From the Vault: Women’s Advocacy on Film – Vietnam: The Secret Agent

From the Vault: Women’s Advocacy on Film – Vietnam: The Secret Agent 

In celebration of NYWIFT’s 40th Anniversary, the Women’s Film Preservation Fund (WFPF) and UnionDocs present the film series From the Vault: Women’s Advocacy on Film which features restored documentary films by women filmmakers. All films in the series were preserved by the WFPF.

Documentarians reveal the impact of events and contexts for changing attitudes that affect our communities, society, and the world. From the Vault: Women’s Advocacy on Film presents nonfiction films that have shaped movements and provided perspectives on political, environmental, and human rights issues; and ideas around gender identity and roles, sexuality, health and family, all from a woman’s perspective. These explorations of story and truth, their innovative approaches to documentary filmmaking, and their subjects continue to be relevant today to filmmakers, activists, and media consumers creatively effecting change.

UnionDocs and the WFPF invite filmmakers and cinephiles to consider what can learn from our past explorers of story and truth, and how the film’s subjects and their filmmaker’s methodologies remain important and therefore essential to preserve and keep watching.


PART 1 – RESIST, REFORM, REPEAT: WOMEN & ACTIVISM

PROGRAM 2: Sunday, October 22nd, 2017, 7:30pm

Vietnam: The Secret Agent
Jacki Ochs (Director)
1983, 58 min.

Vietnam: The Secret Agent was the first film, using now familiar archival footage, to examine the legacy of exposure to dioxin spray — better known as Agent Orange – used extensively during the Vietnam War. The film is an invaluable document that reflects on past and present U.S. wartime involvement and treatment of veterans, sustained abuse to the environment, and the residual unresolved issues of the Vietnam War. The film includes scenes of a young Al Gore and the music of renowned protest singer, Country Joe McDonald. Ochs’ documentary won a special Jury Prize at Sundance and premiered at the New York Film Festival.

Special Guests

Jacki Ochs, Filmmaker
Merle Ratner, Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign
Ngo Thanh Nhan, Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign
Susan Schnall, Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign
Dick Hughes, Loose Cannons Inc.

VENUE: UnionDocs, 322 Union Ave Brooklyn

PURCHASE TICKETS

Special Thanks
Christopher Allen and Jenny Miller
UnionDocs

The Women’s Film Preservation Fund (WFPF) is the only program in the world dedicated to preserving the cultural legacy of women in the industry through preserving films made by women. Founded in 1995 by NYWIFT in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), WFPF has preserved more than 130 American films, across all genres, in which women have played key creative roles. The WFPF is rewriting the film history books, by saving one moving picture at a time.

UnionDocs (UNDO) is a non-profit Center for Documentary Art that presents and produces pioneering records of reality. The organization brings together a diverse community of activist artists, experimental media-makers, dedicated journalists, big thinkers, and local partners. UnionDocs is on a search for urgent expressions of the human experience, practical perspectives on the world today, and compelling visions for the future.