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Welcome to ArgusFest.org. Since 2001 we have held hundreds awareness raising events on human rights, social justice, media, environmental, and other issues of conscience. The ArgusFest Film Series holds weekly documentary screenings around Denver. Each screening is followed by an audience discussion where diverse points of views are welcome. The ArgusFest Lecture Series periodically hosts talks by internationally renowned authors and activists. Past speakers have included Dr. Gino Strada, Dahr Jamail, Norman Finkelstein, Robert Jensen, Kevin Bales, Al Franken, Medea Benjamin, among others. 
| Check out these Websites: 
 | The Power of Community:
How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
2199 California St, Denver Click here for map $5 suggested donation (no one turned away) When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. It is an unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call "The Special Period." The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil, a term for the time in our history when world oil production will reach its all-time peak and begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis – the massive reduction of fossil fuels – is an example of options and hope. Dark Days
a benefit for The Denver VOICE
Thursday, May 22
7:00 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver Click here for map $5-$20 sliding scale donation to The Denver VOICE
(no one turned away) "Dark Days" is the multi-award winning documentary from Marc Singer about a community of homeless people living in a train tunnel beneath Manhattan. The film depicts a way of life that is unimaginable to most of those who walk the streets above. In the pitch black of the tunnel, rats swarm through piles of garbage as high-speed trains leaving Penn Station tear through the darkness. For some of those who have gone underground, it has been home for as long as twenty-five years. The director abandoned life on the outside to spend all of his time in the tunnels, making it his home for two years. Surprisingly entertaining and deeply moving, "Dark Days" is an eye-opening experience that shatters the myths of homelessness with the strength and universality of the people the film represents. 
The Denver VOICE is a street newspaper who's mission is to facilitate a dialogue addressing the roots of homelessness by telling stories of people whose lives are impacted by poverty and homelessness and to offer economic, educational and empowerment opportunities for the impoverished community. The Denver VOICE Vendor Program offers employment opportunities to homeless individuals, we empower people by providing a source of income that can help individuals work their way out of homelessness. Our vendors are comprised of homeless individuals who buy the paper for 25 cents and sell the Denver Voice for a dollar donation to the public. Within the first few weeks of beginning our vendor program, several vendors were able to make enough to get themselves off the streets and into housing. www.denvervoice.org www.myspace.com/denvervoice Tulia, Jena, and Black Girls
a trilogy on race in America
Thursday, May 29
7:00 PM
Mercury Cafe 2199 California St, Denver Click here for map $5 suggested donation (no one turned away) Tulia, Texas: Scenes from the Drug War (23 minutes) 
Explores the effects of a racially-motivated drug bust in the tiny town of Tulia, Texas. Over an 18-month period, in a town so small it can barely support a Dairy Queen, the agent maintained his cover while allegedly making over 100 controlled buys of illegal narcotics, mostly cocaine. The morning of the arrests, which were finally conducted en masse on July 23, 1999, brought more surprises. Although the arrest warrants were served at dawn, surprising most of the defendants in their beds, no drugs, money, or weapons were seized in the roundup. Only a few of the alleged dealers were able to raise the money to bond themselves out of jail. Many lived in public housing or trailer homes. By the end of the week, as the rest of the suspects were rounded up, it was evident that the 41 persons targeted by the sting had something else in common. Thirty-nine of the arrestees came from Tulia's tiny black community, which numbers no more than 300. Nearly twenty percent of the town's black population had been taken down by one undercover agent. Jena 6 (30 minutes) 
Narrated by Mumia Abu Jamal - is the story of hidden racial inequality and violence becoming visible. It is a powerful symbol for, and example of, how racial justice works in America – where the lynching noose has been replaced by the DA's pen. A Girl Like Me (7 minutes) 
Color is more than skin deep for young African-American women struggling to define themselves. For my high-school literature class I was constructing an anthology with a wide range of different stories that I believed reflected the black girl’s experience. For the different chapters, I conducted interviews with a variety of black girls in my high school, and a number of issues surfaced concerning the standards of beauty imposed on today’s black girls and how this affects their self-image. I thought this topic would make an interesting film and so when I was accepted into the Reel Works Teen Filmmaking program, I set out to explore these issues. I also decided to would reconduct the “doll test” initially conducted by Dr. Kenneth Clark, which was used in the historic desegregation case, Brown vs. Board of Education. I thought that by including this experiment in my film, I would shed new light on how society affects black children today and how little has actually changed. With help from my mentor, Shola Lynch, and thanks to the honesty and openness of the girls I interviewed, I was able to complete my first documentary in the fall of 2005. I learned that giving the girls an opportunity to talk about these issues and their experiences helped us all to look deeper and examine the many things in society that affect us and shape who we are. Blood and Oil
Thursday, June 12
7:00 PM Mercury Cafe 2199 California St, Denver Click here for map $5 suggested donation (no one turned away) The notion that oil motivates America's military engagements in the Middle East is often disregarded as nonsense or mere conspiracy theory. Blood and Oil, a new documentary based on the critically-acclaimed work of Nation magazine defense correspondent Michael T. Klare, challenges this conventional wisdom to correct the historical record. The film unearths declassified documents and highlights forgotten passages in prominent presidential doctrines to show how concerns about oil have been at the core of American foreign policy for more than 60 years — rendering our contemporary energy and military policies virtually indistinguishable. In the end, Blood and Oil calls for a radical re-thinking of US energy policy, warning that unless we change direction, we stand to be drawn into one oil war after another as the global hunt for diminishing world petroleum supplies accelerates. | 
American Deaths since the start of the war (3/19/03)
4,073
This figure does not include suicides. Approximately 120 veterans commit suicide each and every week.
Article Link (Updated: May 6, 2008) Cost of the War in Iraq (JavaScript Error) 
"War is a racket" - Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler (USMC) OPPOSE WAR PLEASE SUPPORT Iraq Veterans Against the War 
Emergency
In today’s conflicts 90 percent of the victims are civilians. Every year war takes the lives of millions of people worldwide. Emergency provides free of charge, high standard medical and surgical care in war-torn areas. Emergency promotes a culture of peace, solidarity and respect of human rights. Emergency is an independent, neutral and nonpolitical humanitarian organization established to provide care to civilian victims of war and of land mines. All Emergency facilities are designed, built and managed by specialized international staff committed to training local medical personnel. www.emergencyusa.org www.myspace.com/emergencyusa SUGGESTED READING: 
Green Parrots: A War Surgeon's Diary by Gino Strada Designed to look like toys, green parrots are small, winged cylinders roughly four inches long that flutter over lands devastated by war, but are, in fact, antipersonnel mines. This book introduces us to the endless destruction that the green parrots have spread throughout the world, and in so doing raises an urgent question: Is it legitimate to accept war as an inevitable prospect for current and future generations? After appearing in numerous languages since its initial publication in 1999, this English edition is particularly timely. The appendix of Green Parrots contains the complete text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, approved on December 10, 1948 by the General Assembly of the United Nations, which begins by proclaiming: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."
Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq by Dahr Jamail Readers unsatisfied with mainstream coverage of the Iraq War will want to grab this, an up-close look at daily life in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. One of the few unaffiliated journalists in Iraq, journalist Jamail went to see the conditions for himself, and the compelling, heartbreaking stories he sent back over his eight month stay were carried in publications world-wide: from family houses destroyed with their inhabitants to mosques full of people held under siege to the ill-equipped medical facilities and security forces meant to deal with them. Emphatically populist and unapologetically dubious of the U.S. government's party line, Jamail sees "resistance" where "obedient" mainstream reporters see "insurgents," "the occupation" where others see "the war." Jamail is a courageous writer who relates fears and bouts of panic alongside jaunts to Fallujah and other hotbeds unapproached by the press at large. Though the writing can be clunky, and the stories hard to distinguish-without any characters to follow (besides Jamail) one is left with the picture of a terrible forest, but few of the trees-this fascinating, eye-opening document of Iraq's day-to-day has a unique perspective and moments of incredible impact. Praise for Beyond the Green Zone "International journalism at its best." --Stephen Kinzer, author, All the Shah's Men "Extraordinary." --Naomi Klein, author, The Shock Doctrine "Dahr Jamail does us a great service." --Howard Zinn "Courageous." --John Pilger, author, Freedom Next Time www.dahr.org | |  | | |
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