Letters to the Editor
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Power of Song
I thought after seeing "Pete Seeger, Power of Song", that it deserves an Oscar nomination if not the Oscar itself. I was disappointed with so many nominated about Iraq, one or 2 would have been more than sufficient.
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PBS
"Pete Seeger, Power of Song" I understand was only released in a few cities like New York and not even reviewed by New York Times. For those interested it will be on PBS on 9 PM, Wednesday, Feb 27 here on WNET, local listings may vary. There are also a group trying to nominate Pete for the Nobel Peace Prize. For what it's worth I think he should be nominated for the Literature Prize.
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Taxi to the Dark Side
Considering that the documentary feature film is one of the few remaining places to actually see the consequences of US policy on the world, it is a shame that more nominations could not be given to documentaries exploring our role in Iraq. Stories from the "global war on terror" have been substantially constrained within US media, and it's little wonder that most may not even realize that much of our government's fight is about what we collectively believe about these actions taken in our name. Those few documentaries mentioned here will at least enjoy some chance of slightly expanding their very narrow viewship, even though it will be still largely amount to the same elite audiences that are most aware of the risks already posed by our policies.
As one living in one of the so-called big coastal cities, I have seen Taxi to the Dark Side, and left the theater feeling very fortunate to have been able to do so. The material covered in this documentary will simply never be discussed within the mainstream media, and certainly will not be shown to full impact on television. The sole US distributor with exclusive television rights has now refused to air the film.
Reading about the events covered by this documentary while perusing clean looking online blogs or catching comments on tiny youtube videos misses the depth of experience and emotional engagement that is possible in the theater or on television. These documentaries deserve every bit of attention the Oscars can provide. Iraq marks a turning point in how the world views (and will treat) the US for generations to come, and we are wise to understand what they see.
What percentage of the thousands of individuals being detained without trial in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo were taken into custody by US forces? The number surprised even this jaded skeptic, and many things I never knew about the context of our engagement came to life in this documentary. It's my hope that these nominations will be successful in getting just a tiny fraction of this populace involved to consider whether these US actions actually fight terror or simply motivate and incite more hatred of this nation.
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"War/Dance" will probably win...
not because it deserves it mind you, but because the academy is still afraid of the reaction of the knuckledraggers in Jesusland. "Taxi" probably deserves to win (since I don't live in a coastal city, I have no way of knowing for sure) but I still want to see "No end in sight" precisely because it isn't a propoganda piece. If a nonpartisan film can prove the same point Micheal Moore tried to prove four years ago, I say we should encourage it. Too bad it came too late.
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goodness! is anyone for the war?
Gosh, most of us thought Mr. Moore's outburst was absolutely moral, totally courageous, and quite delightful....(in a smash the state way).
How come you pundits are still out of step with the American people..
And you know MILLIONS of people demonstrated AGAINST the war BEFORE Mr. Moore had the guts to do it at the awards.
Susan
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Just an aside
Where the hell did this precious "heaven forfend" expression come from? I started seeing this unbearably twee locution crop up about three years ago, and it grates like nails on a chalkboard. Whatever happened to "heaven forbid", the common expression that was always used before? Did that suddenly acquire linguistic cooties or something?
Feh.
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I'm rooting for "Taxi to the Dark Side."
All of the nominated films involve important subject matters and, though I haven't seen all of them, based on reviews they are all very good.
Ergo, based on subject matter alone, I'd like to see "Taxi to the Dark Side" win. The Iraq War will end once we finally cleanse the White House of that Bush-Cheney filth, but the legacy of our new embrace of torture is a poison which is more insidious and destructive. If "Taxi..." wins and gets a wide audience, it will be a corrective to the despicable nonsense trumpeted by the Fox Fascists in "24."
As for "No End in Sight," the end of the film was a little too gung-ho for me, but that's a good thing. This is a film with a mission, but it lets the facts and the people speak for themselves. The facts in this case are devastating to the creeps who launched and continue to defend this criminal war.
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Taxi to the Dark Side
It appears that "Taxi to the Dark Side" has just been acquired by HBO and will be aired in September.
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One track minds
The academy voters seem to have forgotten that "documentary" doesn't mean "political screed" (not counting "Penguins," which bordered on a kid's fiction film because of the rampant anthropomorphism of the voice over). I can get my fill of anti-war rants by tuning into Olbermann. For my money, the best docu of '07 was "Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037." No polemics, no hysteria, just a nonfiction film that cast a light on a world that I otherwise would never have seen.
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Forfend
Okay, Serai1, another quick aside...
"Heaven forfend" is an old phrase, not a new one. It may be enjoying a brief bubble of new popularity, but it's hundreds of years old.
"Forfend" is related to forestall or stave off. It's is calling upon heaven's putative power to protect through prevention, rather than heaven's power to order things to happen or not to happen (as in "forbidding), and in that sense reflects an approach to heaven that suggests a god more maternal than paternal.
One's lack of contradictory knowledge does not mean one is correct. Indeed, the first assumption might better be one of ignorance.
Which brings us neatly back to O'Hehir, who apparently prefers a god (or president) who "rules" through power rather than love.