Dem Documentaries Coming To A Theater Near You?

The Stiletto ^ | February 16, 2007 | The Stiletto

[theothercheek]

The Los Angeles Times describes a series of mostly lefty documentaries being financed by philanthropists – filmanthropists – who "have deep pockets and issue-driven agendas. Rather than make high-class dramas that might carry some mild social message, these producers are turning out full-blown advocacy movies."

The paper notes that, "in the eight months since Al Gore's global-warming wake-up call, ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ was released, the documentary film marketplace has exploded" and that these filmanthropists want to "shine a spotlight on social injustices, or government malfeasance, and even to recast history in the service of human uplift and national reconciliation."

Among the documentaries the article spotlights:

† Former Nickelodeon president Albie Hecht and his film on young Ugandan war refugees, "War/Dance," which won the documentary directing award last month at the Sundance Film Festival;

† James D. Stern, who has backed such movies as "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," and his film "… So Goes the Nation" about "the political machinations that ultimately tipped the battleground state of Ohio in favor of George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election";

† Actors Brad Pitt, Dermot Mulroney and Catherine Keener, who co-produced "God Grew Tired of Us," a film that follows Sudanese teenagers fleeing starvation and genocide to the United States; and

† Charles Ferguson, who got Microsoft to pony up $133 for Front Page, and his first film, "No End in Sight," about the Iraq war that premiered at Sundance.

The only documentaries mentioned in the article that The Stiletto is interested in checking out are the ones about the Ugandan and Sudanese children of war – they both deal with a sympathetic subject and do not seem to have a partisan ax to grind.

The Stiletto recently saw two documentaries that she recommends highly:

† "Mine Your Own Business," which shows how professional environmentalists travel from one impoverished nation to another blocking efforts by mining companies to extract some valuable resource from the ground, providing badly needed jobs and income for locals and improving their standard of living by cleaning up polluted water supplies and building roads.

† "Screamers," which examines why genocides keep occurring around the world. The filmmakers make the case that, because Turkey has never been brought to account for the Armenian Genocide, Hitler and others were emboldened to embark on their own murderous plans. "Screamers" is directed by former BBC World anchorwoman Carla Garapedian, a descendant of an Armenian genocide survivor, who was inspired by a 2004 System of a Down concert she attended.

So will either of these documentaries change the world? "Mine Your Own Business" has not yet moved non-government organizations to rethink the socioeconomic damage they are causing poor people worldwide. But after Armenian journalist Hrant Dink’s recent assassination in Istanbul, "Screamers" - which was recently screened in Washington, D.C. - just might move the House to pass a long-overdue resolution on the Armenian Genocide. As reported by The Hill:

[The film] follows the journey of Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-Calif.) House Resolution, passed by House International Relations Committee in the 109th Congress, recognizing the Armenian massacre as genocide. The resolution never made it to a floor vote - according to the film, because of then-Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) relationship with Turkish lobbyists.…

[M]embers of System of a Down accost Hastert in the Capitol Rotunda and the lawmaker brushes them off.

"Dennis Hastert looks like a genocide-denier," Garapedian told The Hill. …

Dink’s murder also brings attention to Schiff’s resolution. … Garapedian expressed hope that the resolution would be brought to the House floor this year, but she remains skeptical.

"The issue is whether [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who in the past has supported this effort, will allow a vote or will … be under the same pressures as Dennis Hastert from all these organizations that are afraid of angering Turkey," she said.

Like Garapedian, The Stiletto is guardedly optimistic. Rarely do the interests of such a tiny, politically insignificant ethnic group as Armenians coincide with the interests of such worthies as Pelosi and Hastert. Yeah, the Armenian Genocide is just one more stick Dems can use to beat Condoleeza Rice and the Bush Administration over the head with - but if the resolution passes, Turkey will be under increased pressure to admit its genocidal crime against humanity after nearly 100 years of unrelenting denial.

[Tenacious 1]

The scariest thing about this is that only certain projects will get funding and of those more conservative pieces that do get made, few will get any media coverage or publicity and will get little or no distribution or acclaim. This is more dangerous propaganda than the media itself can produce.

[C210N]

Would like to see a filmocumentary on Global Swarming. An overwhelming majority of the worlds Swarmatology scientists are convinced that Apiaries all over the planet are doomed due to man-made Global Swarming. And if you disagree, I'll cut off your funding.

[theothercheek]

Yeah. That's why conservative bloggers are so important. They can champion Mine Your Own Business and other films and completely circumvent the MSM, like Mel Gibson did with Passion by going directly to Christian worshippers.

[traditional1]

"those more conservative pieces that do get made"

Started with Lardass Moore's Farenheit 9/11, and TV/MSM shows like "West Wing" and whatever that Hildabeast-synthetic-woman-President show was.

The loonie left and Hollywood moonbats have taken to overt propoganda to forward the socialist elitist agenda.

Every day, the Oprah's, Dr. Phil's, etc., etc. constantly trumpet the socialist agenda over the couch-potato populace, and these fools interpret what is being broadcast as "fact" and "reality". This is how the Hildabeast will win the White House: using FREE propoganda from all of the MSM and Hollywood hangers-on.

And, even as the constant bombardment continues, the Dem's are trying to stifle the only two outlets that are un-controlled and able to counter their assault: the Internet and Talk Radio.

The only Oscar, Grammy, and Nobel Prize winners in the future will be the leftists, rewarding their own, and recognizing ONLY those who espouse the socialist mantra.....

No one in Hollywood would make a Klintoon documentary, starting in the anti-war, anti-America days of his military-loathing days on foreign soil, the corruption/drug/arkancide days in Little Rock, the Rose Law firm/Whitewater corruption, the women along the way, to the dozens of arkancides along the way, to the White House frat parties and celebrity sleepovers, to the Monica's on-the-job, to more arkancides, to Vince Foster, to the corruption of the Justice Department and poll-driven risk that led to 9-11.

The true Klintoon story will NEVER be told in our lifetime, but the Bash-Bush ongoing propoganda will continue until 2009, when the Socialists gain control of all three branches of government, and it's too late......

[theothercheek]

You are correct. It may be 100 or more years before we find everything out. It's not just because of the libs. President Bush has done many, many things to protect Clinton - the most recent of which was not to go full-bore after document thief Sandy Berger. The rich and powerful always look out for each other behind the scenes, even when they attack each other in public. That's just the dog-and-pony show so the rest of America doesn't catch on ...