John Sayles, writer and director (Anarchist’s Convention Films, 2011)

Rafael Dacanay is a village mayor caught in the murderous cross-fire of the Philippine-American War in 1900.When U.S. troops garrison his village, Rafael comes under pressure to collaborate from the blood-and-guts Colonel Hardacre as he tries not to betray his people. Rafael’s brother Simón is head of the local Filipino guerillas, who consider cooperation with the Americans to be collaboration. Rafael is forced to make the near-impossible, potentially deadly decisions faced by civilians in an occupied country. Friendship and betrayal, romance and heart-breaking violence, Amigo is a page torn from the forgotten history of imperialism and a mirror of today’s unresolvable conflicts.

John Sayles, independent filmmaker and Paul Kramer, Vanderbilt University, will introduce the film and lead a discussion afterward.