Arts of War on the Web

The new documentary film, Radio Unnameable, has been making the rounds of the film festival circuit in the last six months, and is playing now through October 2nd at the Film Forum in New York City. The movie, put together by Paul Lovelace and Jessica Wolfson, tells the story of New York City FM radio personality Bob Fass who has been palavering about music and politics for nearly five decades on WBAI-FM, the counter-cultural public radio station.

That includes plenty of air time devoted to the antiwar movement during the Vietnam War when—as A.O. Scott wrote in The New York Times—Fass’s “broadcast became a hub of organizing as well as a source of firsthand news reporting.”

The doc tells the story of Fass—who is still on the air—using plenty of audio from his program, along with film, photographs, and video.

“Mr. Fass narrates old war (and antiwar) stories with vivid clarity and impeccable timing, and his accounts are fleshed out by a Greek chorus of friends, co-workers and fellow travelers,” Scott said in his review.

“These include the singers Judy Collins and Arlo Guthrie; Mr. Fass’s current and former wives; WBAI staff members: and pillars of countercultural mischief like Wavy Gravy, Ed Sanders and Paul Drassner. The case they make for Mr. Fass’s importance does not seem overstated.”

Former Vietnam War television correspondent Don North is working with Vietnamese and French film producers who are in the planning stages for a documentary on “Hanoi Hannah,” the Vietnamese woman who broadcast pro-communist propaganda over Radio Hanoi in English to American GIs into South Vietnam during the war.

The producers are looking for an American Vietnam veteran who listened to those broadcasts, and who would be willing to share memories and opinions about them. If you fit the bill and want to help, contact North via email at  DNorth6743@aol.com

If you do, be sure to tell him you heard about the project on The VVA Veteran‘s Arts of War on the web page.

A movement is afoot to lobby the President of the United States to present the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Chris Noel, the one-time Hollywood starlet who was a popular AFVN radio disk jockey in Vietnam during the war.

Noel, who received a VVA President’s Award for Excellence in the Arts at the 2008 National Leadership Conference in Greenville, South Carolina, hosted  “A Date With Chris” on AFVN Radio, and toured the war zone on morale-boosting entertainment missions.

Her current mission is running Vetsville Cease Fire, a homeless veterans shelter in Florida.

You can read (and sign) the petition on line.

Former Marine and long-time VVA member Patrick W. Welch, who sits on the VVA National Board of Directors and is the director of Erie County Veterans Service Agency in Buffalo, N.Y., is the host of the brand-new The Veteran’s Radio show, which had its debut on July 20 on WECK-AM Radio in Buffalo and on line at www.weck1230.com

This show provides information and advocacy on veteran and military issues that effect the nation’s 25 million veterans, those who are currently serving in the armed forces, and their families. The show airs on Mondays from 11:00 a.m. to noon.

Peter C. Rollins, who recently retired as an English prof at Oklahoma State University, where he is Regents Professor Emeritus, has long specialized in film studies. Rollins, a U.S. Marine Vietnam War veteran who holds a PhD from Harvard University, is the former Editor-in-Chief of Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies. He is the author of, among other books, The Columbia University Press Companion to American History on Film (2004).

Rollins recently appeared on the “Under Surveillance,” radio show hosted by Kevin Fullam on WLUW FM, Chicago. During their half-hour discussion Fullam and Rollins talked about some of the issues in Rollins’ recently published book, Why We Fought: Americas’ Wars in Film and History  (University Press of Kentucky), which he co-edited with John E. O’Connor. The book contains 27 essays plus a filmography, and examines how Hollywood has treated America’s wars from the Revolution to the present war in Iraq.  

“Kevin did a good job of contributing his own ideas, which made for a more interesting program,” Robbins told me. “I hope people enjoy this effort in skimming over the many topics of Why We Fought.  The book could be the basis for ordering films from Netflix or some other film source.”

To listen on line, go to http://www.undersurveillance.org/blog/
 

National Public Radio is inviting VVA members to a special broadcast of “Talk of the Nation” at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., from 3:00-4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 7. The show will discuss the Buffalo, New York, Veterans Court in Buffalo, which helps veterans in the criminal justice system. Tickets are free and audience members will be able to tour the Newseum after the broadcast. To reserve a complimentary ticket, send an email to tickets@npr.org or call 202-513-3959.