The Shield Around the K profiles the birth and growth of influential Olympia-based punk rock DIY record label K Records. Over the years, the scrappy lil’ company has launched key indie artists like Beat Happening, Love as Laughter, Dub Narcotic Sound System, the Make Up, Lois, Microphones and Cadallaca, as well as releasing material from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Beck and many others.

Co- founders Calvin Johnson and Candice Pedersen are interviewed along with over twenty K artists and peers, including Mecca Normal, Lois, Rose Melberg, Ian MacKaye, Slim Moon, Dean Wareham and many more. The tape includes live performances by Calvin Johnson’s Beat Happening, rarely-seen Super-8 music videos by Patrick Maley, and footage of the international Pop Underground Festival. A do-it-yourself video with a zine spirit, The Sheild Around the K gives all you always-hungry hipness-junkies a nice fat dose of uncut indie info and sublebrity star-gazing. So take a seat, music friends,
and enjoy.

WHEN: Wednesday, June 11 @ 9 PM
WHERE: Civic Media Center, 1021 W. University Ave.
COST: Donations Appreciated

This feature length documentary chronicles the ground breaking, early 80 s punk rock band from their humble beginnings in the harbor town of San Pedro, CA to their tragic and untimely demise when lead signer and guitarist D. Boon was killed in a van accident in December of 1985.

Told by those who were there, “We Jam Econo: The Story Of The Minutemen” weaves in footage from over fifty newly shot interviews with archival interviews and live performances to capture the dynamic energy and do-it-yourself spirit of these punk rock pioneers.

WHEN: Wednesday, June 4 @ 9 PM
WHERE: Civic Media Center, 1021 W. University Ave.
COST: Donations Appreciated

Vince Lombardi High School keeps losing principals to nervous breakdowns because of thestudents’ love of rock ‘n’ roll and their disregard of education. Their leader, Riff Randall, is the biggest Ramones fan at Vince Lombardi High School. She waits in line for three days to get tickets to see The Ramones, hoping to meet Joey Ramone so she can give him a song she wrote for the band, “Rock N’ Roll High School”.

When Principal Togar takes her ticket away, Riff and her best friend, Kate Rambeau have to find another way to meet their heroes, by winning a radio contest. When Miss Togar and a group of parents attempt to burn a pile of rock records, the students take over the high school, joined by the Ramones, who are made honorary students. When the police are summoned and demand that the students evacuate the building, they do so, which leads to an explosive finale.

WHEN: Wednesday, May 14 @ 9 PM
WHERE: The Civic Media Center, 1021 W. University Ave
COST: Donations Appreciated

“Rude Boy” is part drama, part documentary and part concert film. The camera focuses on Ray Gange, a punk music fan who leaves his dead-end job by landing work as a roadie for his favorite band, the Clash. Intertwined with numerous concert performances and backstage footage from the band’s 1978 tour, “Rude Boy” paints a telling portrait of Britain’s turbulent times with its youth of the day.

WHEN: Wednesday, May 21 @ 9 PM
WHERE: The Civic Media Center, 1021 W. University Ave
COST: Donations Appreciated

Known more by some for their political stance than their diverse body of work, the staunchly independent Fugazi has consistently refused interviews, and as such any non-musical information about its members has remained a bit of a mystery. As directed by Jem Cohen, “Instrument” is a fascinating melange of concert footage, rehearsals and random moments that goes a long way in diffusing some of the misconceptions brought about by the band’s dislike of the media.

As early as 1990, MacKaye knew his band was in a class of its own. “To exist independent of the mainstream is a political feat,” he says to an interviewer. Still, there are some genuinely funny moments where the message is hopelessly lost on the audience (MacKaye booting an obviously drunken teenager out a gig, the band playing a 1990 show at a prison in front of about 10 inmates) or when the band takes great delight in subtly mocking the status quo (MacKaye being interviewed in a lavatory by some slick Canadian MTV knockoff). It ain’t all politics and dead serious staredowns. “Instrument” emphasizes that Fugazi’s members are really no different than the rest of us.

Cohen manages to touch on all of the band’s many facets: its do-it-yourself aesthetic (MacKaye counting the money after the gigs, the band hauling its own equipment into a venue), the intense concert experience and a very revealing series of shots of fans standing in ticket lines outside shows.
The film has an appeal to a casual observer as well as a hardcore devotee.

WHEN: Wednesday, May 28 @ 9 PM
WHERE: The Civic Media Center, 1021 W. University Ave
COST: Donations Appreciated

Have you ever wondered about what the rest of the world thinks about the United States? More
importantly, what is true? Considering Democracy provides information in order to stimulate
discussion and move the American debate toward finding solutions. Based on interviews and scenes
from outside of the United States, each section of the film playfully explores the views with statistical
comparisons and ends with a question. It looks at seemingly different topics while creating a tapestry
of tantalizing information that becomes interwoven and interconnected. Considering Democracy
brings refreshing points of view to the political debates, while bringing a new meaning to the term of
independent filmmaking, the filmmaker having traveled across 10 countries by herself, and produced,
directed, shot, and edited the film. The rest of the world is a source of intelligence that acts as a
beautiful, yet pragmatic reflection of political power in the United States.
More information can be found on the web at www.consideringdemocracy.com

WHEN: Tuesday, May 13 @ 8 PM
WHERE: The Civic Media Center, 1021 W. University Ave.
COST: $5-10 sliding scale

The Confederate States of America, through the eyes of a faux documentary, takes a look at an America where the South won the Civil War.   Beginning with the British and French forces joining the battle with the Confederacy, thus assuring the defeat of the North at Gettysburg and ensuing battles, the South takes the battle northward and form one country out of the two.
Through the use of other fabricated movie segments, old government information films, television commercials, news breaks, along with actual stock footage from our own history, a provocative and humorous story is told of a country which, in many ways, frighteningly follows a parallel with our own.
After victory, President Davis brings slavery back to the northern states by offering a tax rebate to businesses and households who will buy and own them. Liberals move to Canada. The nation chooses an expansionist policy and conquers Cuba, Mexico and South America.
As world war looms, the CSA takes a nonagressive stance toward the Third Reich and their move toward racial purity (although not condoning their wasting of possible slave stock by the Final Solution) and makes a preemptive strike on Japan on December 7, 1941.
Kennedy is assassinated soon after being elected as it appears he will not only emancipate but also give women the vote. A growing black terrorist base stems from Canada and a Cold War breaks out…complete with the Cotton Curtain being built between the two countries.
We arrive to a today that, in many ways, we recognize. Although a nation that is content and prosperous, there is a tremendous divide within and suspicious eye without. Current politicians refer to us as two countries and perhaps, other than geographically, there is no difference between Red and Blue or North and South states. We have always struggled as to whether we are the United or Confederate States of America.

WHEN: Monday, May 26 @ 8 PM
WHERE: Civic Media Center,  1021 W. University Ave.
COST: Donations Appreciated

“One Bright Shining Moment” retraces George McGovern’s bold presidential campaign of 1972 - a grassroots campaign that fought for peace and justice, and positioned ideas and people first. But what is remembered today as being the ultimate political defeat of the American Century may also have been its high watermark. The film poses this central question: what does the crushing electoral defeat of a man so well respected for his decency and intellect say about the electoral process, the American government, and more importantly, what does it say about the forces at work on the American people- then and now? Featuring interviews with the candidate himself, supporters and activists like Gore Vidal, Gloria Steinem, Warren Beatty, Howard Zinn, and music from Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, Donovan, and Elvis Costello

WHEN: Monday, May 19 @ 8 PM
WHERE: Civic Media Center, 1021 W. University Ave.
COST: Donations Appreciated

A courageous and startling film, Peter Davis’s landmark documentary Hearts and Minds unflinchingly confronts the United States’ involvement in Vietnam.  Using a wealth of sources—from interviews to newsreels to documentary footage of the conflict at home and abroad—Davis constructs a powerfully affecting portrait of the disastrous effects of war. A key theme is how attitudes of American racism and self-righteousness militarism helped create and prolong this bloody conflict. The film also endeaveors to give voice to the Vietnamese people themselves as to how the war has affected them and their reasons why they fight the United States and other western powers while showing the basic humanity of the people that US propaganda tried to dismiss. Explosive, persuasive, and shocking, Hearts and Minds is an overwhelming emotional experience and the controversial winner of the 1974 Academy Award™ for Best Documentary.

WHEN: Monday, May 12 @ 8 PM
WHERE: Civic Media Center,  1021 W. University Ave.
COST: Donations Appreciated

This documentary examines the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela as connected to the worldwide movement against capitalist globalization. The film shows the evolution of the popular movement in Venezuela from the Caracazo riots in 1989 to the massive actions that brought revolutionary president Hugo Chavez back to power, 48 hours after a US led military coup in 2002. The main theme is how the Bolivarian Revolution, thanks to its incredible grassroots and networking power, is a revolution that transcends the national frontier of Venezuela and contributes with concrete alternatives to the fight against neoliberal capitalism. In Spanish, with English subtitles.

WHEN: Monday, May 5 @ 8pm
WHERE: The Civic Media Center, 1021 W. University Ave.
COST: Donations Appreciated