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Arts & Entertainment

Every War Has Two Losers: A Poet's Meditation on Peace

On Wednesday, June 30, 2010, Bay Area filmmaker Haydn Reiss will present his film Every War Has Two Losers, a short documentary on poet and pacifist William Stafford. He will also engage in a discussion about the film's subject with Alice Walker (novelist, activist and Pulitzer Prize winner for The Color Purple) and Norman Solomon (journalist, media critic and anti-war activist).

William Stafford was born in Kansas in the first year of World War I and grew up hearing about that terrible conflict. By the time of World War II, he resolved that war wasn't the answer and registered as a conscientious objector. He performed alternative service during the war and emerged as a voice of reconciliation.

Narrated by Linda Hunt, and with Stafford's journals read by Peter Coyote, the film also features interviews with writers who knew or admired him, including Robert Bly, W.S. Merwin, Alice Walker, Coleman Barks and Maxine Hong Kingston. This program will last for approximately 90 minutes. 

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