Tribute to Saul Landau
Professor
Journalist
Filmmaker
Social Commentator
Advocate of Social Justice, Human Rights
Supporter and Donor to Libraries and Archives
Prepared by:
Rhonda L. Neugebauer
Bibliographer, Latin American Studies
University of California, Riverside
Riverside CA 92517
“I think I’m objective, but I’m not detached,” Landau said. “All my films try to teach people without preaching too hard. That’s why I make films…to raise other people’s consciousness in one way or another.” (Independent, Sept 18, 2013)
Saul Landau, an internationally-known and prolific journalist, award-winning filmmaker and critical social commentator on war, international relations, human rights and the media, died Sept. 9 at home in Alameda, California after 40+ years of activism supporting social justice and raising awareness in his films and writings. He was 77 years old. His death saddened friends and colleagues around the world. Landau continued writing during his two-year fight against bladder cancer – writing even from his hospital bed. His films and essays are dedicated to national and international policy issues and to the elimination of repression, poverty, foreign domination and war. The Institute for Policy Studies, where Saul was a highly-regarded fellow, will host a public memorial service at the Liaison Hotel in Washington, DC, on Sat. October 12, at 6 pm. Another service will be held in San Francisco.
While his physical presence is gone, he left us many valuable treasures in his films, books, essays and commentaries, interviews and reviews. The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) website announced his death and noted: “Beyond his extensive body of work, Saul will be remembered for his steely nerve and caustic wit. ‘He stood up to dictators, right-wing Cuban assassins, pompous politicians, and critics from both the left and the right,’ said IPS Director John Cavanagh. ‘When he believed in something, nobody could make him back down. Those who tried would typically find themselves on the receiving end of a withering but humorous insult.’” -- From IPS news release on Landau: http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/IPS_mourns_the_loss_of_saul_landau.
This annotated bibliography of Saul Landau’s films, publications, interviews and awards, was prepared as a tribute to this irreplaceable scholar and teacher, and in recognition of the wide-range and importance of his research, his published documents, and his media contributions to the scholarly record in Latin America and to US relations with Latin America. His scholarship, filmmaking and advocacy described and drew attention to the struggle to protect basic political, economic and human rights in Latin America and around the world.
From 1999-2006, Landau was Professor Emeritus of Broadcast Engineering at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where he taught history and digital media, and, since 1972, was a senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. In 2005, in support of the UCR Latin American library collections and Latin American Studies academic programs, Landau donated to the UCR Libraries his films, his papers on film and on his Latin American projects, including his films about Cuba, containing extensive interviews with Fidel Castro from 1967-1970s.
His most recent article, “A Simple Solution,” co-authored with Philip Brenner, was published by the Huntington Post on Aug. 9, 2013. In it, the two Cuba experts pressed for courageous resolution on the Guantanamo Bay military base by closing it down immediately and withdrawing all troops from Cuba permanently -- as a simple, but overdue, and decisive act of respect for the country’s sovereignty (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/saul-landau/a-simple-solution_b_3700652.html). “At the time of his death, Landau was working on another documentary about Cuba. The project, about the fight against homophobia there, will be completed by filmmaker, Jon Alpert, co-director of the film.” (Los Angeles Times, Sept. 13, 2013)
Professional Achievements and Recognition
Saul Landau has written 17 books, produced and directed over 40 documentary films and written hundreds of editorial columns. Many of the essays and columns are posted on his website (www.saullandau.com), or in national magazines and journals including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle (regular columnist, 1989-1994), the Huffington Post, Progreso Semanal (Progreso Weekly), The Nation, the Progressive, Latin American Perspectives, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, Zspace.org (part of Z magazine) and his blog (http://saullandau.wordpress.com). Landau was a senior fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. since 1972 and a senior fellow and former director of the Transnational Institute (TNI) in Amsterdam. He worked as a television and film producer, researcher, writer and scholar throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Later, he became a political analyst and commentator for Pacifica Radio Network News, and host of “Hot Talk,” a series of radio interviews with prominent actors, filmmakers, journalists and activists. Landau was also co-founder of Studies on the Left, in 1960, as well as the Center for Cuban Studies in New York.
His academic career includes serving as Director of Digital Media and International Outreach Programs for the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences and as the first-recipient of the Hugh O. Bounty Chair of Applied Interdisciplinary Knowledge at California State Polytechnic, Pomona, and as Professor at the University of California (Santa Cruz, Berkeley), the University of Wisconsin (Madison), the University of Maryland, American University (DC), and the California Institute of Art. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin Madison Landau earned degrees in History (BA 1957; MA 1959). He later worked towards a doctorate at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. His first political activities were at the University of Wisconsin. He worked in an effort to recall the red-baiting senator Joseph McCarthy (The Independent, Sept. 11). Saul later explained in an interview, “I came out of Madison with a passion for social justice and the idea that you only get one shot at participating in the history of the world and that you have to make the most of it.” (LA Times, Sept. 13, 2013)
Landau donated his early papers and films to the Wisconsin Center for Film and Television Research. In a 2006 editorial, the Capital Times (Madison) acknowledged the value and depth of Landau’s work, noting “researchers will, for decades and perhaps centuries to come, refer to Landau’s body of work as a reference point for understanding the politics and the culture of the remarkable period of transition that has taken place since Landau collected his UW degree [in 1959] and started filming his world.”
Landau donated his later films, outtakes and media archive on Latin America to the University of California, Riverside Libraries in 2006. In describing the Landau archive, the UCR Libraries noted that his unique body of work covered “issues of great historical importance, especially in-depth coverage of US and Latin American political figures and governmental activities. [Moreover, his] films document and call attention to major political developments, including interviews with important political leaders, such as Fidel Castro, Stokely Carmichael, Mario Savio, Subcomandante Marcos and the Chiapas guerrilla movement of indigenous peoples in Mexico. These documents are essential to understanding contemporary events and issues, and …political and social movements for social justice and ethnic equality. … [And the archives] wonderfully complement our primary research materials on social movements and social groups as well as on political history and foreign relations.” (Letter from Neugebauer to Saul Landau, Aug. 29, 2005). The “Guide to the Saul Landau Papers,” the UCR Libraries collection description, is available via the UC Online Archive of California, which describes and lists the contents of his archival collection (http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt9t1nf8q7/?query=saul+landau). The media materials in the UCR collection encompass his 40-year teaching, research, and advocacy on diverse social, political and economic issues.
Additional archival holdings with materials from Landau are the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Wisconsin State Historical Society at the University of Wisconsin, the Institute for Policy Studies (Washington, DC), the Transnational Institute (TNI) archives at the International Institute of Social History (IISG) in Amsterdam, the archives of the San Francisco Mime Troup Company, and the Pacifica Radio Archives.
Landau received many awards for his work. He received an Emmy for his film produced with filmmaker Haskell Wexler, Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang (1980); the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1981 for "Best Fact Crime" for his book, Assassination on Embassy Row (with John Dinges; Pantheon 1980), about the murder of TNI Director, Orlando Letelier and their colleague and friend Ronnie Karpen-Moffitt. He was awarded the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award for his life's contribution to human rights. In 2008, the President of Chile presented him with the Order of Bernardo O'Higgins, the highest civilian honor awarded to non-Chilean citizens (photo at end). In 2013, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People of the World bestowed on him their highest tribute, the Medal of Solidarity for his support of human rights.
In the early 1960s Landau was a member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe and wrote the play “A Minstrel Show: Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel.” At that time he also worked as a film distributor and television producer (KQED-TV, 1966-1969). Later, he worked as an industrial film producer, 1969-1972; director of the Film Unit at the Institute for Policy Studies, 1972-1975; and coordinator of the Transnational Institute, 1976-1979. He frequently appeared as commentator on radio and TV talk shows, and he published research and commentary articles in many journals and in book as chapters.
Cuba Expertise
Landau first visited Cuba in 1960. Upon his return, he joined the Fair Play for Cuba Committee to call for the U.S. to respect the sovereignty of the island nation and its flourishing revolutionary process that promised radical new investments in education and universal health care. Also in 1960, Landau helped co-found, with Sandra Levinson and others, the Center for Cuban Studies in New York. Landau wrote hundreds, possibly thousands, of articles on Cuba for academic journals, newspapers, magazines and websites. He also recorded scores of radio shows on the subject, and taught classes on the Cuban revolution at major universities. Several of his essays have appeared in Cuba readers and anthologies. And, in recent years, he led an extraordinary and heartfelt campaign to inform US citizens of the frequent damages and terror unleashed on Cuba by paramilitary groups operating with impunity from southern Florida. His final film, released in 2011 (Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up?), is about the five Cuban agents who infiltrated dangerous militarized, CIA-trained and armed anti-Castro groups in Florida who were planning military attacks on island targets in Cuba (never mind that arming and training military groups in the US is and was illegal). In the film, he interviews Danny Glover and Fidel Castro about the over 50 years of antagonistic US-Cuba relations. He also meticulously describes the unjust set-up, vilification, imprisonment of the five Cuban agents, known worldwide as the Cuban 5, and the continuing economic/survival threat to Cuba because of the US-led 55-year blockade that isolates, blockades and punishes Cuba for developing a new type of socialism that benefits the entire population. Landau worked tirelessly to free the “Cuban 5” in US jails for over a decade.
Over his career, Landau produced several highly-acclaimed films about Cuba -- Fidel (1968), Cuba and Fidel (1974), and the Uncompromising Revolution (1988). His 1968 film, “Fidel,” gave the world one of the earliest close-ups of the revolutionary leader. The “Fidel” documentary came about after a brief meeting with Castro, who told Landau he had seen a news report he had done on Cuba the year before. Landau recalled, “He said he liked the film very much and asked me what my next film was going to be. I said I’d like to do one on you.’” He then organized his next trip to Cuba in 1968 to film the Cuban leader. Landau was allowed unprecedented access to the Cuban leadership, accompanying Castro and his entourage on a week-long jeep trip around the Cuban countryside to meet with distant rural communities and evaluate services, conditions and needs. When it came time to show the movie in the United States in 1970, “New York’s Fifth Avenue Cinema was bombed and the Haymarket theatre in Los Angeles was burned down in order to prevent [Landau’s] movie from being screened. The inflammatory film, Fidel, [was] a documentary directed by Landau… and, the cause of the anger among anti-Castro Cubans exiles, was the extraordinary film record of a lively weeklong jeep tour of the eastern mountains region of Cuba on which Landau accompanied Castro in 1968. The 95-minute feature, “which de-demonized the charismatic Cuban leader for the American public, was finally shown in 1970 in selected theatres around the US and on the PBS network, except in Florida. A bomb was thrown through a window at a New York television station during the broadcast.” Landau, who made several films during this career, “suffered death threats throughout his career, mainly because of his criticism of US foreign policy, especially towards Latin America.” (Guardian, Sept. 16, 2013; http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/16/saul-landau). Still, he continued filming, writing and commenting on world events and their impact on Latin America.
Distributors for Saul Landau’s Films:
Saul Landau's films are distributed by Round World Productions (RWP) (http://roundworldproductions.com/Site/Films_by_Saul_Landau_on_DVD.html).
His 1968 film "Fidel" is distributed by Microcinema International (http://www.microcinemadvd.com/product/DVD/928/).
Landau’s final film project was unfinished at the time of his death, but will be completed by his colleague award-winning journalist and founder of DCTV, Jonathon Alpert, on the topic of homophobia in Cuba.
Landau’s films -- on social, political, historical issues and worldwide human rights -- are listed below with annotations (most recent first):
Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up? (2011) / a film by Saul Landau; Produced, written and directed by Saul Landau. Cinematographers Haskell Wexler, Roberto Chile, Tomas Hernandez; Edited by Rick Tejada-Flores. Music: Cuban Cowboys, Greg Landau, Camilo Landau. Interviews with Danny Glover, Fidel Castro, and the Cuban Five. Documents the story of the Cuban Five, Cuban intelligence agents sent to penetrate Cuban-American exile terrorist groups in Miami and who are now serving prison sentences. The film captures interviews with leading Miami terrorists, now in their eighties, who proudly recount their violent deeds against Cuba. Also interviewed are Cuban state security officials who explain why they infiltrated the agents into such violent Miami exile groups. Revealed is a story of violence that also echoed on the streets of Washington DC, New York and especially Miami. Interviews include comments on the over 50-years of US-Cuban relations, which exposes US support for violent anti-Castro militants who planned and carried out targeted political bombings and assassinations. Landau has defiantly declared, “The Cuban Five had the same chance of getting a fair trial in Miami that a Jew would have gotten in Berlin in 1938” (Guardian, Sept. 16, 2013). 82 min.
Fidel! A Saul Landau Film (2009 re-release with extras) / Saul Landau, Director. This is the new DVD version of Landau’s earlier 1968 film on Fidel Castro (Fidel!), which was re-produced by Microcinema and re-released on February 24, 2009. The following summary is paraphrased from the 2009 review by Jane Ian on DVD Talk: Saul Landau's documentary, Fidel!, covers, not surprisingly, Fidel Castro's day to day life and how he interacted with the basic populace of Cuba a few years after the revolution. Shot with a small crew using 16mm cameras in 1968, it provides a rare and intimate glimpse into one of history's most confounding figures and allows him, in his own words, to discuss politics and socialism with the common people he was touring around the country meeting with. There is some truly remarkable footage captured here. Not only do we get the chance to see Castro meet with simple farmers and the like but we also see him delivering some incredibly enthusiastic speeches, we see him talking about the importance of Marxist theory and we see him unwinding with a game of baseball. Throughout all of this, regardless of the formality or informality of the event, you can't help but fall for the man's natural charisma. He demonstrates personal warmth and a genuine sense of humor here that many of us would likely never think to associate with a man of his stature and you definitely get the impression that he cares very deeply for the Cuban people. In fact, Castro spends much of the film talking about how important it is that the government improve roadways and the overall standard of living for the population of Cuba's remote rural areas. In between the bits of footage that he and his crew shot, Landau integrates a wealth of black and white stock footage from the Cuban Film Archives that interjects some interesting pre-revolutionary war footage that helps to depict the differences between the Cuba of the fifties versus the Cuba of the late sixties. The Extras: Includes the Director’s Commentary Short Subject, Saul Landau’s 1974 “Cuba and Fidel,” and an Interview with Saul Landau (12 min.), which was originally produced by Link TV in 2007. In the interview, Landau discusses making the film, his motives and how he feels about its subject. The commentary covers a lot of this as well but Landau is an interesting man and he's well worth listening to. Rounding out the extras are excerpts from Landau's production diary (provided as an insert booklet inside the keepcase), trailers for a couple of other Provocateur DVDs. Landau is at his best when he talks about what it was like making this film on location in Cuba during a pretty tumultuous time in that country's history. He speaks about his subject with quite a bit of authority, detailing Castro's biographical history as the film plays out and doing a fine job of putting everything into a welcome context. 95 min.
“WE DON’T PLAY GOLF HERE -- and other stories of globalization” (2007) / Directed by Saul Landau; Co-produced by Saul Landau and George McAlmon;
Camera, Sonia Angulo; Editing, Tomas Hernandez. San Francisco: Round World Media. The film is a concise exploratory depiction of the negative side of globalization, and the extremes that everyday people go to in order to save their land and communities. “This half-hour film works, in classic Landau style, by means of wry, engaging images and interviews, to show us the real casualties of first world greed – the hard-working poor of Mexico. Required viewing. Exposes the ugly underbelly of the new economic order.” – Christina Waters. Cinema Guild: What can the construction of a golf course in Mexico teach us about globalization? Using Mexico as an example of what much of the developing world has experienced in recent years, this documentary offers a primer on how ‘free market’ economics can distort both culture and the environment. In the first story, the residents of the small town of Tepoztlan face off against federal troops by attempting to halt the construction of a corporate golf course and country club. As the town mayor explains, “we don’t play that sport here.” Maintaining a golf course, he contends, would drain farming water and with the necessity for chemicals and pesticides pollute the town’s aquifers. In the second story, “ecological peasants” tortured by Mexican army personnel describe in detail their efforts to stop Boise Cascade (the company behind OfficeMax) from clear-cutting forests in Guerrero. The third story focuses on Tijuana residents who tell how the US owner of a battery recycling plant allowed dangerous chemicals to seep into their water supply. When local authorities refused to condemn the plant’s practices, the residents took it upon themselves, marching on the factory. 33 min.
Syria: Between Iraq and a Hard Place (2004) / Produced and directed by Saul Landau, Sonia Angulo and Farrah Hassen. New York: Cinema Guild. From CG: A look at contemporary Syria and its precarious position between Israel and Iraq. Imagine a nation located between Israel, with its ongoing Palestinian tensions, and Iraq occupied by US forces. High U.S. officials threaten Syria, accusing it of accumulating weapons of mass destruction and having links to terrorists. Inside the country, we see a delicate balance of modern-clad men and women maintaining centuries-old traditions amidst satellite dishes on roofs and other symbols of globalization. The video shifts between the harsh political world and scenes of the Roman-built amphitheater in Bosra and the water wheels in Hama, the ancient ruins of King Solomon’s Temple and the Krak des Chevaliers crusader fortress. Syria’s rich history is revealed, with images of Christian icons and mosques, while simultaneously exposing the country’s pluralistic religious mosaic. A Syrian filmmaker’s journey back to Quneitra, his childhood hometown destroyed in 1973 after the Israeli army’s withdrawal from the captured Golan Heights, reveals unresolved tensions between Israel and Syria jeopardizing peace in the region. A Syrian foreign ministry official, academics, professionals, Bedouin shepherds and people on the Damascus streets and souks offer pleas for peace in the volatile region, while also criticizing unbalanced U.S. foreign policies in the Middle East, the post 9/11 “war against terrorism” and the declining state of U.S.-Syrian relations following the Iraq War. As Haskell Wexler (two-time Academy Award winning cinematographer) says: "Syria: Between Iraq and a Hard Place shows images you don't see in other films that come from that region. This film evokes the humanity of the Syrian people. Its power lies in its haunting and beautiful images--children playing, women buying, men praying. Would we dare to bomb such people? The fabulous soundtrack of Syrian music and street sounds and the photos of a Roman amphitheater and water wheels and women dancing in western dress combine to make this a film you shouldn't miss." 30 min.
Iraq: Voices from the Street (2002) / film by Saul Landau and Sonia Angulo. Landau joins a US congressional delegation (Nick Rahall, D-WV and former Senator James Abourezk) that traveled to Iraq in September 2002 to discuss with Iraqi officials the readmission of UN arms inspectors in the hope of averting war. The documentary also features numerous man-in-the-street interviews with Iraqi citizens, commentary from international politicians and peace activists. The film offers a rare chance to hear the views of ordinary Iraqi citizens about the United States along with shocking views of the impact of UN sanctions and US bombing on the Iraqi economy and population, and the severe restrictions of the 'oil for food' program. Offers a rare chance to hear the views of ordinary Iraqi citizens about the U.S. 22 min.
Maquila: A Tale of Two Mexicos (1999) / by Saul Landau and Sonia Angulo. A production of the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences and Media Vision at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. The documentary film is about the corporate globalization on the US-Mexico border. RWP: Examines the maquiladoras (maquilas), U.S.-owned export factories employing inexpensive Mexican labor. Covers the displacement of peasant farmers who migrate to northern border cities such as Juarez and Tijuana, where they endure dangerous working conditions in the maquilas for very low wages. Also examines the environmental disasters generated by these factories and the unsafe living conditions of the workers, which have resulted in a series of brutal rapes and murders of young women factory employees. Examines the violent rural confrontations between the Mexican Army and Mayan peasant farmers as part of the government's efforts to suppress the rebellion. Features interviews with workers, factory managers, government officials, army officers, indigenous peasants and economists. 54 min.
Labouring on the Border’s Edge (1999). A documentary about export processing zones on the Mexico-US border. From the New Zealand film program: Latin American Committee member Paul Bruce says “Labouring on the Border's Edge deals with the disastrous social and environmental effects of industries set up on the borders of Mexico since Mexico became part of the North American free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Companies and manufacturers have taken advantage of Mexico's lack of effective labour laws and human rights and environmental protection to establish "sweatshop" style factories producing consumer goods at low cost for the United States market.”
The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas (1996) / a film by Saul Landau; a presentation of the Independent Television Service; Meridian Productions. New York: Cinema Guild. Executive Producer Meredith Burch; original score, Jorge Reyes. Narrator Rebecca Switzer; voice of “Marcos,” Martin Sheen; Photo-graphy, Haskell Wexler, et al; Editors, Jorge Garcia, Hernan Vera. An examination of the events during and following the peasant uprising in Chiapas, Mexico in 1994. RWP: Just before dawn on New Year's Day 1994, armed Mayan Indians declared war on the government. They immediately seized eight towns in Chiapas and set in motion events that ripped away a facade of prosperity and stability to reveal 'the other Mexico'. They demanded land, public services and Indian autonomy - the right to communally own and farm land. They called themselves the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). This documentary features in-depth interviews with people from the EZLN, among them Subcomandante Marcos, with Bishop Samuel Ruiz from San Cristobal de las Casas, who is an outspoken practitioner of liberation theology and human rights activist. And, all other sorts of actors in the conflict: peasants on the estates they have occupied, angry ranchers forced from their land, church activists, conservative Catholics, government officials, and the notorious 'guardias blancas', the private army of the landowners. The Sixth Sun portrays an epic confrontation pitting impoverished peasants against large landowners and government forces in Mexico poorest state, Chiapas. The film raises important questions as to what is to be judged expendable in the rush to global economic integration - whether the destruction of whole peoples and cultures that have survived over centuries is simply to be accepted as the price of 'progress'. Best Director Award, First American Indian Intercontinental Film Festival, Santa Fe, 1996; Golden Apple Award, 1997; Best Picture, North Carolina Smoky Mountain Film Festival, 1997. 56 min. Spanish version: “El sexto sol : rebelión maya en Chiapas,” Meridian Productions, Inc. Corporation for Public Broadcasting. [S.l: s.n.], 1997.
Papakolea: A Story of Hawaiian Land (1993) / From YouTube Sept 27, 2013: Directed and co-written by Edgy Lee, with Academy Award winning cinematographer, Haskell Wexler; and Emmy Award winning documentary writer and producer, Saul Landau. This film received the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Award for Independent Programming, the National Education Silver Apple; the International CINE Golden Eagle; and other awards for writing and directing. Under constant threat of losing their land to corporate agriculture and federal government ownership, Native Hawaiians in Papakolea petitioned Congress to protect their land under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (1920). Their appeal, initiated by the women of this settlement community who struggled against poverty and racism, won the support of FDR and the U.S. Congress. Their 1930s victory continues to affect the lives of Hawaiians to this day while their determination to keep their culture alive is told by the few surviving elders. We begin to see the crucial thread that connects events of the past with the political and social conflicts of today's Native Hawaiians, still struggling for rights to their homelands. 55 min.
Report from Iraq (1991) / Producer, John Knoop; Executive Producer Saul Landau. A short film on the damage done to the Iraqi infrastructure by the Gulf War bombing of 1990-1991. This film profiles the post-Allied bombing trip of a group of Iraqi doctors, lawyers and students from Harvard. 20 min.
The Uncompromising Revolution (1988) / a production of the Center for Documentary Media. Producer, writer and director, Saul Landau. Associate producer, Emily Rose; Photographers Peter Chappell, Judy Irola. Editor Judith E Herbert; Field Producer and translator, Valerie Landau; Executive producer Jack Willis. San Francisco: Round World Media. This film explores the issues of nationalization of American businesses, Soviet aid and weapons, Cuba's role in Latin America, Nicaragua, Angola. Fidel Castro comments. Interviewed workers either praise the absence of social classes, socialized health and educational systems, or worry about corruption, cronyism, sloppiness in construction and other industries, and theft of state property. Women imprisoned for the latter offense in a model jail praise the prison and denounce their offenses. There are also brief discussions of divorce, art and culture, homosexuality and Santeria. RWP: There's something oddly fascinating about this film that looks at current-day, 30 years after Fidel Castro's nationalist revolution. It shows the people, landscapes, large and small themes, to depict the texture of Cuba after three decades of revolution. Weaving together archive footage, occasional flashbacks from earlier Landau pictures, recent personal interviews with Castro and scores of on-the-street and on-location interviews with women, professionals and workers. Landau tries to capture on film what political scientists have tried to do empirically, that is, to understand Cuba 30 years after the revolution. Unlike earlier Landau films about Cuba, this one shatters any romantic notions about revolution. Cuba is more like a normal country. Although most people seem thoroughly convinced that the Cuban style of socialism if preferable to any other form of government, it is not any more with the same enthusiasm of the years shortly after the revolution. A 102 year-old woman recalls the days of the Spaniards and the arrival of the Americans in 1898. The black and white images of history, the US Marines charging San Juan hill, occupying the island, gambling and having fun in the casinos - make clear why Cubans remember their history and why Americans and the rest of the world seem to have forgotten it. 55 min.
Target Nicaragua: Inside a Covert War (1983) / Stichting Derde Cinema, Producer and Director, Saul Landau. Cinematography: Haskell Wexler; Editing: Melody Oondono, Bronwen Sennish; Music Grupo Mancotal. This documentary film reveals what the CIA's clandestine action looks like, not from the Washington offices of policy circles but from the ground, where words like 'covert action' are translated into suffering, dislocation and death. A grim exposé of the CIA directed war against the Sandinistas. It shows how the United States and Argentina were plotting an overthrow beginning in 1981. Sabotage, blackmail, murder have all been tried. Describes the U. S. foreign policy and the human tragedies being faced in Nicaragua. Traveling through villages along the Nicaraguan-Honduran border, the filmmakers document the impact of the CIA-funded and directed covert war against Nicaragua's Sandinista government, featuring interviews with mercenaries (“contras”), soldiers, spies and civilian victims. The reality of the destruction of Nicaraguan society emerges vividly when one actually sees the faces of the victims and hears the explanations of the mercenaries. The film traces the line of responsibility, from the arms dealers who profited from their deals with the contras, to the people in the smart suits in the Pentagon, CIA and the White House. Again it is Haskell Wexler who is doing the superb photography. In 1983, there was still hope of countering the hit-and-run Low Intensity War. The then consul general of Nicaragua in the USA, said on seeing the film: The US can only win this war if it turns my country into a mass graveyard. In the end that's exactly what happened. 42 min.
Quest for Power: Sketches of the New American Right (1982) / VARATV Stichting Derde (Amsterdam). Produced, directed and narrated by Saul Landau and Frank Diamand; Cinema Production. RWP: This documentary chronicles the emergence of the religious New Right in the early Eighties, when, buoyed by the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan as President, conservative politicians and organizations launched nationwide attacks on communism, homosexuality, feminism, abortion, pornography and liberal politicians. It also shows excerpts from their television miniseries and interactions with their constituents that dwell on Soviet expansion and their negative positions on the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), abortion, gun control and school busing. By profiling such influential figures as religious broadcaster and Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell, anti-ERA activist Phyllis Schlafly, arch-conservative Senator Jesse Helms, right-wing and pioneer direct-mail fundraiser Richard Viguerie, and John LeBoutillier (R-NY), a representative of the new conservative breed of congressmen, the film offers a provocative portrait of the roots of a powerful force in contemporary American politics. Also includes an interview with former Sen. George McGovern and looks at the New Right’s means of forging its political philosophies into government policy. This film offers a provocative portrait of the roots of a powerful force in contemporary American politics. 52 min.
Report from Beirut: Summer of 1982 (1982) / Footage shot by Don North; Final editing by Saul Landau. This short documentary sought to show the effects Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the siege of Beirut. Begun June 6, Israel disingenuously called the operation “Operation Peace for Galilee.” The story behind the film is recounted by Sen. James Abourezk, former Senator (D-SD), in his book, Advise and Dissent: Memoirs of South Dakota and the US Senate (1989). The footage was shot and roughly edited in July 1982 by Don North, former ABC newsman, who had agreed to Abourezk’s request to document the devastation of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Beirut. But after North finished the first rough cut and showed it to the Senator, Abourezk registered his “shock at the film’s happy ending at a time when the siege was still on and Israel was still dropping tons of explosives on Beirut” (p. 173). At such criticism, North angrily walked off the job and Sen. Abourezk asked Saul Landau to finish the editing, which he did. “The result,” says the Senator, “was the most heart-rendering footage I’ve ever seen. The film focused on what happened to Beirut civilians during the siege – how they lived and how they died as the targets of the most dangerous weaponry that the United States had provided to Israel.” 21 min.
NOTE (p 173-174): Abourezk, writing in Advise and Dissent, continues: “It [the June 6, 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon] was, I decided, a testament to the insanity of the arms industry and of those who had unrestricted control of the weapons – phosphorous bombs, cluster bombs, and ordinary bombs used for carpet bombing. I was amazed that anyone in West Beirut had survived. As it was, 18,000 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians were killed, and 30,000 were wounded, so devastating was the first-strike firepower that Israel had flung into Beirut. We ordered dozens of home video copies of the film and distributed them to ADC [American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee] chapters around the United States. Saul entered the film into three separate film festivals and it won an award in each of the three. But getting ‘Report from Beirut’ shown on any television network, public or private, is another matter. I have special feelings – most of them negative – for public television after trying to get it aired there. PBS flatly refused, citing a policy against running films by advocacy groups. But at the same time it was running a series of pro-Israeli interviews paid for by a private foundation, which clearly was nothing more than pro-Israeli propaganda. WETA, the Washington public television station, finally agreed to run the film – long after Israel pulled out of Beirut, and at 11:30 pm on a Sunday night, when, I imagine, the audience must not have exceeded a few dozen.”
Steppin’, Steppin' (1980) / A film by Saul Landau, Pat Lafayette, Judy Irola, Barry Hill, Greg Landau. Filmed in Jamaica by Judy Irola, and includes original music featuring Neville Martin with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespear. This documentary shows Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley during his election campaign throughout the island nation. The film captures an important moment in Jamaican history as the country faces a destabilization campaign after 8 years of Democratic Socialism. 45 min.
Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang (1979) / Center for Documentary Media; San Francisco: Round World Media. Written and Directed by Saul Landau; Associate producer: Penny Bernstein; Producer Jack Willis; Photography by Zack Dreiger, Haskell Wexler; Editors Jay Freund, Barbara Jarvis; Music Greg Landau. A political documentary about government suppression and cover-up of the terrible health hazards from low-level radiation from US atomic testing. Willis and Landau used the investigative work of one reporter to uncover some unpleasant facts about the effects of low level radiation on human health. This documentary tells the story of journalist Paul Jacobs, who conducted a twenty-year investigation into the repercussions of governmental tests of nuclear weapons and concluded that the federal government engaged in a cover-up of their lethal consequences. The film opens with archival footage of a speech by President Harry S. Truman in 1951 about the importance of national defense and the roles that nuclear technology and the military will play in it. Jacobs discusses how he came to the conclusion that a massive government cover-up was underway; he relates anecdotes about some of the hundreds of interviews he conducted over the years with citizens in the towns north of Las Vegas, Nevada. The people in these towns began coming down with cancer and leukemia roughly twenty years after the tests were conducted, at a rate that far exceeded any sort of national average. Jacobs’ suspicions were confirmed when he received incriminating paperwork from a source at the Atomic Energy Commission, he explains. Jacobs then discusses the 239 unsuccessful lawsuits that a group of citizens filed against the government in 1979, outlining the reason for their failure: it would take a long time to prove scientifically that the radiation in question affected these people, and the government would never fund such research. Halfway through the film, Jacobs reveals on camera that he himself is suffering from cancer -- and that he believes that he came down with it from spending so many years conducting this research. Landau and Wexler took a dying Jacobs back to the “down wind” locations he had previously investigated. In southern Utah and northern Arizona, Jacobs revisits people he had earlier interviewed and discovers a virtual cancer epidemic among the exposed population. The film inter-cuts the history of the nuclear project with the voices of its victims, alongside government officials’ explaining why national security required nuclear testing and a campaign of lies and secrecy about how nuclear fallout might affect public health. In the film, Jacobs serves as a narrator and teacher. Jacobs consulted with scientists and doctors and attributed his lung cancer to his having inhaled a plutonium molecule during his reporting from the “hot areas.” Journalist Paul Jacobs died from lung cancer before the documentary was finished. His doctors believed he contracted it while he was investigating nuclear policies in 1957. Jacobs interviewed civilians and soldiers, survivors of nuclear experiments in the 50s and 60s, testing the effects of radiation in the Nevada desert. The film, which is Landau’s most recognized, won an Emmy Award (1980), George F. Polk Award for Investigative Journalism on TV, Hugh Hefner First Amendment Award for Journalism, and the Mannheim Film Festival First Critics' prize. It was first broadcast in 1979 by PBS. 58 min.
The CIA Case Officer: John “Bob” Stockwell (1978) / Made by the Government Accountability Project of the Institute for Policy Studies. This documentary provides a portrait of John “Bob” Stockwell, son of protestant missionaries, a former Marine Corps officer and corporate manager and former CIA official who served in the CIA for 12 years, mostly in Africa and Vietnam. Soon after his last assignment as chief of the Angolan Task Force during 1975 and early 1976, Stockwell talks with candor and introspection about his career and the disillusionment, which led to his decision to leave the CIA. He reveals information about CIA practices and policies, including the planning and shaping of a CIA covert operation. Stockwell also discloses how he became a “whistleblower” to expose the agency’s corrupt and immoral activities. This film covers his life as a CIA agent and how he moved up in the agency, as told by his parents, children, wife and himself. 30 min.
Bill Moyers, “The CIA’s Secret Army” (TV), CBS Reports, airdate June 10, 1977. Bill Moyers, Writer; Howard Stringer, Executive Producer; Judy Circhton and George Crile, Producers; Saul Landau, Field Producer. From The Paley Center for Media's iCollection for Colleges and Universities: This program examines Cuban exile terrorists living in Miami. These terrorists were secretly trained and employed by the U.S. government in the early 1960s to fight Fidel Castro. Now, allegedly without U.S. direct guidance, terrorist activities continue in Miami and Latin America. The program reviews secret U.S. policies toward Cuba in the 1960s and includes interviews with Castro and former top CIA officials. Members of secret and militant Cuban-American groups, formerly trained and employed by the U.S. Government until 1967, were active in committing the Watergate crimes and conducting many anti-Castro terrorist acts, including exploding a bomb on a Cuban Airliner, killing seventy-three innocent people. Includes interviews with Castro, E. Howard Hunt, Bernard Barker, Rolando Martinez. 60 min. http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=CIA+and+Cuba&p=1&item=T77:0273
Land of My Birth (1976) / A film by Pat Lafayette, Franklyn St. Juste, Saul Landau. Cinematographer, Haskell Wexler. RWP: This film follows Michael Manley on the campaign trail in 1976 during his second run for Prime Minister of Jamaica. This film traces the issues facing the Democratic Socialist Government and their innovative social programs. There is rarely seen footage of rural Jamaica in the 1970’s and an opportunity to hear the people of Jamaica speak about the concerns they face. 35 min.
Zombies in a House of Madness (1975) / A short film where jail house poet, Michael Beasley, reads his poetry illustrated by footage taken inside the San Francisco jail, in 1972. Music by Country Joe and His All-Star Band.
Song for Dead Warriors (1974) / A film by Norma Allen, Saul Landau, Michael Anderson, Rebecca Switzer, Larry Janss, Bill Yahraus. This documentary examines the reasons for the Wounded Knee occupation in the spring of 1973 by Oglala Sioux Indians and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Using a Senate Hearing by the Indian Affairs Subcommittee at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, as an investigative framework, the film features many of the personalities involved in the historic event. RWP: Examines the reasons for the Wounded Knee occupation in the spring of 1973 by Oglala Sioux Indians and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM). The film captures the conflict between AIM, the Sioux militants, the government's Bureau of Indian Affairs and those allied with the US government. Winner of the Ann Arbor Film Festival. 93 min.
Cuba and Fidel (1974) / Written, produced and directed by Saul Landau. RWP: In 1974, Fidel Castro felt optimistic about the Cuban Revolution. As he tours a newly-built apartment complex, he accepts a neighbor’s invitation, sips rum in her apartment and listens to her daughter sing “Que Linda es Cuba.” Fidel also meets Vietnamese women and tells them “it is almost as hot here today as it was in Quang Tri”, revealing that he had visited the war zone in 1973. In his office, he discusses his conception of democracy and how it differs from the western notion. “Without equality, we think there can be no real democracy”, he informs the film crew. He then recounts the evolution of how class domination evolved from slavery through colonialism, which leads him to talk of how much of Cuba was owned by the United States before the revolution. This film is beautifully photographed and contains unique footage both of Castro and of rural and urban Cuba. Lyrical and rhythmic Cuban music makes the montages of farm and city life come alive. 24 min.
Who Shot Alexander Hamilton? (1974) / a film by Saul Landau; Bald Eagle Films. Producers: Norma Allen, Michael Anderson, Saul Landau and Rebecca Switzer. An unusual portrait of the Watergate Congress at work, the film follows the 93rd Congress as it copes with the fallout from the Watergate hearings. The film emphasizes the media's glorious role, thanks to the heroic efforts of two Washington Post journalists, attacking the government and bringing down a President of the US. During the Watergate hearings, a lot of dirt was uncovered. The burglary into the Watergate building was only small potatoes. 62 min.
Castro, Cuba and the USA (Oct. 2, 1974 air date) / by Dan Rather for CBS Reports; Directed by Saul Landau. Dan Rather and Frank Mankiewicz offer a wide-ranging and exclusive interview with 47-year-old Fidel Castro on US Presidents Ford and Nixon, on Chile and the role of the CIA, on the future of capitalism and communism, and on US-Cuban international relations. An audio archive of the program is at: http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba/Dan-Rather-Cuba-10-2-1974.mp3. 50 min.
Robert Wall: Ex-FBI Agent (1972) / Directed by Robert J. Anderson, Paul Jacobs, Saul Landau and Bill Yahraus. Saul Landau and Paul Jacobs. This television documentary program follows an FBI agent provocateur, Robert Wall. Robert Wall chronicle how he spied on targeted individuals and institutions. He describes how he tracked and reported on Stokely Carmichael, and how he tried to incite violence at a peace march. Film was reviewed in the NYTRB, Robert Wall, Special Agent for the FBI,” New York Review of Books (Jan. 27, 1972), page 18. (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1972/jan/27/special-agent-for-the-fbi/?pagination=false)
The Jail (1972) / a film by Michael Anderson, Saul Landau, Paul Jacobs, Bill Yahraus. Landau was writer, director and producer. San Francisco: Round World Media. 2005. Filmed in San Francisco County Jail over a three month period (April-July 1972), this early reality documentary provides a revealing view of the structure of prison society in the United States. Landau describes the film as a “trip through the society of prisoners and jailers, transvestites, murderers, drunks and sadists.” Produced for Broadcast on WNET, (plus three educational films on Men and Women in the Correctional Facilities) for Harvard University. Won first prize at the Berlin Film Festival and the Ann Arbor Film Festival. 80 min
Zombies in a House of Madness (1972) / Shot in the San Francisco jail.
Que Hacer?/What is to be Done? (1971) / Directors Saul Landau, Nina Serrano (one of the few women film directors at the time). The film was co-produced by James Beckett and Saul Landau and won the Venice Film Festival prize for Directing. Filmed on location in Chile, the film is a spy story-musical feature film that weaves documentary coverage of the Salvador Allende election campaign of 1970 with a fictional story that foreshadows the turmoil ahead. This fast-moving story of political intrigue involves a young woman Peace Corps worker, played by the late Sandra Archer, who becomes involved with a mysterious American ‘businessman’ played by Richards Stahl and at the same time with a Chilean revolutionary played by Pablo de la Barra, and subsequently joins with Chilean revolutionaries. This Brechtian treatment of the Allende election and the imperial politics that intervenes in the Chilean affairs, features the songs and acting of Country Joe McDonald as well as President Allende himself. It was filmed on location during the historic elections of 1970. Que Hacer is a deliciously playful film, with a lot of cinematographic tricks and ingenious cutting, reminiscent of Godard's A Bout De Souffle. Awards at Cannes, Venice and Mannheim. 90 min.
An Interview with Salvador Allende, President of Chile (1971) / Saul Landau. San Francisco: Round World Media. Disc label title: Interview with Allende. Container title: Conversation with Allende. Cinematographer, Haskell Wexler; Editor Michael Butler. Filmed in Feb. 1971, Landau interviews Chilean President Salvador Allende, in an informal garden setting. Allende discusses the problems facing the people and government of Chile in the 1970s. RWM: In this historic interview with Salvador Allende, Chile’s new president lays out the program he intends to pursue as leader of the Popular Unity government. The conversation shows with rare candor Allende’s deep seated belief in the Chilean Constitution and in the ability of his coalition to maintain control for the elected six-year period. He discusses the legal road to socialism, anticipates problems with the Nixon Administration and the CIA, and his plans to handle the antagonism if not overt aggression of the Chilean bourgeoisie. He also talks about his early days as a physician, recounting how his medical career and contact with the poor led to his conversion to socialism. 30 min. Note: The transcript of Saul Landau’s 1971 interview with Former President Salvador Allende was published for the first time in Chile, in La Nacion, a Chilean newspaper, on Dec. 2006. The transcript, until then, “had remained in the hands of the U.S. documentary-maker Saul Landau, [was] unpublished for over 30 years.” The previously unpublished interview details Allende’s socialist plans for Chile. The article continued, “Landau was fortunate to obtain an audience with Allende, who usually refused interviews to British or U.S. journalists.”—Quoted from Landau’s blog for his latest film, “Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up?” http://realterrorist.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/saul-landaus-interview-with-former-president-salvador-allende/. 25 min.
Brazil: a Report on Torture (1971) / A LinkTV Production; Saul Landau and Haskell Wexler, Directors. Haskell Wexler, Cinematographer. Other titles: Brazil: Report on Torture. In 1971, the Brazilian military released 70 political prisoners in exchange for the Swiss ambassador kidnapped by the revolutionary underground. Handcuffed together, the prisoners were flown to Santiago, Chile where this film was made. Landau and Wexler interview the ex-prisoners who narrate and demonstrate the torture practices of the Brazilian military revealing the type of torture that was part of everyday routine interrogations in Brazilian prisons. The film shows reenactments of water boarding and the medieval and modern procedures used by Brazil’s military, which had taken power by coup in 1964. Container title: Brazil, report on terror. 60 min. ADDED ITEMS: In a 15-minute director’s interview is entitled “Witnesses to the Persecution,” where the directors look back at the circumstances of filming and what they learned from the torture victims. Filmmakers Haskell Wexler and Saul Landau talk about their time in Chile interviewing the Brazilian victims, as well as US involvement in South American politics. (www.linktv.org/witnesses-to-the-persecution). NOTE: Wexler and Landau were in Chile working on their Allende documentary when they read a local news story about the Brazilian torture victims. Upon contacting the victims, they agreed to be interviewed. Tragically, the young students and professionals who appear in the film were living in Chile as political refugees when General Pinochet and his military forced their way to power in 1973, throwing them again into a world of detention, torture and pain.
Fidel (1968) / A Documentary Film Company Production; Directors Saul Landau and Irving Saraf. Photographer and editor: Irving Saraf. UCR Libraries Bibliographic Record: This documentary follows Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 1968 during a week-long tour of the country’s Oriente Province. Castro speaks with citizens and listens to their complaints about the country. During the tour, he inspects a factory, visits a construction site where a school is being built, and addresses a huge crowd on the 15th anniversary of the revolution. This footage is interspersed with newsreel footage, including clips from the 1950s guerrilla war with Fulgencio Batista’s forces. Fidel talks about the Cuban revolution, his relationship with the people of Cuba, his early childhood and school years, and the attempted US-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs/Playa Giron. Extras include Director’s Commentary, a Short Subject of Landau’s 1974 “Fidel and Cuba”; and an interview with Landau. 96 min. NOTE: The 1968 film was re-released in 2009, with extras (see the 2009 entry). The UCR Libraries’ copy of the 1968 film was restored and digitized by Colorlab (Rockville, Md.) for archival purposes by the UCR Libraries in 2012.
From Protest to Resistance (1968) / NET Journal presents; produced by the KQED Film United under the supervision of National Educational Television; a film by Richard Moore, Saul Landau, Irving Saraf. Music: Country Joe and the Fish. Originally produced as a television program in 1968. Chronicles the anti-war/free speech movements and the black power struggles of the 1960s. RWP: This film captures the rapid changes in the student movement that brought forth the pacifist anti-Vietnam war movement, the free speech movement and the black power struggle. The film is full of street action, dialogues with draft dodgers in Canada and anti-war activists in various milieus and activities lined up facing counter lines of police, youths overturning police cars and police charging, clubs flailing at demonstrators’ heads. It’s still fascinating to see and hear Stokely Carmichael speaking, even after 30 years. 59 min.
Losing just the same (1966) / Written and produced by Richard Moore and Saul Landau, and directed by Richard Moore and Irving Saraf. It was originally produced by KQED for National Educational Television (NET), the predecessor of WNET, and first aired in 1966. Landau was approached by a San Francisco public television station that wanted a report on ghetto conditions in Oakland. The result, “Losing Just the Same,” was his first documentary. It is now archived by San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive (in two parts). “Losing Just the Same” documents the life of a West Oakland family in 1966. This documentary reflects on the lives and aspirations of an African American family, the Johns, who moved to West Oakland from Louisiana, focusing on Robert Lee Johns and his mother Agnes. A voiceover prefaces the film with a statement that it presents “a story of people caught in a lifelong struggle between their hopes and their abilities and their discovery that no matter how hard they try they will be losing just the same.” The film includes views shot around the streets of West Oakland, public speaking by Curtis Baker (Black Jesus), meetings at the Oak Center Site Office and excerpts from a graduation ceremony at McClymonds High School. Also featured are scenes of Robert attending a job interview at a garment factory in San Francisco and a fantasy sequence in which he imagines himself graduating successfully from high school. Copyright is held by Wnet.org. It is archived at: http://sfbayview.com/2011/losing-just-the-same-classic-1966-film-on-west-oakland/. 58 min. NOTE: Held only by Boise State University Libraries.
Books authored and co-authored by Saul Landau
Saul Landau (2013). Stark in the Bronx. New York: CounterPunch Books. 212 p. A detective novel set in the Bronx, New York, this is Saul’s last book, published a month before his passing. CounterPunch.org: “Stark is an endangered species. He's the last Jewish private detective in the south Bronx and his days may be numbered. It's the summer of 1965: the Yankees are making another pennant run, the war in Vietnam is heating up, hemlines are rising and the old neighborhood is changing. These days it's easier to stumble on a mugging than to find a good bagel.”
Saul Landau; Introduction written by Gore Vidal (2007). A Bush & Botox World. New York: CounterPunch, AK Press. 301 p. ISBN 978-1-904859-61-1. In this book, Landau describes the 2006 Cuban transfer of presidential duties, Cuba in the 1960s, Raúl Castro and U.S.-Cuban relations. “Botox promoters promise to wipe away wrinkles, the signs of aging--the signs of time passing. Such "eternal youth" potions metaphorically help erase the very notion of time itself. In a phony world, increasingly dependent on smoke and mirrors, it is no wonder we look at elected officials like a cheap circus act. Saul Landau travels in and out of America, from the stress-filled cultures of Southern Californian businesspeople and poor towns in Texas, to the wildly booming streets of Hanoi and temples of Angkor Wat, to muse on just how low we have sunk. The book explores the ironies of a time in which science explores the genetic code and masters the physics of instant global communication technology, while bible thumpers and talkers to Christ advocate medieval crusades to spread their order to infidels. Gore Vidal provides a scabrous-funny introduction to a book by an author he says he ‘loves to steal ideas from’."
Saul Landau (15 July 2004). The Business of America: How Consumers Have Replaced Citizens and How We Can Reverse the Trend. New York: Routledge, 195 p. ISBN 978-0-203-49475-2. Amazon review: “Written by one of the most insightful critics of American commercialism, The Business of America, probes the forces that have transformed citizens into consumers eager to take as much as they can from the planet. From online shopping to spectator sports to the cash-and-carry ethos of political campaigns, Saul Landau decodes the subtle ways in which advertising images tell us to correct our inadequacies with yet more things: SUVs, credit cards, air conditioning, and videogames. The winds of change are blowing, Landau shows, from resurgent student protests for underpaid janitors to the 'Group of 21', the developing countries that stopped the World Trade Organization dead in its tracks in 2003. Eschewing nostalgia for a simpler time - a less-interconnected world that can never return - The Business of America shows how we as citizens can regain our identities, stripping away the plastic overlay of consumerism.”
Saul Landau (20 October 2003). The Pre-Emptive Empire: A Guide to George W. Bush's Kingdom. Sterling: Pluto Press. 182 p. ISBN 978-0-7453-2140-0. Includes essays: Leaving the Republic behind; The Empire Strikes Back; Between Iraq and a Hard Place: The Oily Empire Stomps through the Middle East; Latin America: the Imperial Economic Model, Obedience and Terrorism; Cuba: the last holdout; The Move to War.
Saul Landau (1998). Red Hot Radio: Sex, Violence and Politics at the End of the American Century. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press. 247 p.
Saul Landau and Joan E. Garces (1995). Orlando Letelier, Testimonio y Vindicacion. Madrid: Siglo Veintiuno de Espana Editores. 57 p.
Saul Landau (1995). Hot air: a radio diary / Saul Landau; foreword by Christopher Hitchens. Washington DC: Pacifica Network News/Institute for Policy Studies. 1995. 245 p. A collection of Saul Landau’s radio commentaries from broadcasts on Pacific Network News.
Saul Landau (1993). The Guerrilla wars of Central America: Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. New York: St Martin's Press. 222 p.
Saul Landau (1993). My Dad Was Not Hamlet. Washington, DC: Institute for Policy Studies. Landau’s first book of poems. 89 p. Spanish Edition: Mi padre no era Hamlet / Saul Landau; prologo de John Berger. Madrid: Arges. 2000. 131 p.
Saul Landau (1993). “Commentary [on UN Truth Commission Report]: Lessons for Clinton in Truth Commission Report.” Excerpted from Central America Update, March 26, 1993. [Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico, Latin American Institute, 1993]. 11 leaves.
Saul Landau (1988). The Dangerous Doctrine: National Security and U.S. Foreign Policy. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press. 201 p. ISBN 978-0-8133-7506-9.
Saul Landau, et al. (1984). Changing Course: Blueprint for Peace and Development in Central America / PACCA [Policy Alternatives for the Caribbean and Central America]. Washington, DC: Institute for Policy Studies. 116 p.
Saul Landau and Carla van Splunteren (1983). Nieuw Rechts in Amerika: Politieke machtsvorming en technieken van dwang en beïnvloeding (The New American Right) Amsterdam: Kritiese Bbliotek. 93 p. In Dutch.
John Dinges and Saul Landau (June 1980). Assassination on Embassy Row. NY: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-394-50802-3. 411 p. This book documents the planning and international coordination of the assassination of former Chilean foreign minister in the Allende government, Orlando Letelier and his colleague Ronni Moffitt in Washington DC. The research for the book found FBI involvement in the plotting and undertaking of the bombing, along with Chilean secret police (DINA) operatives. FBI involvement was confirmed after declassified documents were released by the National Security Archives, a private research and advocacy repository that works to have US government documents declassified. Spanish edition: Authors: John Dinges, Saul Landau; Mitt D’AArbanville (translator). Asesinato en Washington: el caso Letelier. México, D.F: Lasser Press Mexicana. 1982.
Saul Landau (1978). They Educated the Crows: a Transnational Institute Report on the Letelier-Moffitt murders. Amsterdam: Transnational Institute; IPS. 44 p.
Fidel Castro, Barbara Walters and Saul Landau (1977). Fidel Castro/Barbara Walters interview: What ABC didn't show. New York: Center for Cuban Studies. Jan. 1, 1977. 42 p. Also published as: “Cuba in Focus,” Center for Cuban Studies Newsletter, Vol. IV, No. 3.” Landau contribution: The Introduction.
Carol Kurtz; Saul Landau; Ralph Stavins, Editors (1977). Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen-Moffitt. Transnational Institute. 94 p.
Paul Jacobs, Saul Landau with Eve Pell (1971). To Serve the Devil [a Documentary Analysis of the America’s Racial History and Why it has Been Kept Hidden]. NY: Random House. Vol. 1: Natives and Slaves; Vol. 2: Colonials and Sojourners.
Saul Landau (1971). Torture in Brazil. Rome: Panorama Books. [Cited in Contemporary Authors, volume 130].
Paul Jacobs and Saul Landau (1966). The New Radicals: a Report with Documents. New York: Random House. 333 p. Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.
Saul Landau and R.G. Davis (1965). A San Francisco Mime Troupe production, “A Minstrel Show, or Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel.”
Saul Landau (1964). “The Long Hot Chorizo” (play), first produced in San Francisco, California.
Saul Landau (1959). The Bisbee deportations: class conflict and patriotism during World War I (Thesis for MS in History). Madison: University of Wisconsin. 131 leaves.
Radio Programming
LinkTV Hot Talk: interview with Saul Landau (12.04 min); www.linktv.org/video/1941. There are several “Hot Talk” Landau interviews at the Link TV site (www.linktv.org).
Guide to the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions Collection, Series 12: Audio-Visual
Saul Landau Interview, Aug. 16, 1967. Tape No. A7408/R7V3 (Citation from OAC; item held at UC Santa Barbara).
Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, "A View From Inside Cuba, program 284, part a," with Saul Landau, in Digital Collections, Item #5728, http://digital.library.ucsb.edu/items/show/5728 (accessed October 8, 2013). (Tape No. AS7891-7892/R7284, 2 tapes). Program broadcast Aug. 16, 1967. Contents: Saul Landau, co-author of The New Radical, reports on his four-week visit to Cuba, where he found that, despite the U.S. embargo and the resultant privation, Cubans are making impressive strides in advancing their revolution. 2 tapes. [Transcript 22:7]. 44 min.
“Meeting with Saul Landau,” Tapes 1-13, with two Tape #2; 14 tapes, May 31, 1967.
Saul Landau, “The New Radicals,” Aug. 18, 1965. Tape No. AS7296/R7B. (Citation from OAC; item held at UC Santa Barbara).
Saul Landau, “New Left,” Aug. 19, 1965. Tape No. AS7296/R7B (Citation from OAC; item held at UC Santa Barbara).
Articles and Commentary Contributed to Academic Journals, News Magazines:
Landau regularly published his research and commentary for several progressive journals and websites that now archive his material: CounterPunch.org (2370 hits on Landau!), The Nation (297 hits); Latin American Perspectives: A Journal on Capitalism and Socialism (23 articles); Mother Jones (9 hits); Huffington Post (309 hits); The Progressive (14 hits, 2001-2004); Progreso Weekly (1330 hits);
Latin American Perspectives
Saul had a long association with this premier journal of Latin American Studies, publishing articles and introductory essays as well as reflections on his research, interviewing and activism.
Bray, Donald W. and Marjorie Woodford Bray, “Cuba Reflections.” In the introductory essay for the issue, Latin American Perspectives, January 2009; vol. 36, 1: pp. 124-126. Note: In this article, Don and Marjorie acknowledge and appreciate the help of Saul Landau since 1999 to set up their initial contacts for their academic program, class lectures, and visits around the country. Landau also helped bring distinguished Cuban scholars to visit and lecture on area campuses including the CSUs and the UCs.
Landau, Saul, “The Cuban Revolution: Half a Century,” Latin American Perspectives, vol. 36, no. 1 (January 2009): p.136-138.
Landau, Saul, "U.S. Media Images of Postrevolutionary Cuba: Shaped by Government Policy and Commercial Grammar,” Latin American Perspectives, vol. 33, no. 5 (September 2006): p. 118-127.
Landau, Saul. “The World Tribunal and Its Recommendations,”
Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 33, no. 3 (Jan. 2006): pp. 3-8. Landau offers first hand account of the 2005 Istanbul session of the World Tribunal on Iraq.
Landau, Saul. “The Day the Counterrevolutionaries Had Waited for Arrived, y en eso llegó Fidel,” Latin American Perspectives, vol. 29, no. 4 (July 2002): p. 77-79.
Race and Class
Book reviews of Saul Landau’s books and are published in Race and Class in distinct volumes: Guerrilla Wars of Central America was reviewed in 1996 by Philip Brenner in vol. 37, p. 83-85; The Dangerous Doctrine: National Security and US Foreign Policy was reviewed in 1989 by Terry Terriff in vol. 18, p. 126-127; the Assassination on Embassy Row, co-authored with John Dinges, is reviewed in 1980 by Fred Halliday in vol. 22, p.311-315. A review of Landau’s film, “The Uncompromising Revolution,” was reviewed in 1989 by David Pedersen, Vol. 30, p. 101-102.
Saul Landau. “Asking the Right Questions about Cuba,” Race and class, vol. 29 no. 2 (1987): 53-68. NOTE: “An earlier and shorter version of this article appeared in Monthly Review, vol. 39, no. 1 (1987).
Saul Landau and Nelson P Valdes. “Environmental internationalism: How Cuba Can help Save the Earth,” Climate and Capitalism, Feb. 4, 2012. Available at: http://climateandcapitalism.com/2012/02/04/environmental-internationalism-how-cuba-can-help-save-the-planet/.
Chapters Contributed to Monographic Works
Saul Landau, “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana and the Moral Economy of War,” in Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, John D. Kelly, Beatrice Jauregui, Sean T. Mitchell and Jeremy Walton, editors, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2010), p. 77, 81-82.
Saul Landau, Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh, “U.S. Policy Toward Latin America: Supporting Democratic Diversity, in Mandate for Change: policies and leadership for 2009 and Beyond, editor Chester Hartman. (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2009, 488 p), pp. 423-420. eBook: http://fpif.org/mandate_for_change_policies_and_leadership_for_2009_and_beyond/.
Saul Landau, July 26: History Absolved Him. Now What?” in A Contemporary Cuba Reader: Reinventing the Revolution, editor Philip Brenner. (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. 2008. 413 p.).
Frank, Joshua and Jeffrey St. Clair. Red state rebels : tales of grassroots resistance in the heartland. Edinburgh ; Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2008. 346 p. Landau contributed: “Slab City Living: An Elegy to the Salton Sea.”
MacDonald, Scott. Canyon Cinema : the life and times of an independent film distributor. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. 461 p. Landau contribution: An essay on censorship [1964]. Publisher info: Presents the story of how a small, backyard organization in the San Francisco Bay Area emerged in the 1960s and evolved to become a major force in the development of independent cinema. This book offers a chronicle of the life and times of this influential, idiosyncratic film exhibition and distribution collective.
Gürsoy Sökmen, Müge. World Tribunal on Iraq: making the Case Against War. Northampton, Olive Branch Press. 2008. 562 p. Publisher Description: This book contains testimony, expertly introduced by activist Muge Gursoy Sokmen, Booker Prize winner and peace activist Arundhati Roy, and the noted human rights scholar Richard Falk. As Roy notes in her introduction, this is an attempt to "correct the record-to document the history of the war not from the point of view of the victors but of the temporarily-and I repeat the word "temporarily"--Vanquished." Every aspect of the war is examined-from its legality, to the effects of cluster bombs and depleted uranium, to its ecological impact, to the history of US and British military interventions of Iraq, to the role of international institutions and corporations in the occupation, to the use of torture, and to strategies of resistance. Online version: Irak dünya mahkemesi. English. World tribunal on Iraq.
Golinger, Eva. The Chavez Code: Cracking US Intervention in Venezuela / with foreword by Saul Landau. Northampton, Mass.: Olive Branch Press. 2006. Amazon: Perhaps no world leader is better placed to challenge the global authority of the United States than Hugo Chavez, the populist leader of Venezuela. As the head of one of the world's largest oil-producing countries, Chavez has been instrumental in raising world oil prices, undermining the control and profits of the multinational oil companies, and introducing innovative plans to use the wealth from this natural resource to help the impoverished-rather than the already powerful-in his own country and around the world. As the popularly elected president of one of South America's largest democracies, his strong resistance to the Bush administration's Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) has severely set back, if not derailed entirely, the US's long-held hemispheric agenda. When in 2005 Bush ally and Christian fundamentalist Pat Robertson called for Chavez's assassination ("It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war"), public outcry forced some questions: Was that, in fact, a CIA goal? Did the US have plans to invade Venezuela (as Chavez alluded to receiving intelligence about on Nightline in September 2005)? And exactly what was the extent of US knowledge of or involvement in the April 2002 coup against Chavez? (He was back in power within two days, after 250,000 took to the streets in Venezuela to protest.) Venezuelan-American attorney Eva Golinger and journalist Jeremy Bigwood have used the US Freedom of Information Act to obtain government documents about US intervention in Venezuela. The Chavez Code contains this irrefutable evidence that, at the very least, the US knew about the plot to overthrow Chavez before it happened. The history of US interventions across Latin America, the suspicious blacked-out lines and pages, and the ongoing investigation suggest an even darker tale.
Raskin, Marcus G. and A. Carl LeVan, Editors. In Democracy’s Shadow: the Secret World of National Security/ with introduction by Normal Mailer. New York: Nation Books. 2006. 340 p. Amazon summary: “The response to the September 11 tragedy has raised fears about the American empire abroad and the gutting of constitutional liberties at home. But the editors of this book—one of whom, Marcus Raskin, served on the National Security Council—claim that the changes in the American government since the attacks, though profound, are not necessarily new. The "National Security State" has shaped our government for at least a century, and since 1947, it has embedded itself in the attitudes of the bureaucracy, the major political parties, and the educational system. This collection of original essays—which includes such distinguished historians as Gar Alperovitz, Kai Bird, William Blum, Saul Landau, and Carolyn Eisenberg—traces those changes back to the early years of the twentieth century, and follows them step by step through the cold war to the present.” Landau contributed: “A report on NAFTA and the state of the maquilas.”
Noam Chomsky, Salim Lamrani, et al. Superpower principles: US Terrorism Against Cuba. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage. 2005. 205 p. Landau contributed chapter: “Five Cubans in prison: victims of Bush's obsession.”
Hayden, Tom, Editor. The Zapatista Reader. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press/Nation Books. 2002. 503 p. Landau contributed chapter, “Zapatista Army of National Liberation.”
Merino, Noel, Editor. Poverty and Homelessness: Current Controversies. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. 2001. 210 p. Landau contributed chapter, “Lack of Support Leads War Veterans into Poverty and Homelessness.”
Saul Landau, Sarah Anderson and John Cavanaugh, “North American Free Trade Agreement,” in Global Focus: a New Foreign Policy Agenda, 1997-1998, eds. Tom Barry and Martha Honey. (New Mexico: Inter-Hemispheric Resource Center; Institute for Policy Studies, March 1997. 282p).
Saul Landau, “Borders: the New Berlin Walls,” in Real Problems, False Solutions, Ralph Miliband and Leo Panitch, editors. (NY: Monthly Review Press, 1993).
Saul Landau, “Third World Labour and the Cold War,” in Paradigms Lost: the post Cold War Era. Chester Hartman and Pedro Vilanova, editors. (Amsterdam and London: TNI/Pluto Press, 1992).
Buhle, Paul. History and the New Left: Madison, Wisconsin, 1950-1970. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1990. 295 p. Landau’s contribution: “From the Labor Youth League to the Cuban Revolution.”
Saul Landau, “Notes on the Cuban Revolution,” in Revolution Today, Ralph Miliband, Leo Panitch, John Saville. London: The Merlin Press. 1989.
“A Non-Interventionist Policy for the 1990s,” in Winning America: Ideas and Leadership for the 1990s, Marcus Raskin and Chester Hartman, editors. (Boston: South End Press; Institute for Policy Studies, 1988).
Andrew C Kimmens (1987). Nicaragua and the United States. New York: W.H. Wilson. 267 p. Saul Landau contributed chapter: “The way of the Sandinistas.” NOTE: Contains reprints of writings originally published 1984-1986.
Allen Freeman Davis and Harold D. Woodman. Conflict and consensus in modern American history. 3rd ed. Lexington, Mass: Heath. 1972. Landau and Paul Jacobs contributed: “The new radicals of the 1960's.”
Awards
Medal of Solidarity from the Cuban Institute of Friendship with Peoples, ICAP (Award is called, “Amistad” in Spanish, August 7, 2013)
Order of Bernardo O’Higgins, awarded by the President of Chile for his work on Human Rights (highest civilian honor to non-Chileans, 2008)
Roxie Award for Best Activist Video (Oct. 2007)
North American Film Festival (1997)
Golden Apple Award (1997)
Best Director Award, First American Indian Intercontinental Film Festival (Santa Fe), 1997
Best Picture North Carolina Smoky Mountain Film Festival, 1997
CINE Golden Eagle Award (1993 for Papakolea – Story of Hawaiian Land; Edgy Lee, Producer/Director/Writer; Haskell Wexler, Cinematography; Saul Landau, Co-writer)
Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award (Special Recognition for his Life’s Contribution to Human Rights, 1992)
Edgar Allen Poe Award for Assassination on Embassy Row (1981)
Emmy Award (American Academy of Television and Radio Artists, 1980)
Hugh Hefner First Amendment Award for Journalism (1980)
George Polk Award for Investigative Reporting (given by Columbia University School of Journalism, 1979)
American Film Institute Grant (1974)
Ann Arbor Film Festival First Prize
Berlin Film Festival First Prize
Mannheim Film Festival: Critics’ First Prize, 1971 (for Que Hacer)
Cannes Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
Member: Authors Guild, Washington Writers Union
Interviews and Speeches
Saul Landau on Democracy Now! (9 hits) http://www.democracynow.org/.
Saul Landau interview published in the Vancouver Reporter on October 7, 2011. http://www.vancouverobserver.com/culture/film/2011/10/07/filmmaker-saul-landau-mission-unveiling-real-terrorist?page=0,0.
The Role of the Media by Saul Landau, speech delivered June 24, 2005 to the World Tribunal on Iraq. Istanbul Turkey, held June 23-27, 2005. www.worldtribunal.org
Tell Them Who You Are (Sept. 2004). From IMDB: Mark Wexler's cinematic blend of biography and autobiography centers on his relationship with his father, legendary Oscar-winning cinematographer and filmmaker Haskell Wexler, whose long and illustrious career is a virtual catalogue of 20th-century classics. Haskell's collaborations with such world-class filmmakers as Elia Kazan, Milos Forman, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and Mike Nichols. The film features interviews with many of these artists, along with such luminaries as Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, Sidney Poitier and Saul Landau. But the true "star" of “Tell Them Who You Are” is Haskell himself, a controversial, larger-than-life character who challenges his son's filmmaking skills while announcing with complete conviction that he could have done a better job directing most of the movies he's shot. Released June 2006.
Fidel / Director Estela Bravo; Producers Ernesto Bravo and David Frankel. Brooklyn, NY: First Run/ICARUS films. 2001. Saul Landau is interviewed in this Estela Bravo documentary produced in Cuba. The film features the life and political career of Fidel Castro through archival footage, interviews with Castro and commentary by family, associates, former guerrilla fighters, politicians and historians. Castro is seen swimming with bodyguards in the ocean, visiting his childhood home and school, joking with his friend Nelson Mandela, meeting with Elian Gonzalez, and celebrating his birthday with the Buena Vista Social Club. Additional commentary included from Hortensia Bussi de Allende, Harry Belafonte, Sydney Pollack, Ramsey Clark, Charles Rangel, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Wayne Smith, Arthur Schlesinger, Angela Davis and Alice Walker.
“An evening with Saul Landau,” interviewed by Adrienne Mancia at the Museum of Modern Art, Dept. of Film, New York. An evening with Saul Landau; Screening of “Fidel” (1970) followed by discussion with audience. Series: Cineprobe. 1970. Soundrecording forms part of: Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) Archives; Production notes: December 15, 1970; 5:30 p.m.; MoMA Auditorium. This unique recording is only at the MoMA, New York.
Saul Landau interviewed by the BBC about the assassination of Orlando Letelier, the Chilean politician who was killed by a bomb in Washington DC in 1976. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004t1hd
Saul Landau Testimony on repression in Latin America was included in William German’s work covering the tribunal: Repression in Latin America: a report on the first session of the second Russell Tribunal. Rome, Italy. April 1974.
Panel Discussion on Cuba: moderated by Elsa Knight Thompson, broadcast on KPFA (Berkeley), Oct. 24, 1962. Paul Baran, Richard Brody and Saul Landau discuss the political and economic developments in Cuba following the 1959 revolution. They also discuss the implications of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Recording is available from PR Archives (http://www.pacificaradioarchives.org/).
Photographs, Press and Social Media
Transnational Institute page contains Landau’s TNI essays, reports and records (http://www.tni.org/users/saul-landau).
“Saul Landau Discusses ‘Fidel!’” A film by Saul Landau, UCR Libraries Event Announcement. 3-4:30 pm, June 8, 2012, University Libraries, Special Collections & Archives. From the announcement: The University of California, Riverside is the only repository worldwide that maintains a complete print of the final edited version of Fidel! Funding for the preservation and digitization of this film was awarded to the University of California, Riverside by the National Film Preservation Foundation in 2011. http://library.ucr.edu/?l=news&article=914
“Ending the U.S. Embargo on Cuba: Scholars and activists discuss U.S. restrictions on travel and trade in a May 20 colloquium at UC Riverside,” UCR Newsroom article. May 12, 2009. Saul Landau was keynote presenter; Other panelists were: Miguel Tinker-Salas (moderator), Armando Navarro, Blaise Bonpane, Paul Ryer, Rhonda Neugebauer, Ron Chilcote. Respondents to the panel include: David Pion-Berlin, UCR professor of political science; Jim Brennan, UCR associate professor of history; Amalia Cabezas, UCR associate professor of women’s studies; Diego Esparza, UCR graduate student in political science; Maria Anna Gonzales, educational projects coordinator for the National Alliance for Human Rights; and Jesus Meza, a UCR third-year undergraduate history major with an emphasis on Latin America. http://newsroom.ucr.edu/2093
“UCR Libraries presents Saul Landau speaking about his work as documentary filmmaker,” from UCR Libraries Event Announcement. 3:15-4:30pm, June 7, 2006. http://library.ucr.edu/?l=news&article=427
“Emmy-winning Documentary Filmmaker to Speak at UC Riverside: Saul Landau Has Focused on Social Issues, Human Rights for 40 years,” UCR News Announcement of the May 25, 2006 visit to UCR Libraries for presentation with premier of newly-digitized 1968 film, “Fidel!” http://newsroom.ucr.edu/1349
UC-MEXUS Announcement of showing of Landau’s film, The Sixth Sun, Jan. 11, 1999.
“Private Persuader: Larry Janss Avoids Civic Spotlight, but Is in Thick of Arts Center Issue,” LA Times, Sept 13, 1993. Article mentioned Janss was in Chile with Landau while he filmed the Allende documentary there. http://articles.latimes.com/print/1993-09-13/local/me-34769_1_civic-arts-plaza
“Berkeley, UC Ban French Film,” Oakland Tribune, Nov. 25, 1964.
“Washington’s Ignorance,” Counterpunch.org. Aug. 29, 2006.
Social Media utilized by Saul Landau:
Twitter: @SaulLandau Landau’s tweets cover several years on diverse topics.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/saul.landau?fref=ts. News/updates.
Flickr.com: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=saul%20landau. Photo captions!
Saul’s Blog http://saullandau.wordpress.com. Articles, news and commentary.
IMDB Film Site http://www.imdb.com/find?q=saul+landau&s=all. Film credits/info.
Archives on Saul Landau and Affiliated Organizations’ papers/archives
Saul Landau Papers, 1960-2010. Collection 015. University of California, Riverside Libraries, Special Collections & Archives. This collection contains 16mm films, videocassettes, documents, and other material regarding the professional work of Saul Landau, scholar and filmmaker on foreign and domestic policy issues as well as Professor Emeritus at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona until 2006. A description of the collection is at the Online Archive of California, entitled “Guide to the Saul Landau papers” http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt9t1nf8q7/?query=saul+landau. 81 linear feet; most material is from 1960-2010.
Saul Landau Films, 1962-2002. Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, University of Wisconsin Libraries. Films by Saul Landau, a documentary filmmaker, writer, professor, and Institute for Policy Studies Fellow, investigating social, political, and human rights in the United States and abroad. Landau’s films explore subjects such as Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution, nuclear radiation and cancer, prison life in San Francisco, CIA agents and activities, the election of Dr. Salvador Allende in Chile, political prisoners released from Brazil in 1971, Syrian life after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Mayan uprising in Chiapas, and the Watergate hearings. Also included are talk show programs by Landau done at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Extent: 0.2 c.f. of paper, 19 film reels: sd., b&w and color; 16 mm.; 49 videocassettes: sd., b&w and color; 22.0 c.f. of film and video pre-print (in 11 record center cartons, 4 video boxes, and 55 loose cans). http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search%5FArg=Landau&SL=None&Search%5FCode=NAME%5F&CNT=25&PID=MxWRslZQ4mcjb9RFOn3I81Wa19&BROWSE=1&HC=1&SID=1.
Saul Landau papers, 1968-2000. Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University Libraries. The archive contains interview transcripts, correspondence, sound recording, videotape cassettes, and motion picture film reels, relating to political conditions and revolutionary movements in Latin America. Background: Saul Landau, an internationally-known American scholar, author, commentator, and filmmaker, has focused on foreign and domestic policy issues. Landau produced more than forty films on social, political and historical issues, and worldwide human rights. The collection, acquired in 2001, is open for research. Extent: 2 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box, 1 motion picture film reel (1.2 linear feet). The inventory list is at: (http://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/hoover/2001C54.pdf).
Institute for Policy Studies Records, 1959-2005 (bulk 1963-1993). Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, University of Wisconsin Libraries. The Institute, founded in 1963, deposited administrative and other materials related to the organization at the Wisconsin Historical Society, mainly the 1963-1993 records of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), a progressive think-tank of advocacy and action founded in Washington, D.C., in 1963 by Richard Barnet and Marcus Raskin. The records consist of administrative files; correspondence, writings, and subject files of individual fellows; and reference material. Senior fellows Richard Barnet, Saul Landau, Isabel Letelier and Marcus Raskin, and executive directors Robert Borosage and Diana DeVegh are most extensively documented, with less material about other members Robb Burlage, John Cavanagh, Barbara Ehrenreich, Chester Hartman, Paul Jacobs, Milton Kotler, Michael Moffitt, Sasha Natapoff, Orlando Letelier, Gareth Porter, Julia Sweig, Barbara Wein, and Roger Wilkins. Administrative records include Board of Trustees minutes; fundraising information; formal and continuing education programs; a library of brief writings and other papers by fellows and associates; and subject files including incomplete financial records, congressional seminar files, and fragmentary minutes of the Transnational Institute, an IPS subsidiary. The IPS archive has 98.1 c.f. (90 record center cartons, 23 archives boxes and 1 oversize folder) and 19 video recordings, 1 reel of film and 445 tape recordings. Landau participation is the “most extensively documented.” Box 44, relating to the Letelier-Moffitt assassination, is confidential and restricted. http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search%5FArg=institute%20for%20policy%20studies&SL=None&Search%5FCode=NAME%5F&CNT=25&PID=Bdi9pWOyp1-Kk91aQzn_pv1uW&BROWSE=1&HC=1&SID=2
The Transnational Institute of Policy Studies current organizational website (TNI). The TN Institute, founded in 1974 as the international program of the Washington, DC-based Institute for Policy Studies. The Institute’s goals include carrying out radical informed analysis on critical global issues; building alliances with social movements; developing research and proposals for a more just, sustainable and democratic world. For more than 30 years, TNI history has been entwined with the history of global social movements and their struggle for economic, social and environmental justice. The organization’s website contains 23 pages of archived articles about the issue of Chile and violence, including the moving article that Saul wrote immediately after the assassinations (http://www.tni.org/article/bomb-victim-denounced-policies-junta-chile). That article, written a day after the assassinations, Sept. 22, 1976, entitled “Two Deaths in the Morning” (http://www.tni.org/article/two-deaths-morning), is a disturbing chronology of events from Sept. 11, 1973, leading up to the assassination of Chilean Orlando Letelier (then-TNI Director) and Ronni Moffitt in 1976. The article was originally published Dec. 1, 1976 in Mother Jones magazine. The TNI archive contains extensive media coverage of the Letelier assassination, the Chilean Secret Police’s intervention in Washington DC, US assistance for the Chilean military coup leaders, activities and reports issued by TNI on the assassinations and the police investigations and legal maneuvers to protect the planners and bomb-planters from criminal prosecution. The site also contains an impressive page devoted to the Letelier case, “the most infamous act of international terrorism ever to take place in US’s capital“. Saul Landau’s profile at the Transnational Institute (http://www.tni.org/users/saul-landau) includes recent publications and member information about the co-founder of TNI, and lists 39 pages of articles written by Landau, Dec. 1976-March 2013.
http://www.tni.org/article/dossier-orlando-letelier http://www.tni-dc.org
Transnational Institute Archives, Period 1973-1989 (1991), archived at the International Institute for Social History (Amsterdam). TNI, founded in 1973, was initially started as the international program of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) in Washington DC. Later, it continued as a non-profit world-wide fellowship of committed scholar-activists: researchers, scholars, writers and journalists. Areas of focus include militarism, conflict, poverty, social injustice, underdevelopment, North-South relations and environment; its centre is located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The archive also includes the papers of the TNI in Washington, DC. General correspondence 1973-1988; agenda, minutes and discussion papers concerning meetings of the Planning Board 1974-1987 and fellows meetings 1984-1988; correspondence of Eqbal Ahmed, founder of the TNI, 1973-1975; correspondence with and articles, progress reports and research papers from the fellows and associate fellows, among others Tariq Ali, Anthony Barnett, Susan George, Fred Holiday and Saul Landau, 1973-1988. Specifically on Landau, the IISG Director of the Archive, Inge Hordijk, wrote on Sept 25: “The archive, which is not fully processed or indexed, contains Landau’s correspondence, 1973-2013; draft proposals for projects, e.g. books/films; his intensive research on the assassination of Orlando Letelier; and the documents leading to the making of Assassination on Embassy Row.” There are also documents concerning research proposals, projects, seminars and conferences sponsored by the TNI, 1974-1989; background information and other documentation on the studies, 1973-1991.Total size 14.3 m.
http://www.iisg.nl/archives/en/files/t/ARCH02363.php
Pacifica Radio Archives: a living history (Pacifica Foundation): Nearly all of Landau’s Pacifica broadcasts (radio programs, news coverage and interviews) were recorded by the Pacifica Radio Archives and are preserved in their “vault.” There is a digitization program underway to convert the entire Archive. However, some recordings do not yet appear when searching the archives because the preservation project and index are not completed. A search today of the archives for Landau returns 60 hits, with programs he contributed such as: Censorship-- U.S. coverage of Central America, the Invention of National Security, the Cuban Revolution, Press Censorship in the US, Alternative Cinema, Third World Development, 1992 LA Riots, and others on War and Intervention. Over the years he was associated with Pacifica, Landau conducted important radio interviews with many progressive authors and activists: Nelson Valdez, Christopher Hitchens, William Sloan Coffin, Ricardo Alarcon and Alexander Cockburn. About page: Pacifica Radio Archives is considered by historians and scholars to be one of the oldest and most important audio collections in the world. Chronicling the political, cultural and artistic movements of the second half of the 20th century, Pacifica radio programs include documentaries, performances, discussions, debates, drama, poetry readings, commentaries and radio arts. The Archive focuses on materials that reflect the memory, traditions and evolution of Pacifica Radio. The intellectual content of the collection emphasizes a common thread of social justice covering cultural, health, historical, political, psychological, racial, religious, philosophical and social aspects of our society over a variety of subjects. "The archives of Pacifica Radio ... must be consulted by anyone conducting research on post-World War II history." —Gerald Horne, Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960's. http://pacificaradioarchives.org/search/node/saul%20landau.
“From the Vault” Radio Program, broadcast on Pacifica, various dates from the 1960s-2000s.
San Francisco Mime Troupe Archives: Landau listed as Playwrite, Composer and Lyricist, 1965-1971. Announcement for Landau’s A Ministrel Show, or Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel, performed in 1965 http ://www.sfmt.org/company/archives/minstrel/minstrel.php.
Website information by and about Saul Landau
Saul Landau’s website (www.saullandau.com). Contains biographical and professional information about Landau’s books and films – with descriptions and commentary about his books, movies, articles and events. Also lists his film distributors’ purchase information. Photos at end of this tribute are from this site.
Saul Landau’s blog (http://saullandau.wordpress.com). This blog contains articles by Landau on various international political and economic topics (from 2007, 2010-2013), 8 interviews with Landau, links to his films, 8 reviews of his film “Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up?” and photos with colleagues in various filming locations.
Saul Landau’s writings at the Institute for Policy Studies (http://www.ips-dc.org/staff/saul?start=4); there are 6 pages of blog entries, interviews and news commentaries.
“The Institute for Policy Studies Mourns the Loss of Filmmaker and Author Saul Landau,” is a touching summary of Saul’s work and life. Readers are invited to leave their thoughts at this page: http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/IPS_mourns_the_loss_of_saul_landau.
Round World Productions (RWP). Distributor for Landau’s films, RWP features a package of 21 films for purchase including: Fidel, Que Hacer, Maquila, Sixth Sun, Syria: Between Iraq and a Hard Place, We Don’t Play Golf Here and other stories of globalization, Brazil: Report on Torture, Conversation with Allende, Cuba and Fidel, CIA Case Officer, Song for Dead Warriors, Land of my Birth, Uncompromising Revolution, Steppin’, Iraq Voices from the Street, From Protest to Resistance, The Jail, Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang, Quest for Power; sketches of the new right, Who shot Alexander Hamilton?, and Target Nicaragua.
Microcinema International DVD. Distributor of Landau’s classic 1968 film “Fidel: a Personal Portrait of a Political Phenomenon.” (http://www.microcinemadvd.com/product/DVD/928/). Extras include director’s commentary and an Interview with Saul Landau, the 1974 short subject “Fidel and Cuba,” and 11 reviews of the film.
Saul Landau’s page at California Polytechnic University, Pomona (http://article.wn.com/view/2013/09/12/In_Memoriam_Saul_Landau_CSU_California_State_University/).
After Landau’s passing, this page added, “In Memorium” and included obituaries and news items describing Landau’s teaching and film-making career accomplishments and activities while professor at CSU Pomona. Saul Landau at his CSU Pomona Office.
Saul Landau in the Internet Movie Database (IMDB). The entry on Landau contains a brief biography, filmography with credits and roles; also includes 5-years of television writing credits by the name of “Shaul Landau” (1973-78).
Landau’s books are for sale on Amazon and other sites, his films are available through Round World Productions, and his 1968 film, “Fidel,” is available from Microcinema International.
Compilation of this Tribute to Saul Landau
This tribute to Saul Landau was compiled from articles and information published at the websites of the Institute for Policy Studies, the Transnational Institute, California State Polytechnic University (Pomona); Democracy Now! (Sept. 10); Wikipedia (Sept. 11 update), the “Saul Landau Papers, circa 1960-2010 (Collection 015),” the donor files of the University of California, Riverside Libraries, and various newspaper and journal obituaries, including the Granma International (Aug. 29, by Marta Rojas); Washington Post (Sept. 10); El Heraldo (Sept. 10); NY Times (Sept. 11); the Online Archive of California; the Los Angeles Times (Sept. 11, Sept 14); Progreso Weekly (Aug. 13, Aug. 22, Sept. 10); Chicago Sun-Times (Sept 11); CounterPunch, “From Fidel to Wounded Knee to Syria: Travels with Saul Landau,” by former Senator James Abourezk (Sept 11); the Guardian (Sept. 11); Independent (Sept. 11); Madison Capital Times (Sept. 12); the Huffington Post (Sept. 12), Herald Scotland (Sept. 16); “El documental que Saúl Landau no terminó o Cuando la modestia visitó mi casa,” on the blog of Francisco Rodriquez Cruz (Sept. 13); “Remembering Saul Landau” by Lanna Leite (Sept. 16);
Contemporary Authors, vol. 130; WorldCat and Scotty bibliographic records; and the websites listed in this compilation, especially Saul’s homepage (http://saullandau.com) and blog (http://saullandau.wordpress.com). His many articles are archived at various websites such as Institute for Policy Studies, Transnational Institute, Progreso Weekly and Znet/ZSpace (contains dozens of articles, published June 17, 1999 to March 21, 2013).
This compilation was prepared by Rhonda L. Neugebauer, Bibliographer, Latin American and Iberian Studies, University of California, Riverside Libraries.
Oct. 8, 2013. Text is copyrighted with CC BY license.
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Below: Photos of Saul Landau, friends, book and film covers.
Speech in New York Gerardo Hernandez with his friends Danny Glover and Saul Landau, Victorville Prison
From IPS site http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/photos/Nick%20Buxton/saul.jpg In his Cal Poly Pomona Office
From the Transnational Institute site
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Order of Bernardo O’Higgins, Chile |
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28 April 1956 |
Saul Receives the Order of Bernardo O’Higgins Award 2008
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