A first person account of my 'near-arrest' when filming arrests.
Copy of mini-dv videotape sent to FTAA Video in Washington.

Independent media harassed by police in Québec City...

Québec City, Saturday April 21st - I'm "under arrest", for no other reason than having been filming arrests of demonstrators by riot squads, opposite le Grand Théâtre, just outside the fence (the Perimeter), after another police attempt to take over René-Lévesque Blvd only a few blocks away from le Centre des Congrès where Summit leaders were meeting.
I had been filming demonstrators in front of water cannons, among them Mohawks behind their flag of resistance and a naked man prouncing around showing his bum to the police. I was also filming Canadian photographer Larry Towell at work in the front lines. The police charged suddenly, all I could do is stand where I was and film whatever would happen, glued to the wall on Prevost St. east of Claire-Fontaine. What happened? Several arrests.
Then three policemen came towards me, one in a green uniform pointing his stick at me, two in black uniforms behind him. He said: "Leave or you're under arrest". I could not see his face behind the heavy helmet lid. But my video footage shows the number written on his helmet: 5833. He didn't let me leave, he blocked my way out and questioned me, poking his stick at my ribs, where two press passes were hanging. He pulled the scarf off my face, still poking at my CMAQ press pass (Centre des médias alternatifs du Québec). He was asking me "Who do you work for?"
I answered : "Je suis cinéaste indépendante." He said I was under arrest : "T'es en état d'arrestation, tu viens avec nous". I tried pointing my camera towards him again, he shoved it away. I pointed out to him that he was not giving me an option between leaving or being arrested, since he was blocking my way out. He then let go of me and pushed me away with his shield. I left, walking backwards, I didn't stop filming just in case: police ranks were closing in, I was alone. I hardly reached the street and tear gas landed beside me.
Most of this is on tape.
Were corporate media crews wearing gas masks bullied in this manner? What I do know is that unprotected photojournalists were aimed at by police with plastic bullets, and two were arrested. Is this the taste of democracy that our "democratically-elected leaders" are planning for us?

Mary Ellen Davis, independent filmmaker, Montreal

NB: CMAQ Centre des médias alternatifs du Québec, independent media center (www.cmaq.net)

Mary Ellen Davis, who lives in Montreal, has directed "The Devil's Dream" and "Sacred Earth", award-winning documentaries shot in Guatemala, and "Mexico, Dead or Alive". The three films deal with issues of human rights, social justice, cultural resistance, like her soon to be released "Haunted Land", about atrocities in Guatemala and the struggle to keep memory alive. Davis also teaches film production at Concordia University.