The Boston Film/Video
Foundation’s New England Film & Video
Festival (NEFVF), founded in 1976, is one of the leading regional
independent film and video festivals in the country. It is distinguished by its
focus on both established and emerging New England talent, and the interaction
between artists and audiences. Each year, BFVF gives awards to notable films
and videos.
The Rosa Luxemburg Award for Social Consciousness is given for the film or video that, through its
sympathetic portrayal of grassroots struggles, best embodies the movement
toward a more egalitarian society. The award’s namesake, Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919),
was a socialist who placed popular participation at the heart of the revolutionary
process. Her writings and radical thought, although conceived and created in
the 1900s, have much in common with the ideology of the current New Left. About
Luxemburg, Beverly G. Merrick writes:
Her personal tactics were to get to the center of the
action, to be a fighter, and to never be afraid to tackle those who had gained
stature in a field, whether it be on the political scene or in philosophical
discussion. She discovered truth by applying historical examples to the
revolutionary struggle. This type of political approach has proved her to be a
visionary. Most of all, she is an example of how far belief in one's self and
one's own vision can be acted out for the betterment of humanity.
In this spirit, the
Boston Film/Video Foundation awarded the 2002 Rosa Luxemburg Award for Social
Consciousness to the Media Education Foundation’s Money
for Nothing: Behind the Business of the Pop Music Industry.
Money
for Nothing examines the
conglomeratization of the music industry and reveals how corporate control
restricts independent artists. The video is currently being reviewed by
Congressmen John Conyers and Howard Berman, who are working to bring
the corporate control of the music industry before the House Judiciary
Committee, the Federal Communication Commission and the U.S. Attorney General’s
Office. True to the spirit of Rosa Luxemburg, the producers of Money
for Nothing are striving to have a profound affect on the politics of
music. NEFVF will screen Money
for Nothing on April 6, 2002, the time and location TBA.
