Product Description

In this lively, intellectually stimulating discourse on the power of images, renowned photojournalist Susan Meiselas returns to the scenes of a revolution she witnessed and captured with her camera. Richly suffused with context and color, PICTURES FROM A REVOLUTION catches up with the places and people behind Meiselas iconic photographs of war-torn Nicaragua in the late 70s and 80s. Delving into the lives of guerrillas, Sandinistas, and bystanders, scattered from Miami to Managua, a decade after they faced off in a bloody struggle, this artful film finds both disappointment and modest pride amidst still-fresh, stirring memories. Once photographed wielding contact bombs and marching in the streets, these incredible Nicaraguans now live much as they did before the revolutionary days. The stories behind the acclaimed photos will ignite a new understanding of social struggle while inviting reflection on the war photographer s complex relationship with her subjects.

PICTURES FROM A REVOLUTION is also a smart, unvarnished tale of the evolution of images as they run headlong into popular culture and political agendas. Rigorous, hard-hitting yet deeply personal and compassionate (Los Angeles Times).

DVD Features: Susan Meiselas installs her photographs in the places where they were originally taken 2004; Susan Meiselas interviewed for Nicaraguan television 2002; New York Film Festival Press Conference 1991; Spanish Subtitles

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56033 in DVD
• Brand: New Video
• Released on: 2007-09-25
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Customer Reviews

Amazing
I am a fan of photographer Susan Meiselas' work and was very excited to find out that this classic film was being re-released on DVD. I was blown-away - Susan returns 10 years later to the places in Nicaragua where she shot her iconic and now-famous photos of the Sandinista Revolution. Not only is this film moving but very powerful.

Some people pass their summer vacations loving our designated enemies
Susan took the most iconic photographs of the popular uprising against the dynastic Somozan brutal dictatorship, including the popular victory in 1979. Throughout the eighties the vindictive Reagan/Bush regime conducted illegal and unconstitutional war against the poor people of Nicaragua, including during the presidential elections which freely and fairly (by international observors) installed the FSLN candidate Daniel Ortega as presidnet of Nicaragua.

The Reagan regime for domestic political reasons sabotaged the advances of the FSLN, inclduing targetting teachers and health care workers, and Catholic Church workers, and blowing up health care clinics, schools, etc., and mining public roads as well as an international harbor. In 1988, it stole the elections, installing the puppet government of Violeta Chamorra. This is when Susan returned to visit the same places she had visited before the victory of the revolution, and to interview several of the same people, inclduing a Somozan National Guardsman who went on to become a contra leader (like several with the code name Miguel Lima) and when interviewed was found one armed working as a security guard in Miami, regretting al that he had done.

Thus is this excellent film, recounting the horrors our military forces impose upon defenseless poor people struggling very hard to survive under the most cruel conditions of poverty, conditions we merely exacerbate with our imperialist attacks, as in Iraq.

The downside of this film is the little extra filmed at a New YOrk film society function in which SUsan tries to cringe quietly behind the table while the producers do the talking, and the New York crowdd whine about the soundtrack music to this great film, and ask if they ever got out of their taxi, when they clearly had. I mean, that is really funny, and really true, as we strive to show to the clueless the reality of the poverty and the misery we impose upon other nations.

See this film. And get the upcoming new edition of Susan's great book:Susan Meiselas: Nicaragua. See also her work with the Kurds: Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History, Second Edition, so important to read in the light of our recent betrayal of that so-called ally and our turning the other way during the recent Turkish invasion of their region.