Winter Soldier solidarity

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--Fifty people attended the premier of the documentary film Winter Soldier II: A Grassroots Experience at a screening on April 19 sponsored by the Rhode Island Spring Mobilization Committee to Stop War and Occupation.

Filmmakers Paul Hubbard, a Socialist Worker contributor, and Robert Malin of the Progressive Democrats of America drew on over a dozen hours of footage from Iraq Veterans Against the War's historic Winter Soldier hearings to create their 70-minute film. Production was funded in part by a grant from the New England United regional antiwar network.

The film featured testimony and interviews with veterans and soldiers Ronn Cantu, Jason Hurd, Camilo Mejía, Geoff Millard Jason Lemieux, Michael Williams, Bryan Casler, Lars Ekstrom and Matthew Childers; independent journalists Amy Goodman and Dahr Jamail; congressman Dennis Kucinich; and policy analysts Anthony Arnove, Raed Jarrar, Antonia Juhasz and Michael Schwartz.

All relentlessly exposed the criminal nature of the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations--from heartbreaking tales of torture to the highest levels of geopolitics. Response to the film was unanimously positive, and the filmmakers plan to make it available to local activists for future events.