Democracy in Action Communities Organizing for Change Locally

Award-winning filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman will premiere World Peace is a Local Issue, at a celebration of local, community-based projects. Activists from East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Redwood City will participate by presenting currently important local issues. The evening will include a Memorial Tribute in which former Palo Alto Mayor Peter Drekmeier will honor two former Palo Alto Council Members Gary Fazzino and Ellen Fletcher who are featured in the film.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION
Communities Organizing for Change Locally

DATE/TIME: Friday, October 25, 7:00 pm til 10:00 pm
LOCATION: Lucie Stern Community Center, Stern Ballroom, 1305 Middlefield Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94301
COST: No Admission Fee


OSCAR-nominated, EMMY-winning local filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman PREMIERES a NEW FILM
WORLD PEACE is a Local Issue
A digitally remastered, re-edited production

Award-winning filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman will premiere World Peace is a Local Issue, at a celebration of local, community-based projects. Activists from East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Redwood City will participate by presenting currently important local issues. The evening will include a Memorial Tribute in which former Palo Alto Mayor Peter Drekmeier will honor two former Palo Alto Council Members Gary Fazzino and Ellen Fletcher who are featured in the film.

Fadiman’s film documents a memorable event in mid-Peninsula history: the efforts of Palo Alto residents (in 1983) to convince their City Council to adopt a resolution endorsing a Nuclear Weapons Freeze. This drama takes place against a backdrop of worldwide grassroots efforts to rein in the alarming nuclear arms race during the Cold War era.  The film focuses on the tension of the council meeting where impassioned pleas of residents result in two council members changing their positions, ensuring passage of the controversial Resolution.

The evening’s program will also feature presentations by activists from East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Redwood City and Palo Alto, who are hard at work on local issues and who’ve been involved in past successful efforts. Guests will be welcomed by a local jazz trio.

HOST:  Paul George - Director of Peninsula Peace and Justice Center

PRESENTERS
Isaiah Phillips: a young East Palo Alto activist (In The Name of Art), who will present three short video clips detailing a variety of citizen-based efforts in his town.  The videos are YUCA vs Romic, The Weeks Neighborhood Plan, and Cultivating the Vision.

John Rinaldi: a Mountain View current community advocate and former Board Member for the Day Worker Center. Mr. Rinaldi will recall the history of the arduous, eventually successful struggle to establish the Day Worker Center.

Erika Escalante: a Palo Alto activist who is President of the Buena Vista Home Owners Association. She is also President of the newly formed Save Buena Vista organizing committee.  Ms. Escalante will discuss the effort to save nearly 200 low income residents from losing their mobile homes.

James Lee: a Redwood City Organizer and Secretary of Save Pete’s Harbor, active in current efforts to save the Bay shoreline from commercial development, while fending off the displacement of dozens of low income residents.

MEMORIAL DEDICATION During the program, Peter Drekmeier will honor the memories of Gary Fazzino and Ellen Fletcher..  Fletcher introduced the Nuclear Freeze Resolution; Fazzino was one of the Council members after hearing from local residents,  switched his vote to support the Freeze Resolution

RECEPTION: Following the formal program, presenters and attendees from local communities are invited to meet, share ideas and get to know each other.

CONTACT: Dorothy Fadiman, Paul George and all of the presenters are available for interviews.
Dorothy Fadiman (650) 568-4340  Paul George 650) 326-8837 cell (650) 575-8207

FREE EVENT