Hollywood, CA, March 21 2009 - Thousands of protesters gathered in Hollywood. This video, part 1 of a series, shows a Iraq war veteran who says he became aware, after serving in Iraq, that the real heroes don't wear U.S. uniforms. The real heroes are on the other side. He said hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis have died at the hands of US troops and that the US is the largest terrorist organization on the planet.
Part 1 also has a Los Angeles school teacher talk about how money being used for AIG bonuses could have kept the elementary school teachers of the 10,000 teachers from having to be laid off, and that the many billions spent by California alone on the Iraq war could solve California's budget crisis.
A lone right wing war monger protester, behind a wall of LA police officers, was there on his bullhorn to tell protesters they were wasting their time and that they can never stop war.
Los Angeles, March 19, 2009, 5:PM - As part of a nationwide SEIU sponsored protest, LA protesters outside of AIG were just as concerned about the billions of bailout dollars to all Wall Street firms as they were about the $165 million in AIG bonuses. They listed three demands from Congress:
1) Pass the Employee Free Choice Act 2) Affordable Health Care for All (citing that 55 million Americans are uninsured) 3) Strong Banking Reform.
They then proceeded to the front doors to ask that the top AIG executives come down to accept their reality check, where they were held back by numerous AIG security personnel. They chanted: Bring them down, AIG you cant hide. We can see you greedy side, and AIG has got to go. They were then informed that the people in the building left early after hearing of the nationwide protests, and that no one was there to see them. They responded with a chant of Dock their pay, followed again with AIG you cant hide.
This film was made from concept to completion in 16 hours by me alone. I wired two lavs through my long sleeved t-shirt, with the mikes clipped to the wrist ends. This gave great stereo separation for the sound, and control over the wires. The camera was a one chip Cannon Optura Xi. Everything was hand held. The shoot was about an hour of almost non-stop recording, and the editing about 10 hours.
