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Veronica Weber
“When I do an interview, there’s almost always a moment when I’m moved to tears or am excited or angry, and I track that moment and build the film around it,” Menlo Park filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman, above left, says. Above right are stills from her new film “World Peace is a Local Issue,” showing some of the protestors from the U.S. nuclearfreeze movement in the ‘80s.
World peace on the grassroots level Film salutes a 1982 Palo Alto campaign to support a nuclear freeze by Rebecca Wallace
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bout 300 determined people packed the Palo Alto City Council chambers on the night of April 19, 1982. The issue at hand wasn’t one of parking or development. It was the small matter of world peace. Councilwoman Ellen Fletcher had introduced a resolution endorsing a bilateral nuclear freeze, but the measure wasn’t going over well with her colleagues. Most said they felt the issue was well outside a local governmental body’s jurisdiction. But then came the 40 public speakers, there to make the case that a global issue can be local and that one person’s decision can resonate far and wide. Some were young, like Palo Alto High School student Robbyn Kenyon, who presented a petition with
1,000 Paly signatures and said, “We feel that without this reduction (in nuclear arsenals), our future is in jeopardy.” On the other end of the spectrum was Frank Spencer, about to turn 89, who told the council, “I’m afraid I’m going to live as long as you do, because we’ll all be wiped out at the same time.” Also in the crowd was Dorothy Fadiman. Today she’s a respected filmmaker; that night she was using a camera for the first time. When the council made a dramatic reversal and approved the nuclear-freeze motion to a cheering crowd, the camera was rolling. Now that drama is the center of a newly edited Fadiman documentary called “World Peace Is a Local Issue.” The film, about
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15 minutes long, depicts the Palo Alto events of April 19 and highlights other nuclear-freeze efforts: from grassroots meetings all the way up to legislation authored by U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. The documentary premieres Oct. 25 at a Palo Alto event that also salutes other local political enterprises on the Midpeninsula. At the event, called “Democracy in Action,” other presenters will include East Palo Alto activist Isaiah Phillips, who will show videos on citizen efforts including “The Weeks Neighborhood Plan”; and Erika Escalante, who will speak on the work to keep residents of Palo Alto’s Buena Vista Mobile Home Park from losing their homes. The evening will be part of the United Nations Association Film
Festival. It will also serve as a memorial tribute to Fletcher and to Gary Fazzino, who was on the City Council that night in 1982 and said the speakers inspired him to support the nuclear-freeze resolution. Both died in 2012. That one vote change, the emotion in Kenyon’s voice, the steadfastness in Spencer’s: They’re all why Fadiman makes films. Her art, she says, is one of moments. Points in time that are rich with meaning. “When I do an interview, there’s almost always a moment when I’m moved to tears or am excited or angry, and I track that moment and build the film around it,” she told the Weekly. Over the years, the Menlo Park filmmaker has found inspiration in a world of topics. As she says
on her website, “Our films document stories of individuals and communities working toward social justice, human rights and personal growth.” The 20-plus movies include a series of four films on reproductive rights (one, “When Abortion Was Illegal,” was nominated for an Academy Award for best short film); and a five-film series on HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. When Fadiman went to the council chambers in 1982, she had already made the 1978 inspirational film “Radiance: The Experience of Light,” about the symbolism of light across cultures. “World Peace Is a Local Issue” would be her first documentary. Camera in hand, she witnessed V Ì Õi`Ê Ê iÝÌÊ«>}i®