Screening at Vancity Theatre Tuesday, May 11 at 8:30 PM

If you love this universe — come out tonight to the Vancity Theatre in Vancouver! It’s one of the new ‘collection’ from Mark Achbar of The Corporation. It’s stunningly shot, extremely engaging and chillingly important. View the trailer here. Action & info links about space security below.

Executive Producer Betsy Carson & narrator Mikela Jay will be in attendance. Writer Harold Crooks will host a Q & A. Buy tickets for DOXA. 

We spoke to Pax Americana writer, Harold Crooks yesterday about the film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00zKr8EYyzI

Earth being ruled from space is no longer science-fiction.

As if there weren’t enough weapons here on earth, space has become the newest arena for countries around the globe to launch their struggle for supremacy. The dream of the original Dr. Strangelove, Wernher von Braun (from Nazi rocket-scientist to NASA director) has survived every US administration since WW2 and, even in Obama’s America, is still coming to life.

Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space is packed full of some truly startling facts — everything from the “Rods of God” (space weapons that can launch from orbit) to the fact that fifty cents of every American tax dollar goes towards military spending. As in the sea battles of the 18th and 19th Century, global interests are at stake. And economics again is at the heart of the struggle. The astronomical costs of arming and policing the heavens (more than $200 billion) has largely been undertaken by the US Air Force, but with China recently shooting down one of their own aging satellites and other nations challenging American supremacy, the space race shows every sign of heating up. This time, the sky may indeed be falling.

Executive Producers MARK ACHBAR • BETSY CARSON • JEREMY EDWARDES • LUCIE TREMBLAY
Produced by LUCIE TREMBLAY • JEREMY EDWARDES • BRICE GARNIER
Directed by by DENIS DELESTRAC
Written by DENIS DELESTRAC & HAROLD CROOKS
Narrated by MIKELA JAY
Narration written by DENIS DELESTRAC & SIOBHAN FLANAGAN
Director of Photography JEAN-PIERRE SAINT-LOUIS
Original Music by AMON TOBIN

THE SIMONS FOUNDATION is a screening partner, and HELLO COOL WORLD is a community partner for for the DOXA showing of this film.

THE SIMONS FOUNDATION’S mission is focused on nuclear disarmament, human security and international law. The foundation is actively engaged in promoting positive change through education in peace, disarmament, international law, and human rights.

HELLO COOL WORLD’S mandate is: ideas to audiences, audiences to action, action to outcome. We hope to help drive a movement connected to this film and to The Corporation film to prevent the weaponization of space.

ACTION & INFO LINKS ABOUT SPACE SECURITY:

The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space was founded in 1992 by the joint efforts of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice (FCPJ); Citizens for Peace in Space (Colorado Springs); and New York-based Journalism professor Karl Grossman.

Bruce Gagnon, featued in Pax Americana serves as Secretary/Coordinator of the GN. He has been working on space issues for the past 25 years and helped create the GN in 1992. His book, called “Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire”, was republished in 2008. For 15 years he coordinated the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice. He was trained as an organizer by the United Farmworkers Union and is also a member of Veterans for Peace

Vist their site at Space4Peace.org

The prevention of an arms race in outer space [PAROS] initiative is a response to the fact that there is no multilateral agreement banning the deployment of weapons other than weapons of mass destruction in outer space. Confidence-building and transparency measures would be first steps in this field.

Reaching Critical Will: a project of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom created the Reaching Critical Will project in 1999 in order to promote and facilitate engagement of non-governmental actors in UN processes related to disarmament. If real steps forward are to take place toward nuclear abolition, the NPT Review Conference is a crucial crossroads. WILPF believes that with proper, firm, and educated pressure placed on the world’s governments by civil society and non-governmental organizations around the world leading up to this extended meeting of the world’s governments, nuclear weapons can be abolished.

Also visit The Simons Foundation Space Security Page to find the following reports:

Celebrating the Space Age:
50 Years of Space Technology, 40 Years of the Outer Space Treaty
Conference – Palais des Nations – Geneva
April 2007

This was the most recent in a series of conferences held by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) with the support of The Simons Foundation on the issue of space security, the peaceful uses of outer space and the prevention of an arms race in outer space.

Information on previous conferences in the series:

Building the Architecture for Sustainable Space Security
Conference – Palais des Nations – Geneva
March 2006

Safeguarding Space Security:
Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space
Conference – Palais des Nations – Geneva
March 2005

Safeguarding Space for All:
Security and Peaceful Uses
Conference – Palais des Nations – Geneva
March 2004

Outer Space and Global Security
Conference – Palais des Nations – Geneva
November 2002