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Dan Mattson is currently seeking support for a four-part educational video series on the politics of sustainanability.
Dan also does consultation, independent research and education on electromagnetic fields and environmental health. That these fields are bio-active and have negative health impacts is well known to industry, yet they pursue a policy of rapid commercialization of every sort of wireless product, from basic broadband infrastucture to pushed content of the latest consumer services. Electricity use is expected to double by about 2040. Most research on power frequency emf has worked with a clean sine wave. Now we have "dirty power", from switching power supplies and digital modulation.
We see here the subject of another educational video project. If you are interested in getting involved at the concept level, contact Dan.
First Release: Inside Peace Fresno
If you have seen Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, you might remember seeing Peace Fresno activists.
Peace Fresno is the anti-war activist group from Fresno, California, whom an undercover law enforcement officer infiltrated. They only discovered this when he was killed in a motorcycle accident, and his pictured appeared in the local paper.
Galvanize Productions was interested in who was in Peace Fresno and what they had to say about issues. After a couple weeks of preparation by email and phone we drove to Fresno and met with four activists, Genie, Dan, Camille and Nick. We asked them what it's like to be peace activists in a town that's historically conservative, now has a large immigrant community, and where poverty is on the front line. They said, in Fresno, all the issues come together.
The conversation in this video is unscripted and done without notes. See Inside Peace Fresnotrailer.
These are extremely articulate, well-informed people, and compelling speakers. We found them inspiring. So will you. As they themselves say, "if we can do this in Fresno, you can do it in your town". (Reviews)
Inside Peace Fresno is availablein VHS and DVD. Suggested donation for either is $25 including shipping & handling.
In 2006 we produced TUPA: Transmitters Unting the Peoples of the Americas for Free Radio Berkeley. It can be viewed online at http://www.radiotupa.org/. TUPA is also available on DVD for a suggested donation of $25.
In the fall of 2007 the State of California began its Light Brown Apple Moth eradication program. This is part of series of "pest" eradication programs that are questionable scientifically and politically. In 2008 we covered four community meetings on the issue. We have produced three videos, which are online and available on DVD. The fourth is in the works.
Suggested donation is $25 each or $60 for all three.
To order by mail, specify your video and send your donation to:
Galvanize Productions 360 Grand Ave. #292 Oakland, CA 94610
Galvanize Productions is a video activism project of Dan Mattson and friends. Galvanize Productions provides volunteer video coverage of Bay Area progressive events and actions. Donations for general support of Galvanize Productions can be made by check to Galvanize Productions at the above address. Contact Dan directly for more information. If you're a regular visitor to indybay.org, you are likely familiar with Dan's video coverage for indymedia. If not, check some out. You're in for a treat:
For a complete list of Dan's 170 posts to indymedia since 2000, see: archives.
Updated 12/19/08
Reviews of Inide Peace Fresno
Phyllis Luckman writes:
I highly recommend a new video about the community peace group, Peace Fresno, which appeared briefly in Fahrenheit 911.
The video,"Inside Peace Fresno", is a wonderful presentation. It could be used by small groups of people all around the country to inspire them and show them the way to organize their own communities.
Contact the videographer, Dan Mattson and arrange to see the video for yourselves. Go to www.galvanize.tv."
Phyllis Luckman, MoveOn.org activist
About Inside Peace Fresno, Sara Diamond wrote:
"Four engaging, articulate, everyday people talk practically about how to build and sustain a local, grassroots peace and social justice organization, even in a staunchly conservative part of the country. I found their expression of ideas to be refreshingly down-to-earth and more than a little bit inspiring."
Sara R. Diamond is an elder law attorney in Oakland, California. During the 1980s and 1990s, she wrote a series of articles and books about the rising political power of the Christian Right.
Sue Supriano goes on to say:
"Dan Mattson's video, "Inside Peace Fresno" gives an inspirational and straight-forward look into a peace organization in a town that one of the interviewees refers to as "anywhere USA". Each of the four members of Peace Fresno interviewed in the film are incredibly knowledgeable and articulate about the issues: ending the war against Iraq, the connections of the war, money and resources both-- locally and internationally-- the growing police state and repression at home and abroad, the negative effects of globalization the battle for oil, and the incredible importance of the United States stance in the world and the future of the planet, our home. They themselves exude respect, courage, caring and commitment.
A strong positive aspect of this video is that it demonstrates and spells out practically step by step how to organize a community peace group,. It's great to see in the footage pictures of the diverse people on the streets of Fresno with the many creative and strong anti-war and other signs mixed with the American flags showing that, indeed say, "peace is patriotic"".
About Dan Mattson, the producer of Inside Peace Fresno
It was while I was in the Navy in Vietnam in 1971 that I developed my eye for photography. In fact, when I got my first digital camcorder in '99 I had almost 30 years experience with 35 mm photography. It was also during my stint in the Navy that I got started with alternative media.
In 1967 I was in electronics school at Treasure Island in SF Bay and went from there to Big Sur. During these three years I listened to KPFA and early underground rock FM in SF.
In Vietnam, as an electronics technician, I ran a small shop for repairing voice and teletype cryptographic equipment. I obtained the equipment necessary to receive radio-teletype newswire broadcast on short wave frequencies. It didn't take long to find Agence France Presse, the Liberation Press from South Vietnam, Vietnam News Agency (Hanoi), TASS, HSINUA (Beijing) and more. US sources as well. I had a wide variety of sources to compare during the crucial summer of '71 when peace talks were going on in Paris and both sides were exaggerating body counts in Vietnam. It was quite enlightening to have access to all this information.
In 1972 I was at Treasure Island again. I got quickly involved in anti-war activism including an anti-war news service, Internews. It was ripe for radio-teletype technology and at peak we had four machines running at once.
I got out of the Navy in ’73 and since then have lived in the East Bay where I mostly have made my living as a handyman/electrician.
From that time I have continued activism in alternative media and in electoral politics (Citizens Party and Peace and Freedom Party). I have focused on doing video journalism for Indybay since 2000.
Since the mid 1980's I have also practiced Contact Improvisation. Contact improv is a dance form shared by a small global community. The skills I have learned thru this practice have been invaluable when doing video coverage on the street.
And now, in 2004, the video "Inside Peace Fresno" has emerged. While I have lived in the San Franciso Bay Area for more than 30 years, my roots are in rural Minnesota. What I have put together in this video comes from and goes back to these roots.
I hope you find this video just as stimulating and inspiring and will want to share it with others.
