André Vltchek is a naturalized US citizen and novelist, filmmaker, journalist, photographer and playwright.

Biography

André Vltchek was born in Leningrad

Leningrad

Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...

 (now Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

), the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, in 1963.

Novelist and playwright

Vltchek is the author of several novels, non-fiction books and plays. A few of the recently published books are as follows:

- Nalezeny, a novel published in Czech;

- Point of No Return , his first major work of fiction written in English (published in French by Editions Yago in September 2010);

- Western Terror: From Potosi to Baghdad, a book of political nonfiction in English and in Turkish);

- Ghosts of Valparaiso and Conversations with James, two plays translated into several languages including Spanish;

- With Rossie Indira, Exile, a book of conversations with the foremost Southeast Asian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer (translated into Korean, Spanish and Bahasa Indonesia);

- Oceania, a non-fiction book that is a result of his five years' work in Micronesia, Polynesia and Melanesia and an attack against neo-colonialism in the Pacific, published in collaboration with Expathos.

Currently, he is finishing writing his second novel in English, Winter Journey, and a non-fiction book about the political situation in post New Order Indonesia.

He is a co-founder and co-editor of Mainstay Press and Liberation Lit.

Filmmaker, journalist, photographer and political analyst

During the 1980s and 1990s, Vltchek worked as war correspondent and photographer and covered a dozen war zones from Bosnia and Peru to Sri Lanka, DR Congo and East Timor.

He writes and photographs for several publications worldwide, corporate and progressive, including Z Magazine, Newsweek, Asia Times, China Daily, Irish Times, A2 and Asia-Pacific Journal (Japan Focus). His photographs have been published by many publications and institutions all over the world, the most recent of which was at The British Museum in 2009.

As a filmmaker, he produced in 2004 the feature length documentary film about the Indonesian massacres in 1965 – Terlena – Breaking of The Nation. Right after a devastating earthquake that shook Chile in February 2010, Vltchek travelled to Chile and throughout the country and produced a video titled Chile Between Two Earthquakes. For UNESCO Vltchek wrote and directed a film "Tumaini" (Hope in Kiswahili) profiling the efforts of a community based organization in Western Kenya tackling with HIV and AIDS. He is in the process of directing and producing several new documentaries in Asia, Africa, and Oceania.

A frequent guest speaker at major universities around the world, Vltchek has delivered a number of lectures based on his experiences in Indonesia and Oceania, including Columbia University, Cornell University, University of Cambridge, Hong Kong University, and University of Melbourne. Vltchek has collaborated with UNESCO in Vietnam, Africa and Oceania through various publications.

Since 2004, Vltchek has served as a Senior Fellow at The Oakland Institute and regularly contributes political, socio-economic and cultural analyses on Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania. He also works with The Atoll Institute as one of its Governors on the Board of Governors.

Travel writer

Since the 1990s, Vltchek has extensively contributed to Footprint

Footprint Books

Footprint Travel Guides is the imprint of Footprint Handbooks Ltd, a publisher of guidebooks based in Bath in the United Kingdom. Particularly noted for their coverage of Latin America, their South American Handbook, first published in 1924, is in its 87th edition. The company now publish more than...

's legendary South American Handbook

South American Handbook

The South American Handbook is a travel guide to South America, published in the United Kingdom by Footprint Books. It is currently in its 87th edition, and is the longest running travel guide in the English language...

 edited by Ben Box.

Comments on Vltchek's work

On Vltchek's latest book Oceania, Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky

Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...

 comments:

Andre Vltchek has compiled a stunning record in evoking the reality of the contemporary world, not as perceived through the distorting prisms of power and privilege, but as lived by the myriad victims. He has also not failed to trace the painful – and particularly for the West, shameful – realities to their historical roots. The remarkable scope of his inquiries is illustrated even by the titles of some of his major books: “Western Terror: From Potosi to Baghdad,” a vast range of topics that he explores with rare insight and understanding; and “Exile,” his interviews with Indonesia’s great novelist Pramoedya, who spent a large part of his life in internal exile, imprisoned by the murderous and vicious Suharto government in Indonesia, which was greatly admired by the West, and enthusiastically supported in its shocking crimes, after it won approval by carrying out a mass slaughter that the CIA compared to the crimes of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, and opened up the rich resources of the country to Western exploitation.

In the present work, Vltchek extends his penetrating gaze to a lovely, desecrated, almost forgotten vast area of the world, Oceania, which he shows to be “a microcosm of almost all major problems faced by our planet.” Again, he tears away the scabs and reveals the festering sores below with the insight, acuity, and sympathetic understanding he has shown in his earlier work. At the same time, once again, he brings to light the strength and courage of the people, and their achievements, and explores the hopes for decent recovery and survival if the powerful can allow themselves to comprehend what they have done, and to accept the responsibility of actually protecting their victims instead of mouthing comforting and self-serving slogans.

According to Michael Parenti

Michael Parenti

Michael Parenti is an award-winning, internationally known American political scientist, historian, and culture critic who has been writing on a wide range of both scholarly and popular subjects for over forty years. He has taught at several universities and colleges and has been a frequent guest...

:

Andre Vltchek brings a highly informed and incisive intelligence to the politico-economic realities of whole countries and regions. His work on Micronesia alone has opened our eyes to the iniquities of the free market in that part of the world. He writes with objectivity and investigative honesty but also with a heartfelt concern for social justice. His efforts deserve our keen attention.

Publications

• Point of No Return (2005). Mainstay Press, 248 p. ISBN 0977459004
• Exile: Conversations with Pramoedya Ananta (2006). (with Rosie Indira and Nagesh Rao). Haymarket Books. 166 p. ISBN 1931859280
• Oceania (2009). Lulu Enterprises Inc. 230 p. ISBN 1409298039
• Western Terror: From Potosi to Baghdad (2006). Mainstay Press. 304 p. ISBN 0977459039
• Liberation Lit (2010). (with Toni Christini). Mainstay Press. 822 p. ISBN 0977459063

External links

• Vltchek's World in Words and Images