Vision Machine Collective

Vision Machine Collective

Vision Machine Collective

1 December 2003Feature

With new forms of media available to activists around the world, we hear from members of an international film collective who work to "analyse and respond to the conditions and mechanisms of economic, political and military power", in a participatory and collaborative way.

Sharman Sinaga's granddaughter looks bored as her grandfather demonstrates for the camera his favoured technique of market liberalisation: holding union activists upside down in flooded fields. He mimics their gargles as they choke in the mud. He could hold down two or three at a time he boasts; he seems faintly nostalgic in the dim light and the smoke; his only regret, that his arms and knees aren't what they used to be.

The orders to hold people upside-down came from the top, he…