BITTER PARADISE: THE SELL-OUT OF EAST TIMOR

When photographer Elaine Briere visited Portuguese East Timor in 1974, she found a highly developed, centuries-old culture with a refined aesthetic and social sensibility. Her photos would become the last record of a people about to face virtual annihilation, because, when Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, the world looked the other way. Today, UN resolutions condemning the invasion are ignored by Western countries who continue to develop business ties to the corrupt Suharto regime, one responsible for the deaths of over 200,000 people on the tiny island. Bitter Paradise tells the story of this shameless international support for a predatory military regime and also chronicles Briere's twenty-year personal political journey, from the villages of East Timor to halls of the United Nations, from political innocence to political activism.

Directed by Elaine Briere
1996, 56 minutes
Purchase: $310 Classroom Rental: $125

* Best Political Documentary, Hot Docs Festival
* Neil Shipman Production Excellence Award, Women in Film-Seattle

"...a raw, riveting, shame-inducing examination of a culture in extremis."-The Vancouver Sun

"...a provocative, passionate film...an angry, honest and valuable documentary critique of government media and business calumny."-Toronto Globe and Mail

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