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rosebud
SHOW DATE: ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE
SPEAKER(S): TBA
Here's some information about the film:
US, 2004, 103 min., written/directed by Robert Kane
Pappas, featuring Congressman Bernie Sanders, Charles
Lewis, Mark Crispin Miller, Vincent Bugliosi , Robert
McChesney and a cameo by Michael Moore
Official Site and Trailer:
http://www.buzzflash.com/orwell
"WAR IS PEACE" "FREEDOM IS SLAVERY" "IGNORANCE IS
STRENGTH" "WE REPORT, YOU DECIDE" Are Americans being
sold a bill of goods by a handful of transnational
media corporations and political elites whose
interests have little in common with the interests of
the American people? ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE builds
a case that suggests this is the case. Questioning the
size of media monopolies and how they got that way, to
who decides what airs and what doesn't, ORWELL ROLLS
asks troubling questions and investigates news stories
that were unreported (or underreported) by the
mainstream media. Featuring interviews with
Congressman Bernie Sanders, Charles Lewis, Mark
Crispin Miller, Vincent Bugliosi, Robert McChesney and
a cameo by Michael Moore, ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE
asks whether Americans are being given the information
a democracy needs to survive or have they been
electronically lobotomized into loving Big Brother?
With everyone anticipating the opening of Michael
Moore's FAHREHEIT 9/11 on June 25th (Orwell's 101st
Birthday), we invite you to reflect on the media:
think of it as FAHRENHEIT 1984.
PRO 100 %:
"A marvel of passionate succinctness, Robert Kane
Pappas' docu critically examines the Fourth Estate,
once the bastion of American democracy. Docu asks,
"Could a media system, controlled by a few global
corporations with the ability to overwhelm all
competing voices, be able to turn lies into truth? "
"Orwell Rolls in His Grave" refrains from preaching to
the choir but if its biting analysis proves true, film
is unlikely to ever be presented to the general
public"
--Ronnie Scheib, Variety, November 2003
CON 0%
CONTROL ROOM
SHOW DATE: 6/13
SPEAKER(S): TBA
Here's some information about the film:
US, 84 min., written/directed by Jehane Noujaim
(co-director of START-UP.COM), behind the scenes of Al
Jazeera.
Official Site and Trailer:
http://www.controlroommovie.com/site/01.html
CONTROL ROOM, by Jehane Noujaim (Startup.com), an
award-winning Arab-American filmmaker who has lived
within and embraced both worlds, provides an
opportunity to re-examine what is perhaps the most
pressing question of international relations today:
"is America radicalizing or stabilizing the Arab
world?" Without miring itself in shadowy conspiracy
theories, CONTROL ROOM provides a balanced view of
Al-Jazeera's presentation of the second Iraq war to
their worldwide Arab audience, and in so doing calls
into question many of the prevailing images and
positions offered up by the U.S. news media. CONTROL
ROOM's view inside Al-Jazeera-a network branded "Osama
Bin-Laden's mouthpiece" and subject of intense
criticism from U.S. administration officials for
showing images of Iraqi casualties and American POWs
that American viewers never saw-suggests that its
views on news reportage might actually be more in tune
with democratic ideals than those of its Western
counterparts.
PRO 96 %:
NEWSDAY’s John Anderson: "The most profound work to
date on how our government has manipulated news
coverage in Iraq."
CON 4%
OFFOFFOFF’s Joshua Tanzer, "[The filmmaker got] home
with a bunch of marginal scenes and only the
sketchiest chance of editing them into a story."
SINCE OTAR LEFT
SHOW DATE: 6/6
SPEAKER(S): TBA
Here's some information about the film:
France/Belgium, 103 min., directed by Julie Bertucelli
who previously worked as an assistant director to
Krzystof Kieslowski (RED, WHITE, and BLUE trilogy) and
has inherited his genius for lighting, composition,
and ability to find beauty in the most squalid
domestic settings.
Official Site:
http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/sinceotarleft/index.html
The crumbling squalor of former USSR city Tibilisi,
Georgia, is the setting for a tale of three
generations of Soviet women. Elder matriarch Eka
(Esther Gorintin) lives for the letters from her
beloved son Otar, who fled to Paris years ago as an
illegal immigrant. Her daughter Marina (Nino
Khomassourioze) strains under the pressures of their
miserable existence in the now "free" country where
the electricity and water work only sporadically and
the buildings seem as depressed as the people.
97% PRO:
Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan: "It's a wonderful
film with a love of intimacy, an eye for potent small
moments that can go by unobserved and a willingness to
explore the emotional complications of family
relationships."
3% CON:
SLANT Magazine's Ed Gonzalez says of the film "Since
Otar Left is meant to play out like a fable, but
Bertuccelli's direction isn't nimble enough to carry
it off."
What will you think? Come and find out.join in the
post screening discussion to voice your opinion. As
always, everyone is invited to participate in the
post-screening discussion.
This week, while Gabe Wardell is ni hiding from
cicadas, join guest host and
moderator Jerry Litofsky as he welcomes back a special
guest
speaker.
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