Twelve people killed in Yemen, protesters clash with police in Rome. The citizens of Tokyo, Paris, Athens, Washington, London, Madrid, Berlin, Hong Kong, and New York air their views on financial terrorism; some are arrested… The construction workers outside our windows are always the same, they don’t seem to need rest.

We watch films about the Egyptian revolution, we petition against the imprisonment of Iranian artists, but we don’t seem to connect the dots. In our opinion there are no fundamental differences between these protests and their demands; people are finding each other and finding out that sharing is better than stealing, discussing better than killing. The sparkle that lit this fire significantly came from the Arab world which, for a decade and more has been seen in the West as the site of barbaric rituals, undemocratic practices and bearded bastards, to put it politely.

Pleasantly enough, while we were busy imagining how uncivilized all these Arabs must have been, we too got badly screwed. Our taxes went to Afghanistan to bomb civilians while university fees magically rose and having a regular income for a young man or woman has become the funniest joke in town. Why do the Libyans deserve democracy and the Yemenites do not? What lies behind these different judgments? They stink (of oil), that’s for sure!

We are finally realizing that criminal behavior does not have a color, a religion or a flag. It’s called greed and it’s a degenerating disease from which no one is immune, us included. Even here, where luxury is a basic necessity, the people who drive us back and forth from these opulent and highly guarded refrigerators work 25 hours a day, much to our delight…

It’s nice to see that imagination and desire sometimes escape the silver screen and take possession of the streets.

by Celluloid Liberation Front