Saturday | June 10, 2006 9:00 pm

First Kill

Screening on Film

Directed by Coco Schrijber.
US, 2001, 35mm, color, 52 min.

First Kill explores the complexities of war in an astonishing and disconcerting way. Through interviews with Vietnam veterans, director Coco Schrijber reveals the horrors of war as well as its vicious thrills, or what one former war correspondent refers to as “the upside of war.” Though most of the veterans acknowledge regret and remorse over their actions, this documentary recognizes the ever-present capacity for human beings to commit disturbing acts of violence.

PRECEDED BY

The Draft Card Burner

Directed by Hilary Harris.
US, 1966, 16mm, black & white, silent, 7 min.

The film documents a series of demonstrations opposing the draft which were held in New York City in 1965.

Peace Pickets Arrested for Disturbing the Peace

Directed by Leonard Henny.
US, 1968, 16mm, color, 7 min.

This documentary depicts the preparations for and the development of the October 1967 non-violent, anti-draft demonstration at the Oakland Induction Center that led to the arrest of folk singer Joan Baez and twenty pacifists.

Viet Flakes

Directed by Carolee Schneeman.
US, 1966, 16mm, black & white, 11 min.

Over the course of five years, experimental filmmaker Carolee Schneeman compiled this collection of images of atrocity in Vietnam using international magazines and newspapers as her source. Schneeman’s striking imagery is made all the more powerful by James Tenney’s inventive soundscape, which combines religious chants, Bach, and 1960s pop hits.