These are films made by my father, Saul Landau from 1965-2014.

"Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up?"

Product Description

“WE DON’T PLAY GOLF HERE -- and other stories of globalization”

"A clear eyed, unexpected and important book look at our Mexican neighbor." – Gore Vidal

Review by Christina Waters

"This  film breaks new ground in political filmmaking."

"Using Mexico as an example of what much of the Third World has experienced, the filmmakers show how foreign investment in export factories distort both the culture and environment. Its exquisite photography, elegant editing, and original music probe the essence of the new economic disorder."

The film is directed by Institute for Policy Studies fellow Saul Landau – winner of Emmy, George Polk, Letelier-Moffitt  and First Amendment awards, in addition to many film festival prizes, and co-produced by Saul Landau and George McAlmon. Camera – Sonia Angulo; Editing –Tomas Hernandez.

Available through Round World Productions

Syria: Between Iraq and a Hard Place

Available through Round World Productions

By Saul Landau, Sonia Angulo and Farrah Hassen

Syrians live with the tension of maintaining their centuries-old traditions and the invasion of “globalization”—as culture and economics. Located between Iraq and a hard place, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Syrians identify with their historical mosaic symbolized by ancient Roman ruins in Bosra, the Krak des Chevaliers crusader fortress and churches and mosques—bereft of tourists after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. A Syrian filmmaker returns to Quneitra, his Golan Heights hometown that the Israeli army destroyed after the 1973 war. The camera shows the barbed wire separating the two hostile nations and films UN vehicles that patrol the tense border. A Syrian Cabinet Minister, academics, professionals and people on the Damascus streets offer advice to President George W. Bush and pleas for peace as US-Syrian relations steadily decline following the Iraq War.

Acclaim for SYRIA: BETWEEN IRAQ & A HARD PLACE 
Saul Landau's films are available through Round World Productions

"SYRIA: BETWEEN IRAQ & 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."-Haskell Wexler, 2 time Academy-Award Winning Cinematographer and winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures

"You must see it. It's a story we've never been told." -Francis Farenthold, Attorney and former President of Wells College

"This film marvelously rescues Syria from caricature and calumny." -Alexander Cockburn, Journalist and Co-editor of Counterpunch 

"Great insight into Syria, its culture and politics." -James Abourezk, former US Senator (D-SD) 

"This captivating program includes a glimpse of that history with an emphasis on Syria's position on the current war on terrorism taking place in Iraq. The producers utilize a series of interviews with ...Syrians ranging from ordinary citizens--including some of the half-million Palestinian refugees who live in the country--to government officials and university professors ...Overall, this timely program presents the rich and diverse society of Syria as one which could be emblematic of much of the Middle East, and is certainly worthy of purchase consideration (despite the pun-like title) for media collections needing well-timed and contemporary information in an effective presentation." -Dwain Thomas, William Rainey Harper College

Iraq: Voices From the Street (September 2002)
By Saul Landau and Sonia Angulo
Saul Landau's films are available through Round World Productions

The film documents a congressional delegation visit to Iraq in2002 by former U.S. Senator James Abourezk (D) South Dakota and Congressman Nick Rahall (D) West Virginia. The film features interviews with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and people on the street who candidly describe their feelings towards the impending war.

Maquila: A Tale of Two Mexicos (1999)
Saul Landau's films are available through Round World Productions

The corporate globalization process on the US-Mexican border, the so-called 'new' Mexico, is contrasted with the traditional Mayan civilization in Chiapas. Since the uprising of the Zapatistas, Chiapas is plagued by motorized army convoys that trespass on Indian villages. The film shows the newly arrived workers, in the maquilas (foreign owned factories), and portrays the indigenous Maya struggling to maintain their land and their identity. Furthermore, there are interviews with maquila owners, developers and a foreign plant manager. The ideas of progress and destruction of a culture are analyzed in the context of hundreds of abducted, raped and mutilated women in Juarez.

The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas (1996)
Saul Landau's films are available through Round World Productions

"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 Subcommandante Marcos.

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."
  Review of "The Sixth Sun"

Papakolea (1993)

Available through Round World Productions

A Story of Hawaiian Homelands. Writer and co-producer with Edgy Lee.

• Premiered at the Hawaiian Film Festival
• Won of the CINE award.

  Report from Iraq (1991)
  Available through Round World Productions

A 20 minute film on the damage done to the Iraqi infrastructure by the Gulf War bombing.

 

The Uncompromising Revolution (1988) 
Available through Round World Productions

There's something oddly fascinating about THE UNCOMPROMISING REVOLUTION, that looks at current-day, 30 years after Fidel Castro's nationalist revolution. It shows the people, landscapes, large and small themes, to show 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 filmically what political scientists have tried to do empirically, that is, to understand Cuba 30 years after the revolution. Unlike his earlier 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 enthusiasm of the years shortly after the revolution.

A 102 years-old woman recalls the days of the Spaniards and the arrival of the Americans in 1898. The black and white images of history, marines charging San Juan hill, occupying the island, gambling and having fun in the casino's - make clear why Cubans remember their history and why the Americans and the rest of the world seem to have forgotten it.

Counterpoint: This film describes the fight of the Sandinistas against Somoza on the end of the 70s. It includes an interview with the Sandinista ambassador to Washington who gives his perspective on the US intervention and the Nicaraguan experience.

Target Nicaragua. Inside a Covert War (1983) 
Cimenmatography by Haskel Wexler

Acadmey Award winning cinematography Haskel Wexler documents their trip to Nicaragua in the midst of the dirty Contra-War. The reality of the destruction of Nicaraguan society emerges vividly in the faces of the victims and 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 Pentagon, CIA and the White House.

Quest for Power (1983) Sketches of the American New Right. Writer, producer, director For Dutch, Swedish and Finnish television with Frank Diamand.

Report from Beirut (1982) Shows dramatic scenes of the effects of Israeli bomging on Lebonese and Palistinian residents of Beirut during the 1982 invaion.

Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang (1980) 
Saul Landau and Jack Willis available through Round World Productions

In PAUL JACOBS AND THE NUCLEAR GANG, 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. The filmmakers took a dying Jacobs back to the “down wind” locations he had previously investigated. 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.”

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 fall out might affect public health. In the film, Jacobs serves as a narrator and teacher..

• Won the 1980 EMMY Award for best TV program

• George F. Polk Award for investigative journalism on TV

• Hugh Hefner First Amendment Award for journalism

• Mannheim Film Festival First Critics' Prize

Steppin' (1980) At the end of the 70s there was a vigorous fight for socialism in Jamaica. In this film Landau made a portrait of Michael Manley on his tour in Jamaica, during his election.

The CIA Case Officer (1978) An in-depth portrairt of a former CIA official, John Stockwell, who served 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 let to his decision to leave the CIA. He reveals information about CIA practices and policies.

Bill Moyer's CBS report on CIA and Cuba (1977) Field producer.

Land of My Birth (1976) Campaign film for Michael Manley in Jamaica 
Cinematographer: Haskell Wexler.

Zombies in a House of Madness (1975) A four minute poem. Michael Beasley, a jail house poet, reads his poetry, illustrated by the footage taken inside the San Francisco jail, in 1972.

Song for Dead Warriors (1974) Examines 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 Bureau of Indian Affairs.

• Winner of the Ann Arbor Film Festival.

Who Shot Alexander Hamilton (1974) 
Available through Round World Productions

An unusual portrait of the Watergate Congress at work. The film emphasizes the media's role, and efforts of two Washington Post journalists.

Cuba and Fidel (1974) Writer, producer, director A 24 minute tour

Castro, Cuba and the US (1974) Director With Dan Rather for CBS

Who Shot Alexander Hamilton (1974)

Robert Wall: Ex-FBI Agent (1972) 
Saul Landau and Paul Jacobs. This television program follow an FBI agent provocateur, Robert Wal. Robert Wall chronicles how he spied on people and institutions. He describes how he surveilled Stokeley Carmichae and tried to insight violence at a peace march.

The Jail (1972) 

A trip through the society of prisoners and jailers, transvestites, murderers, drunks and sadists. Filmed in the San Francisco County Jail over a 3-month period.

• First prize at Berlin Film Festival
• First prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival

Zombies in a House of Madnes (1972) shot in the San Francisco jail.

Que Hacer (1971) Saul Landau, Raul Ruis, Nina Serrano.
Available through Round World Productions

A docudrama feature film about a CIA spy, a Peace Corp volunteer and a militant left wing plot that brilliantly weaves documentary coverage of the Allende election with a fast-moving story of political intrigue. This Brechtian treatment of the Allende election and 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 still a deliciously playful film, with a lot of cinematographic tricks and ingenous cutting, reminiscent of Godard's A BOUT DE SOUFFLE.

• Awards at Cannes, Venice and Mannheim.

Conversation with Allende (1971) 
Available from World Productions

This interview was conducted shortly after the late President Dr. Salvador Allende won the Chilean elections of 1970. Dr. Salvador Allende was the first democratically elected socialist president in Latin America. Three years later, Allende was killed during a coupe lead by General that overthrew the Allende government.

Brazil: Report on Torture (1971)

Cinematographer: Haskell Wexler

Available through Round World Productions

Fidel (1968) 
Available from Round World Productions

Saul Landau's 1968 film Fidel is also distributed by Microcline International DVD

"The great quality of this remarkable film is that it is educational in the best possible sense. It gives you a feeling for what revolution - any revolution - is actually about, what it means in all its implications and how it affects the lives of the people. The task in making this film seems in retrospect to have been enormous and it is a tribute to the makers that they produced such an exciting and illuminating work. I found it completely absorbing from the start to finish."- Ralph Gleason, Rolling Stone

From Protest to Resistance (1968) 
Available at Round World Productions

This film captures the rapid changes in the students' movement that brought forth the pacifist antiwar movement, the free speech movement and the black power struggle. The film is full of street action, dialogues with draft dodgers in Canada, and antiwar activists in various milieus and activities. Horrific scenes of demonstrators 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 --Report for PBS.

Losing just the same (1966) Landau's very first documentary is set in a black ghetto, Oakland, California. It is the story of a single black mother and her 10 children. The main character of the film is 17-year-old Robert, just dropped out of school. When t riots break out, Robert joins the rioters. This trancelike interval in the story conveys his hopes and aspirations, but also the enormous walls that keep him captured. When the riots had end in the Fall of 1966, the sober reality of ghetto life forces itself on Robert and his family. What will be his destiny?