Films
About
Alternavision Films Inc., founded by Joan Sekler, is a documentary film production company based in Santa Monica. It's purpose is to reveal political and social issue stories which have been disregarded intentionally by the corporate media. It also seeks to encourage the public to fight back against injustices they face.
Joan Sekler produced and directed the award winning documentary Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election, which screened in 70 film festivals and aired on worldwide television from 2002 to 2004, and Locked Out about the struggle of unionized miners in Boron, California against the multinational Rio Tinto Group.
Ms. Sekler produced Beyond Convention, a look at the protest during the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO, Crashing the Party: The Democratic National Convention 2000, and Unconvention, A Mix-Tape from St. Paul (RNC 2008). She has been the assistant producer and/or publicist for numerous political documentaries including the Academy Award winning film, The Panama Deception, and Yellow Wasps: Anatomy of a War Crime.
She is a former Board member of the International Documentary Association and has contributed to its magazine, Documentary.
Joan was Historian of the Lions Honoree in 2012 by the Center for the Study of Political Graphics.
Joan Sekler's Political Activism 1960-2012
Joan Sekler produced and directed the award winning documentary Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election, which screened in 70 film festivals and aired on worldwide television from 2002 to 2004, and Locked Out about the struggle of unionized miners in Boron, California against the multinational Rio Tinto Group.
Ms. Sekler produced Beyond Convention, a look at the protest during the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO, Crashing the Party: The Democratic National Convention 2000, and Unconvention, A Mix-Tape from St. Paul (RNC 2008). She has been the assistant producer and/or publicist for numerous political documentaries including the Academy Award winning film, The Panama Deception, and Yellow Wasps: Anatomy of a War Crime.
She is a former Board member of the International Documentary Association and has contributed to its magazine, Documentary.
Joan was Historian of the Lions Honoree in 2012 by the Center for the Study of Political Graphics.
Joan Sekler's Political Activism 1960-2012
Contact
Unprecedented
What emerges is a disturbing picture of an election marred by suspicious irregularities, electoral injustices, and sinister voter purges in a state governed by the winning candidates brother. This 2004 Campaign Edition features new commentary by Danny Glover and a new segment on the dangers of electronic voting machines.
- Grand Festival award winner for documentary at the Berkeley Video and Film Festival.
- Route 66 award winner for Best Documentary Feature at the Winslow International Film Festival.
- Grand Jury Award Documentary and Directors Award Documentary at the New York International Independent Film Festival.
- Audience Award for Best Documentary at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.
Buy the DVD on Amazon
Unconvention
Unconvention: A Mix-Tape from St. Paul
Documentary (2009) 126 min.
Producer/Director: Christopher Strouth
Executive Producers: Dan Jagunich, Joan Sekler, Steve Dietz
Associate Producer: Alek Roslik
Editor: Dylan Thies
Sound: Greg Reierson
Political party conventions are not known for being memorable, except of course when they are. '68 ring a bell? For four days in September of 2008 the Republicans took over the sleepy city of Saint Paul and it became, in a very real sense, a battleground. Smoke bombs, percussion grenades, pepper spray and journalist arrests bid for attention with Policy, Palin and McCain.
It was a convention unlike any other: The party of the least popular sitting president since Hoover, a hurricane, and a lot of protesters. Another new addition: an army of independent journalists to cover it.
Unconvention is a film about all of this, told through the eyes of the media. Ultra-Conservative, Ultra-Liberal and everything in between; this is an abstract portrait of a very concrete process, remixed into a new linear whole.
The film uses a collective process to tell a collective story, using found footage from dozens of journalists, citizen journalists and just plain citizens. A mash-up of modern media, from HD to cell phone cameras telling the lost story of police, protestors and civil liberties.
View FREE on YouTube!
Director's Statement
"A convention is a convention, whether it belongs to dentists, Shriners or the Republican Party. And although a convention of Shriners or dentists may prove to have greater historical significance, the Republican National Convention outweighs them by sheer size and the fact that the eyes of the world descend upon our cities for a few brief days.
A bit like the film Ace in the Hole about a small news event, that quickly becomes a circus, and becomes a story about the people reporting the news rather then the news itself. For a few brief days, and several millions of dollars, the sleepy metropolis of St. Paul gets transformed into cyber age Tokyo with video screens, art installations, and a variety of other shenanigans; protesters, supporters and miscellaneous circus folk from both sides of the isle.
The film is as much about media as it is the convention itself, using work from a number of sources cut together in seamless remix. Pieces from major news organizations blend with citizen journalists, protesters, reporters, and plain old citizens. Made in an 8 week period, this is a pop abstract expressionist unbiased view of very biased process."
— Chris Strouth
Documentary (2009) 126 min.
Producer/Director: Christopher Strouth
Executive Producers: Dan Jagunich, Joan Sekler, Steve Dietz
Associate Producer: Alek Roslik
Editor: Dylan Thies
Sound: Greg Reierson
Political party conventions are not known for being memorable, except of course when they are. '68 ring a bell? For four days in September of 2008 the Republicans took over the sleepy city of Saint Paul and it became, in a very real sense, a battleground. Smoke bombs, percussion grenades, pepper spray and journalist arrests bid for attention with Policy, Palin and McCain.
It was a convention unlike any other: The party of the least popular sitting president since Hoover, a hurricane, and a lot of protesters. Another new addition: an army of independent journalists to cover it.
Unconvention is a film about all of this, told through the eyes of the media. Ultra-Conservative, Ultra-Liberal and everything in between; this is an abstract portrait of a very concrete process, remixed into a new linear whole.
The film uses a collective process to tell a collective story, using found footage from dozens of journalists, citizen journalists and just plain citizens. A mash-up of modern media, from HD to cell phone cameras telling the lost story of police, protestors and civil liberties.
View FREE on YouTube!
Director's Statement
"A convention is a convention, whether it belongs to dentists, Shriners or the Republican Party. And although a convention of Shriners or dentists may prove to have greater historical significance, the Republican National Convention outweighs them by sheer size and the fact that the eyes of the world descend upon our cities for a few brief days.
A bit like the film Ace in the Hole about a small news event, that quickly becomes a circus, and becomes a story about the people reporting the news rather then the news itself. For a few brief days, and several millions of dollars, the sleepy metropolis of St. Paul gets transformed into cyber age Tokyo with video screens, art installations, and a variety of other shenanigans; protesters, supporters and miscellaneous circus folk from both sides of the isle.
The film is as much about media as it is the convention itself, using work from a number of sources cut together in seamless remix. Pieces from major news organizations blend with citizen journalists, protesters, reporters, and plain old citizens. Made in an 8 week period, this is a pop abstract expressionist unbiased view of very biased process."
— Chris Strouth
Beyond Convention
Thousands of American citizens came to Denver, Colorado to protest the Democratic National Convention in August 2008. Marching under the banners of "End Imperialist Wars and Occupation", "Stop the Torture" and "Support GI Resistance" they were met with police attacks using tear gas and pepper spray. Prior to the convention, the city of Denver received $50 million from the Department of Homeland Security to weaponize its police department.
Produced by Joan Sekler. Co-Produced by Deena Steward. Edited by Paul Bernhardt and Chris Toussaint.
Watch on VIMEO
Locked Out
Now Available on YouTube for FREE
A modern day David and Goliath
struggle to save the middle class.
As millions of American workers are facing cuts in their pay, their pensions and their benefits, a group of unionized miners in the desert town of Boron, California said NO when their employer, Rio Tinto, a giant global mining corporation, tried to slash their wages and benefits. In retaliation for refusing to accept these cuts, Rio Tinto, locked these workers out of their jobs and hired replacements from around the U.S. But the miners and their families stood strong and organized a mass support system both in the U.S. and abroad. This documentary reveals what happened during a 4 month struggle between the workers and their employer.
Produced & Directed by Joan Sekler
http://www.lockedoutmovie.org
A modern day David and Goliath
struggle to save the middle class.
As millions of American workers are facing cuts in their pay, their pensions and their benefits, a group of unionized miners in the desert town of Boron, California said NO when their employer, Rio Tinto, a giant global mining corporation, tried to slash their wages and benefits. In retaliation for refusing to accept these cuts, Rio Tinto, locked these workers out of their jobs and hired replacements from around the U.S. But the miners and their families stood strong and organized a mass support system both in the U.S. and abroad. This documentary reveals what happened during a 4 month struggle between the workers and their employer.
Produced & Directed by Joan Sekler
http://www.lockedoutmovie.org
