By Karen Fredericks
The Oscar-winning US documentary The Panama Deception will screen for the first time in Australia when it begins its run at the Valhalla cinema in Sydney on April 30. Green Left Weekly spoke to the film's producer and director, Barbara Trent, about the making of the film, its political impact and the difficulties its distributors have encountered in getting it broadcast in the US, Panama and now even in Australia.
Barbara Trent is living in a one-room garage in Santa Monica, California, given to her by a friend, rent-free. Not only is she penniless, but she and her associates in the non-profit, film and video resource group, the Empowerment Project, still owe over A$70,000 in production costs for The Panama Deception. A month ago she spoke to a worldwide television audience of more than a billion people when she accepted the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature from the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Trent's film may be "tough and provocative" (the New York Times), "meticulously researched" (the Washington Post) and even "mandatory viewing" (the Seattle Times), but it has not even broken even financially, and less than one-third of one per cent of US citizens have seen it, or are ever likely to.
As with Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair, the previous major release from the California-based group, the documentary evidence of officially sanctioned mass murder and deception by the US government and its military forces presented in The Panama Deception is difficult to believe. But, despite a low budget and a reputation for making serious trouble, Barbara Trent and her team have dug out and presented evidence sufficient to force even the most cynical and determined critics of left-field conspiracy theories to admit that the 1989 invasion of Panama was not at all what it was made out to be.
In 1989 George Bush, and every major news outlet in the US, claimed that the invasion of Panama was necessary to safeguard the lives of US citizens (military personnel stationed at the US bases in Panama), to "restore" democracy to a country suffering under the "tyrant" General Manuel Noriega and to stem the flow of illegal drugs entering the US via Panamanian drug lords such as Noriega himself. The Panama Deception presents an entirely different story.
The film outlines the virtual annexation of the 20-
mile-wide "canal zone" by the US in 1903 and the events leading to the 1977 Carter-Torrijos treaty by which the US agreed to relinquish control of the canal and withdraw its military bases by the year 2000.
It then proceeds, using both the testimony of academics and political analysts and that of participants in the events, to prove that US policy in the region, since Reagan's ascent to the presidency in 1981, has been to get out of the treaty. The plan was always to pave the way for an enlarged US military presence in Panama as a forward base for increased military intervention in Central and South America in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
In an excerpt from a televised address given in 1976 by Ronald Reagan, then a presidential candidate, we hear from his lips that the policy of the Republican Party is that the canal zone is "just as much US territory as Alaska. We bought it, we paid for it, and Torrijos [then president of Panama] should be told we're going to keep it."
In perhaps the most incredible sequence in the film, the commander of Southern Command in Panama and head of the assault, General Maxwell Thurman, sets out the purpose of the invasion.
"We were shocked", says Trent, "I mean drop jaw dumbfounded, when Maxwell Thurman laid out that the purpose of the invasion was to destroy the Panamanian Defence Forces. This was certainly not one of the four reasons given by the president and publicised by the media. So, it was like 'Wow! What did he say?'
One suspects that it is these sometimes breathtaking words from the horses' mouths which make The Panama Deception such a dangerous film, especially for the US government and for the corporate interests and puppet governments which depend on its patronage and protection.
The international media were not permitted into Panama during the first days of the invasion, and when they eventually arrived they were unable to leave the military compounds. The only footage of the invasion in existence is that taken by military cameras, and it remains classified.
So dangerous was the film perceived to be in Panama itself that on January 25 the country's National Censorship Board banned all forms of the film's release. The ban was eventually lifted, on March 18, just hours before a group of activists screened the film in Panama City, in open defiance of the ban, for more than 1000 political activists, journalists and international human rights workers.
On March 4 the US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) declined to include the film in its 1993 season of documentary films, thus eliminating any possibility for a major network broadcast of the film in the US. Distribution of the film there will now be restricted to independent cinema release, campus screenings and other small, non-theatrical outlets.
The Australian distributor of the film, Gil Scrine, has also had some difficulty selling it to Australian television broadcasters. Both the ABC and SBS initially declined to purchase when the film was offered to them earlier this year. Green Left asked the head of ABC documentaries, Harry Bardwell, why the ABC had turned it down.
"The film came to the ABC and was then sent back prior to it winning the [Academy] award and also unbeknownst to me. I'm now keen to get hold of a copy of the cassette, and if you can arrange for it to be sent to me that would be great", he said on April 22.
Gil Scrine has now re-entered negotiations with the ABC, and says that SBS has also shown renewed
interest. Australian television audiences may after all be given the opportunity to judge the film for themselves.
Apparently the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences judged the film worthy of more than dismissal as "yet another loony left conspiracy picture". Barbara Trent won the award for Best Documentary Feature at the 1993 ceremony on March 29, nearly a month after the PBS knock-back. In her acceptance speech, she highlighted both the Panamanian ban and the PBS refusal.
The Academy Award has undoubtedly lifted the profile of the documentary, providing the ultimate rebuttal to arguments that the film is somehow technically flawed.
"The story of PBS's refusal to show this is really snowballing into a huge story in this country. We are doing interviews all the time, and a major focus is the suppression of this film in the US by the broadcasters.
"If this story begins to break, it will be significant not just in terms of this film or this invasion, but it becomes significant in terms of people realising that we are not getting the truth. We are not participating in the debate. If there's a debate, nobody invited us.
"Some people would argue that we should control this hemisphere, economically, politically and militarily. But I think that the majority of Americans would not support that. I personally don't support that kind of mentality that feels comfortable maintaining our quality of life through the kind of oppression that is necessary to get people's resources and labour dirt cheap, but at least it would be the real debate. That's the discussion that Americans ought to have.
"I believe the majority would say 'Gee, I kind of like this quality of life, but God, this is awful! This is immoral! Its not worth the price other people are paying for me to maintain this lifestyle.'"
The Panama Deception will screen at the Valhalla in Sydney from April 30 and at Electric Shadows in
Canberra, the Lumiere in Perth, the Carlton in Melbourne, the Metro in Brisbane and the Mercury in Adelaide in following weeks. Resistance Centres, in association with Green Left, will screen the film in Newcastle, Wollongong and Hobart. Green Left has a free double pass to the Valhalla for the first person to ring our office on 690 1220 after 9.30 a.m. on Friday, April 30.