Posted on 07/25/2004 2:13:34 PM PDT by CHACHI
SECOND LETTER TO Michael Jeck Mjeck@afi.com
*** Please write to this individual ***
Mr. Jeck decided to show "Fahrenheit 9/11"
but rejected ABIP "COVERING CUBA 3: Elian calling it "controversial".
July 25, 2004
American Film Institute
Dear Mr. Jeck:
According to most critics, Moore's film is not only controversial, but it is filled with lies; makes a mockery of our capitalist and democratic system and most controversial of it all, it appeals to our worst enemies. So much for this American laughing on his way to the Bank while soldiers are dying to protect his rights!
Still, Mr. Moore has the right to tell a lie, you have the right to show it, and the public has the right to view it.
Why do you take exception with Agustin Blazquez' "COVERING CUBA 3: Elian"?
Why don't you abide by the same rules? Why don't you let the public view the facts about ficticious parental rights under communist rule?
Why do you employ censorship and discrimination when this practice is clearly biased and illegal?
Through the grapevine, we've heard that just recently, Mr. Jeck explained that his rejection was based on finding the documentary "dull".
I immediately checked with Mr. Blazquez who told me that Mr. Jeck never used that term when they met at Mr. Jeck's office.
REGARDING DULL:
I attended the showing at the Miami Film Festival where we observed complete silence among the viewers, who were stuck to their seats waiting for the next scene. The theater was filled to its max capacity.
It was a documentary filled with suspense, drama, and entertainment during light moments. The conspiracy was well explained and many of the key players attended, also. By all accounts it was anything but dull.
This is just Mr. Jeck's "politically correct" way of lying about the facts.
ABIP’s latest documentary exposes the cruel 45-yr. reality of a torn Cuba by a Hitler-like ego-maniac who manipulates the media using blackmail and an innocent child as a trophy for ADM’s Sugar Business.
It would alert the world and compel many to bring Human Rights to this isolated country, where the dissidents are persecuted and thrown in jail, and others take to the Blue Cemetery that is the Caribbean Sea risking their lives for liberty.
Please reply to this second letter Mr. Jeck.
We need your reply so we can give it to Elian when very soon Cuba is FREE again. It will explain to Elian that, because of people like you, he was returned to Cuba against his mother's wishes.
Sincerely,
Chachi Novellas-Bengochea
Delray Beach, Florida U.S.A.
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Art and politics dance together at the AFI
PRESS RELEASE (July 7, 2004)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fahrenheit 9/11 at the American Film Institute Silver Theater Cultural Center
Agustin Blazquez, producer and director of documentaries, says of the decision of the American Film Institute (AFI) Silver Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland to show the newly released controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11:
“It is ironic that they will show this documentary after they rejected mine because they considered it ‘too controversial,’ and they don’t like to show ‘controversial films.’
“The AFI, which in 1995 showed my first documentary of the series COVERING CUBA at a sold-out screening at the Kennedy Center, this time told me after I had been waiting for an answer for eight months, that after viewing about 10 minutes of it, that this documentary [COVERING CUBA 3: Elian] was too controversial and they wouldn’t show it.
“Actually this boils down to what all Cuban American filmmakers and artists in general have experienced in the U.S., which is simply discrimination for political reasons, which is illegal.
“The fact that it is all right to show a highly controversial far-left, anti-American, anti-Bush, anti-Iraq war, anti-U.S. military and anti-U.S. soldier film reveals clearly where the AFI’s heart is, in addition, of course, to making money off of a controversial film that generates curiosity.
“And, obviously, the offer of the film by Moore’s distributor to AFI was last minute. The Orson Wells films on the AFI’s schedule to be shown during the period Fahrenheit 9/11 is being shown were bumped. Besides the money they will rake in due to all the free publicity the film gets it will put its newly opened Silver Theater on the left-wing map.
“However, my so-called ‘too controversial’ documentary about the tragedy of the 6-year old boy Elian Gonzalez is censored and not allowed to be shown to the AFI’s audience.
“The AFI certainly has a double standard deciding which controversial films fit their political bias. Art and politics dance together at the AFI.”
Agustin Blazquez, produced & directed these documentaries:
COVERING CUBA, CUBA: The Pearl of the Antilles.
COVERING CUBA 2: The Next Generation.
COVERING CUBA 3: Elian. (Presented at the 2003 Miami Latin Film Festival).
COVERING CUBA 4: The Rats Below. (upcoming).
For a preview and information on the Elian documentary contact: Agustin Blazquez, AB INDEPENDENT PRODUCTIONS ABIP.USA@verizon.net
******************************************************************
(Excerpts)
The Big Lie Behind Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"
by Ralph R. Reiland (July 3, 2004)
Article website address:
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3776
[CAPMAG.COM]
The biggest lie in "Fahrenheit 9/11" is the picture of pre-war Iraq.
Michael Moore shows a happy collage of smiling Iraqis in a beautifully tranquil country --- a kid getting his hair cut in a barber shop, a couple getting married, children flying kites. There's no picture of a gassed Kurd, no picture of the acid baths or eye gouging in Saddam's torture chambers, no picture of anyone being slowly lowered into an industrial shredder, no picture of Iraqi troops tossing premature babies out of incubators in Kuwait, no hint of why millions of Iraqis fled their homeland after Saddam came to power, no picture of how hard it is to fly a kite without hands.
About the Author: Ralph R. Reiland is the B. Kenneth Simon professor of free enterprise at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.
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