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Inside, the trailer is divided into rough thirds: One third is a bed. One third is floor. One third is a tabletop covered with royal blue velour and topped with a 17-inch television screen, computer monitor, coiled black and white cables, and books explaining how to use a program called Media 100. A sheet of yellow lined paper hangs above the desk, bearing single words or acronyms written in black Sharpie: WTO. 7 weeks. DNC. Prague. DC. The list represents some of the most confrontational demonstrations against corporate globalization in Oregon, the U.S. and the world, beginning with the groundbreaking events in Seattle during the World Trade Organization meeting in late November and early December 1999. It's also the skeleton for the newest documentary, A Year in the Streets, put out by one of the newest and most vibrant groups of independent media activists in Eugene, the Cascadia Media Collective. The CMC, as they call themselves, roughly grew out of the local cable access television show "Cascadia Alive!" and its model of sending several videographers out on the streets during events. "Cascadia Alive!" videographers gather hours of tapes, most of which is used only for short pieces that fill in the weekly show. Some people involved with the show wanted to do more. When local media and environmental activists Tim Lewis and Tim Ream decided to sell the video editing equipment they bought to make their own movies (pickAxe, RIP N30, Breaking the Spell), the group pulled together the money to buy the equipment and move it to the trailer that became CMC central.
They are media activists and often anarchist journalists, trying to show the world what democracy looks like from the streets, trying to tell a left-of-center truth that is usually omitted from mainstream media and is often disregarded by increasingly mainstream alternative media. Armed with commonly available technology and a cadre of volunteers who collect audio, video and still photos, the CMC is about putting teeth back into the First Amendment, breaking down the doors that separate media from the people, and confronting -- if not dismantling -- the forces of oppression against the people.
Shadowalker says he wants to "smash that wall that separates people and media. It's not just some professional with a power suit and a power voice." The CMC is about attacking that structure of separation, he says, and encouraging others to do the same. Overbeck sees their work as putting "teeth into the First Amendment" with its protections for freedom of speech and the press. The hassling the group gets -- Overbeck and others recorded on videotape how he was pulled from a crowd and arrested by Eugene police officers on June 17 last year -- comes "because we're actually breathing life into" those constitutionally protected freedoms. The video footage that media activists collect on the streets can help show that people accused of crimes -- either by public opinion or directly by the police -- may not be guilty. In one example, their footage shows a Eugene police officer during the June 18 protests last year. As he passes one protester on the sidewalk, he leans far out to his right to shove the activist with his shoulder. The activist shoves the officer back with his hands; the video shows a camera flash going off as the protester shoves back, and that photo led The Register-Guard''s front page the next day. "The news is what falls through the cracks of the news on TV," Shadowalker says. With the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, "people thought it was all confetti." It wasn't. There were marches for issues including clemency for jailed or death-row activists, a sea of white crosses representing people killed by the U.S. border patrol, and many speaking out on increasingly familiar anti-capitalist themes. Said one black activist to the crowd and the CMC's cameras: "They don't just want you dead, they want you silent." As they talk, it is clear that they've Igoe: "We all pile into my Subaru and travel 800 miles in 100 degree heat... Shadowalker: "... and arrive in LA in mid-August ..." Igoe: "... to march to and from the Staples Center ..." Shadowalker: "... yeah, five times a day." Igoe: "The video sometimes makes it seem more glamorous." Jensen: "It's grueling work." Shadowalker: "Especially covering that Critical Mass" bike ride, which involved running alongside the bikes.
It's a different perspective from most other forms of media, and the CMC has fewer constraints. Because it's not the establishment perspective, Shadowalker says their critics will call them biased. But the mainstream media has its own biases, the group charges: not running footage by "Cascadia Alive!" or CMC videographers showing police actions rather than protesters' actions, or simply reading off a police press release. "We don't have to pretend to be nonbiased" like the mainstream media do, Igoe says, "which gives us a lot more freedom to tell what we see." The implication is that traditional standards of news objectivity in fact bind mainstream media into he-said/she-said stories that effectively ignore the conclusions anyone else on the street might come to. Their pieces use all street footage and mostly street music. That gives their videos a pace that's drastically different from what most others put out. "It feels different when you watch it," says Igoe. And while groups of self-proclaimed journalists are springing up around the country and the continent through a network of Independent Media Centers, the CMC is again different. The IMCs are centers for individuals shooting video or still photos, or writing up their experiences of events, an office in the middle of the action or a website those outside of the region can turn to for updates. But there's very little done to combine the amassed information into a coherent final product, as the CMC does with its footage. But the group does network with other groups around the country, sharing footage and helping show pieces here about events elsewhere.
The CMC model is all Eugene, all Shadowalker says that confrontation is the most visible form of interaction with the corporate state. The corporations will never meet protesters face to face, so the large array of issues gets boiled down to "the common denominator of police oppression." Jensen: "What starts out as expression of freedom of speech turns into the police repression, turns into a military exercise for local police departments." Igoe: "It turns into an opportunity for them to show off their newest toys..." Jensen: "... and (use) tactics on people they know are not going to fight back." Most of the group's work to date has been on videos or multimedia events featuring slides, music and speakers. But there are bigger plans in the works. Overbeck oversees work on the group's website (www.cascadiamedia.org). Igoe hopes to expand their work into more print applications, some of which may show up on the website. And interactive CD-ROMs may be in the group's future. But they also have plans to pass along the lessons of their acquired wisdom. Each has at least a year of experience in a documentary collective and several years as a media activist. Shadowalker says the group will produce a "guerilla media primer" intended to "give people a basic tutorial on documenting events for themselves because that's ultimately where the power is at." Anybody can do this work, he says, with just a camera and a VCR. "I feel that the revolution will not be intellectualized," Shadowalker says. "It is going to be in the streets and in your face. It's your attitude more than your budget." As this story goes to press, these four Described as "NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) on steroids," FTAA would expand the earlier agreement to cover the entire western hemisphere from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. The only country not included in the potential deal is Cuba. Activists say FTAA would undermine environmental and labor protections and would cost thousands of U.S. jobs. The CMC was on it. Igoe went south to the Mexican border at San Diego and Tijuana. Overbeck went to the Peace Arch demonstration in Blaine, Wash. Shadowalker and Jensen went to the heart of the demonstrations in Quebec City. It's an unprecedented effort by any alternative media, something only the largest networks -- owned by huge corporations themselves -- might manage to do. "The idea that we could cover an event from three countries is pretty mind blowing," Shadowalker says. As with all their travel, their trip to cover the FTAA protests will be anything but a junket. They'll be staying with friends, or friends of friends. They'll be driving up or down I-5, or flying on cheap airplane tickets to Quebec City, paying for all of their travel out of their own pockets. Jensen: "I'm running up my credit card & in the big hope that it will someday pay off." Shadowalker: "Some people hope." Overbeck: "Civilization's collapsing and it needs a good hard push. Hopefully we can help do that." Shadowalker: "We're talking about a bigger payoff than money." Stay tuned.
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