For those of you who like independent films, MIchael and I went to the MFA for a 10:30 am (what was I doing up at 8:45am on a Saturday?) showing of a flim made by Juan Mandelbaum entitled "Our Disappeared/Nuestros Desaparecidos".  Juan is actually a colleague from a company named Geovision, Inc. who collaborated with our program at work to make the stroke signs and symptoms video some of you may have seen (at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHzz2cXBlGk).  He is originally from Argentina and a few years ago tried to google an old girlfriend of his.  He found her on a list of the "disappeared", politially left people from Argentina who tried to fight the horrible leadership in the country during the 70s and ended up kidnapped, tortured, and dead.  The film takes you through interviews he does with people in Argentina who knew 12 people, including his old girlfriend, that he knew at some point in his life.  It is heartbreakingly sad at times, incredibly powerful, and really makes you glad to be an American.  Because however stupid our government gets and however mad we have been at the powers that be, you or I would never be arrested, abruptly removed from our lives, tortured, and ultimately killed (perhaps by being drugged, taken up into a plane, and thrown out alive or having a live rat sewn into our vaginas that tries to eat its way out as we hear about in the film).  "Our Disappeared" really made me so happy that I live in this great country where I take for granted my ability to vote for our nation's president next week or my and my family's general safety and well-being.  While I know bad things happen here as well and we have our share of corrupt government, we can't possibly understand what people in other countries have gone through.  And I would like to keep it that way.

"Our Disappeared/Nuestros Desaparecidos" will be shown on the Independent Lens segment on PBS in May.  I'll post details when I know them.  You can also check out the movie website at www.ourdisappeared.com.