date. I had already confirmed the participation of Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams and was getting more support from local groups, etc. And once you cancel an event, it's even harder to get started again. And then the hurricanes hit...

It was a very small festival but was very well received and had a loyal audience from the previous year. Each year has brought more attention and new support - not yet financial, however... - that has led me to believe that this can really become a significant event and that it will begin to garner the financial support necessary to allow the festival to grow and flourish.

This year, 2006, I moved the festival to September to coincide with the UN International Day of Peace.
This was not just for the International Day of Peace but because there was so much potential support from the schools but December is a terrible time for them!

So the move has allowed Rollins College and the University of Central Florida to really get on board – a huge and significant development that is very exciting. Also, the Orange County Public Schools, through board member Wendy Doromal, brought field trips to the Enzian Theater to see films that were specifically selected for their accessibility for middle and high school kids. Over 800 kids attended the four screenings.

Why were the unlikely venues of Orlando and Beppu City chosen? These two cities evoke images of tourists at theme parks and glitzy resorts to me. To me, these choices make as much sense as having a peace film festival in Las Vegas.

Mr. Alishtari, who had business interests in the area at the time, chose Orlando. The reason for the choice was that simple. However, once I began coming here to plan the festival, I came to believe that this is a really great place for it for several reasons.

Firstly, Orlando is a tourist destination for the entire world. Secondly, there is a film industry infrastructure here that helps. Thirdly, there is a huge student population here – including three film schools -- as well as several other schools with film programs. Finally, it’s a “red” state! If a festival like this is going to make a difference, we have to not only preach to the choir but we must reach out to people who may not have stopped to think about these issues, and to let them know that what they do can make a difference.

The Japanese representative chose Beppu City. Katsuya Abe, whose company is involved in cultural exchange between Japan and the US, took the idea of the Global Peace Film Festival to his associates in Japan. The idea of a peace film festival was, of course, a natural. It was just a matter of where. The Junior Chamber of Commerce of Beppu decided to champion the festival and make it happen there. The first festival was in early May 2006. They are working on the second festival now.

GPFF is moving into other parts of the globe – would you comment on the newest venues?

The next GPFF will be at the Agape Center in Los Angeles in late January 2007.Beyond that, there are several “irons in the fire,” but nothing definitive at this time. There have been discussions about a GPFF in Africa and I have recently been approached about a GPFF in Beijing, China. I believe this is a festival that can work all over the world.

However, I am not pushing for it to go to one place or another – I would rather allow the venues in other parts of the globe to emerge naturally. And I believe they will.

There is so much that goes into producing a film festival. We can only do so much from here. It is critically important that the other elements are able to come together in any other venue before launching other GPFFs.

What are the goals of GPFF?

The mission of the GPFF is to use the power of film to further the goal of peace on earth.
One of the goals is to identify films on GPFF issues and look for alternative distribution possibilities for them through festivals and other programs that we’re exploring.

Another goal is to inspire people who attend the festival and festival-related events to get involved themselves. We have begun to invite representatives from local organizations that work on issues touched on in the films to not just bring literature to distribute at the festival but, where appropriate, speak after the film has screened to tell the audience about local activities that they can join.

We intend to develop other GPFFs in other parts of the world – as well as elsewhere in the US.

You've been a life-long peace activist. Might you say something about your background and thoughts about the development of the movement and the role of independent films in raising awareness of peace issues?

An early mentor was a writer who had been blacklisted in the McCarthy era. He would tell me stories about the power of the motion picture and about how he and his contemporaries aspired to use their art to make change in the world. This was always an inspiration to me – and something I aspired to. I would love him to have known about the GPFF, but unfortunately he died several years ago…

My background has been primarily around the issues of nuclear disarmament, against US intervention in Central America and the environmental movement. Before that, growing up in England, I went to some of the protests against the Vietnam War when I was quite young. When I moved back to the US, I began working on the PR for anti-nuke marches, etc.

As media coordinator for the massive June 12, 1982 Rally for Nuclear Disarmament that drew over one million people in New York during the Second UN Special Session on Disarmament, among other things I initiated the production of a documentary on the event.



1982 Rally for Nuclear Disarmament
photo: War Resisters League

It also got me involved in Performing Artists for Nuclear Disarmament (PAND), ultimately serving on its Board of Directors until the organization closed its doors. I also produced live special events (dramatizations, poetry readings, etc.) to raise awareness about pressing social issues.

Toward the end of the 80s, I began to get involved in electoral politics. I worked on the Dukakis for President campaign in 1987 and 1988 as the New York Finance Director. The Dinkins mayoral campaign followed. After David Dinkins won the election, I was one of the coordinators of his inauguration and then appointed Deputy Film Commissioner for the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting. When the Commissioner resigned, I became Acting Commissioner. This was a wonderful blending of my two loves – film and politics.

It is from this background that I came to run the GPFF…

Film is such a powerful and exciting medium. People talk about only independent films about progressive issues as having a “message.” But I think every film has a “message” – whether the filmmaker states it or not. There are only a percentage of films made that are overtly “message movies.” With the GPFF, we try very hard to find the narrative features that address issues that the festival covers because so many people won’t go out of their way to see documentaries.

We want to reach those people – not just the already “usual suspects.” And if the festival were to really succeed, what I hope we’ll be able to spotlight is the fact that there is indeed a market for these peace films. It is also important to broaden the definition of “peace film.”

It’s not just about war and peace, but has to also be about community and family and reconciliation and understanding of differences between peoples and … so much more. We were really glad to open this year’s festival with a comedy.

What are a few of your favorite "peace" films and why?

Two really early influences (I saw both in high school) were Peter Watkins’ The War Game, an English film about a nuclear holocaust, and Alain Resnais’ “La Nuit et Le Brouillard” (The Night and the Fog) about the horrors of Auschwitz. Of course, there’s Dr. Strangelove: or, How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb. And I loved The Day the Earth Stood Still. As for newer films, I think War Games is an underrated film.

Of major American filmmakers who raise serious issues through mainstream films are Sydney Pollack (Three Days of the Condor, The Way We Were and, most recently, The Interpreter); http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373926/ and Alan Pakula (Parallax View, All the President’s Men).
Steven Soderberg and George Clooney are doing some great stuff… Spielberg has made some important contributions from Shoah to Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan and Munich, but I’d also add The Color Purple as equally significant in his opus – again with this broader definition of peace films. I could go on…

Would you comment more on the response to festival in Beppu City? Did the audience travel to see it or were they local? Did they have a specific interest re peace issues?

The GPFF-Japan in Beppu City was organized primarily by the Beppu Junior Chamber of Commerce and other prominent Beppu City people. All the screenings and events I attended or stopped by were well attended. But I do not have the demographic information. Re specific interest in peace issues, I have found that all the Japanese people that I met during my too-brief visit have a profound interest in peace issues – something that I found very encouraging and exciting.

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