The Foreign Policy In Focus Annual Summer Film Series presents Camden 28, winner of Best Documentary at the Philadelphia Film Festival. Please join us and our guest speaker Marcus Raskin, Co-Founder of and Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

Anthony Giacchino’s suspenseful, tautly constructed documentary The Camden 28 recounts one of the 20th Century’s most fascinating trials. In 1971, a group of Camden, New Jersey, residents who opposed the war in Vietnam, decided to take action. The group, consisting of many religious figures in the local community–including four Catholic priests–became known as the “Catholic left.” Their target: the local draft board office, where they intended to destroy as much vital paperwork as possible. But during their assault, authorities barged in and stopped them in their tracks. Clearly, they had been set up. The ensuing trial sparked a passionate court room debate, where justice and the law didn’t seem to connect. With The Camden 28, first-time feature filmmaker Giacchino takes a refreshing approach to his material, allowing the relevant players in the trial to tell their own story. The result is an infinitely more intimate, immediate, and compelling work. While Giacchino conceived of and shot most of his film before the Iraq War commenced, it is nonetheless an eerie reminder that one needn’t look too far into the past to predict the future.

The FPIF film series is co-sponsored by Busboys and Poets Restaurant and the Progressive Intern Network.

Calendar of Films:

Taxi to the Dark Side
Best Documentary – Academy Award
Thursday, July 3
5:30-7:30pm
Speakers: Farrah Hassen, Newman Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
and Andy Shallal, Iraqi Voices for Peace and Owner of Busboys and Poets

Camden 28
Best Documentary – Philadelphia Film Festival
Friday, July 11
5:30-7:30pm
Speaker: Marcus Raskin, Co-Founder and Distinguished Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies

Cocalero
Nominated, Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary – Sundance
Friday, July 18
6:00- 8:00pm
Speaker: Sanho Tree, Fellow and Director of Drug Policy Project, Institute for Policy Studies

Body Of War
Best Documentary – Hampton International Film Festival and Best Documentary – National Board of Review
Friday, July 25
5:30-7:30pm
Speaker: Geoff Millard, Iraq Veterans Against the War

Maquilápolis
Outstanding Achievement in Documentary – Tribeca Film Festival and Audience Award for Best Documentary – Barcelona International Women’s Film Festival
Thursday, July 31
5:30-7:30pm
Speakers: Sarah Anderson, Fellow and Director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and Manuel Perez Rocha, Associate Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies

Foreign Policy In Focus is a network for research, analysis and action that brings together more than 600 scholars, advocates and activists who strive to make the United States a more responsible global partner. It is a project of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) in Washington.

For more than four decades, the Institute for Policy Studies has transformed ideas into action for peace, justice, and the environment. It is a progressive multi-issue think tank.