Simon Sedillo, filmmaker at the Austin Independent Media Center, said that as an American citizen he feels an obligation to unveil the atrocities caused by the U.S. government in foreign countries.
Sedillo presented his film "El Enemigo Comun," a documentary focusing on the resistance movement in Oaxaca, Mexico, on Thursday in the McDowell Formal Lounge. The event was sponsored by the Community Action and Social Justice Coalition, Student Advocates for Native Communities and the Movement for Global Justice.
The film tells the story of four indigenous communities suffering from government-sponsored death, violence and destruction.
People in Oaxaca are fighting to keep their culture alive amid violent conditions, Sedillo said. Native tribes in South America have "indigenous views of world unity" and are not anthropocentric or ethnocentric. Therefore they do not see themselves as better than any other type of living thing or other ethnicity, he said.
This is a concept not always easily understood by Americans, who are quick to dominate over and take advantage of their environment, he added.
Sedillo spoke of how our global economy is sustained by the legal weapons trade and the illegal drug trade, which lies at the foundation of many civil rights problems.
"Our economy is based on a bunch of lies," Sedillo said.
The result is a growth of criminals and prisons in the United States and a growth of violence in the countries that participate in the global weapons and drug trade.
Governments are becoming aware that random acts of violence being committed by civil rights protestors are not random, Sedillo said.
Sedillo has helped to liberate 21 political prisons, resulting in him receiving three death threats. While his organizations have been classified as "domestic terrorist threats," he said he thinks this is simply a sign that its work is effective.
He stressed the importance of humans opening their eyes to violence erupting due to unfair co-dependencies among nations. He urged people to write letters and lobby Congress to help provoke change.
"Because of the privilege that we have in this country, I think we have a tremendous responsibility to people in the world that do not have the same rights," Sedillo said.
Serena McIntosh, a sophomore in the School of International Service, said she had never seen a documentary that came so close to actual violence before.
"We would never realize all the violence going on without documentaries like this," she said.
Kate Stritzinger, a sophomore in SIS, agreed that "El Enemigo Comun" sent a powerful message.
"We don't always see images like this, but this film showed the true magnitude of the situation," she said.
Anyone interested in donating to suffering communities in Oaxaca can learn more at www.elenemigocomun.net.
