Best of the Left #364: Delusions of fascism, journalism and grandeur (Media)

#364 Delusions of fascism, journalism and grandeur (Media)
Best of the Left

Act 1: Glenn Beck’s Nazi Tourette’s – Daily Show
Song 1: Better be quite now – Elliott Smith

Act 2: The power of conservative media – Young Turks
Song 2: Everything In Its Right Place – Radiohead

Act 3: Dissecting NBC report on financial reform – Jimmy Dore
Song 3: Too much information – Duran Duran

Act 4: Bernie Goldberg fires back – Daily Show
Song 4: Knock yourself out – Jon Brion

Act 5: Fox News spins net neutrality – Young Turks
Song 5: So much more – Marc Robillard

Act 6: Jon Meacham on sale of Newsweek – Daily Show
Song 6: Who will buy – Oliver Twist

Act 7: Goldman defended in the media – Counterspin
Song 7: You’re a wolf – Sea Wolf

Act 8: Glenn to the mountaintop – Colbert Report

To Listen to the Episode

Democracy Now: GOP Senate Nominee Rand Paul of Kentucky Faces Firestorm After Suggesting Opposition to Civil Rights Act

GOP Senate Nominee Rand Paul of Kentucky Faces Firestorm After Suggesting Opposition to Civil Rights Act
Democracy Now

Rand Paul, the Republican Senate nominee from Kentucky, is scrambling to tamp down a growing firestorm over comments he made suggesting he does not favor portions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

We’re joined by North Carolina State University professor Blair Kelley, author of "Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy v. Ferguson"; and Mike Ervin, a freelance journalist and a longtime activist with the disability rights groups ADAPT. We’re also joined by blogger Joe Sonka, who broke the story on a racist MySpace post that led to the resignation of Rand Paul’s former communications director, Christopher Hightower.

Blair Kelley, associate professor of History at North Carolina State University. Author of "Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy v. Ferguson."

Mike Ervin, freelance journalist and longtime activist with the disability rights groups ADAPT.

Joe Sonka, editor of the Kentucky-based blog Barefoot and Progressive.

To Listen to the Episode

Best of the Left #361: The Police State Welcomes You (Immigration)

#361 The Police State Welcomes You (Immigration)
Best of the Left

Act 1: Boycotting AZ, teas and otherwise – Wait wait don’t tell me
Song 1: Tea for the Tillerman – Cat Stevens

Act 2: AZ law spurs immigration reform – Rachel Maddow
Song 2: Different People – No Doubt

Act 3: AZ Sheriff rips new law – Young Turks
Song 3: Stand – R.E.M.

Act 4: Law and Border – Daily Show
Song 4: I miss you – Blink 182

Act 5: O’Reilly grasping to support AZ law – Counterspin
Song 5: See you on the other side – Ozzy Osbourn

Act 6: Papers please amendments – Rachel Maddow
Song 6: Bouncing around the room – Phish

Act 7: The word – No Problemo – Colbert Report
Song 7: Mexico – The Refreshments

Act 8: Wrongful arrests happens already – Young Turks
Song 8: Still crazy after all these years – Paul Simon

Act 9: Police State Pete – Mark Fiore
Song 9: What I’m looking for – Brendan Benson

Act 10: AZ law writers are liars, racists – Rachel Maddow

To Listen to the Episode

ENG 102: Documenting Our World

Bloom, Alexis and Tsewang Dandup. "Bhutan: The Last Place." Frontline (PBS: May 2002) [Tsewang Dandup is from Bhutan]

California Is a Place: Stories From the Golden State

Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary

Chamberlin, Mark. "Refining the Art of Preservation." Journal of Aesthetics & Protest #6 (2009)

Chatterton, Paul and Jenny Pickerill. "Autonomous Geographies: Activism and everyday life in the city." Economic and Social Research Council Report (2009)

Cole, Cassie Keller. "Sweet Execution." Juice Box #4 (Spring 2009)

Community Arts Network

El Oso

Franceschini, Amy and Christina Ulke. "SF Victory Gardens 2007+." Journal of Aesthetics & Protest #6 (2009)

Franklin, Joey. "Working at Wendy's." 20something Essays by 20Something Writers. New York: Random House, 2006.

The Freedom Archives

Global Voices Online (Harvard University project that translates Blog reports from locals reporting on events in their communities/regions from around the world)

Hemley, Robin. "Field Notes for the Graveyard Enthusiast." New Letters 75.1 (Fall 2008): 39-50.

A History of American Technology (University of Mary Washington: Student Projects for History of American Technology & Culture, Spring 2009)

International Guild of Visual Peacemakers

Isay, Dave. "Mom: A Celebration of Mother's Day." Democracy Now (May 7, 2010)

---. "StoryCorps: National Social History Project Records Ordinary People Telling Their Stories to Each Other." Democracy Now (December 25, 2009)

It Gets Better

Madden, Patrick. "Carnaval, Montevideo." River Teeth 6.1 (Fall 2004): 115-123.

---. "Divergence." The Chariton Review 30.1&2 (Fall 2007): 125-128.

---. "Divers Weights and Divers Measures." North Dakota Quarterly 75.1 (Winter 2008): 154-160.

---. "Gravity and Distance." Mississippi Review 8.2 (Spring 2002)

---. "The Great Escape." Northwest Review 45.1 (Winter 2007): 6-25.

---. "Hepatitis." The Laurel Review 39.2 (Summer 2005): 69-75.

---. "I Saw a Mountain." Crab Orchard Review 6.2 (Spring/Summer 2001): 161-169.

---. "On Laughter." BYU Magazine (Spring 2009): 48-53.

---. "The Week of the Beer." The Chattahoochee Review 21.2 (Winter 2001): 114-119.

---. "We Lost Gonzalo." The Evansville Review #12 (2002): 89-97.

Martin, Kelly Marie. "Cooking Together at the Bicycle Kitchen: Infrastructure of La Bicicocina." Journal of Aesthetics & Protest #6 (2009)

Moris, Scott. "Nothing in Particular." Prick of the Spindle 2.2 (Summer 2008)

Murmur: Hear You Are

Notes From Nowhere, eds. We Are Everywhere

Qzap: The Queer Zine Archive Project

Spot.us: Community Funded Reporting

Story Corps

UK Social Centres Network. "What's This Place?: Stories from Radical Social Centres in the UK and Ireland." (PDF Booklet: 2008)

We Make Zines (Online Community)

York, Jillian C. "Morocco: The Ramadan Diaries." Global Voices (August 17, 2010)

Zine Library: Revolution in the Streets (Archive/Distro)

Zinn, Howard, et al. The People Speak, Pt. 1

---. The People Speak, Pt. 2 (Archive of Sources)

Zone Zero: Galleries (Archive of Photo Documentaries)

Bill Moyers Journal: Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall
Bill Moyers Journal



Dr. Jane Goodall is a familiar face to several generations around the globe. The young woman patiently seated near wild chimps in Africa first appeared in the pages of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC in the early 1960s. Her work with the chimps of Gombe National Park has been profiled in magazines, books, films and television documentaries numerous times in subsequent years. She is an inspiration to those generations who take her warnings about the state of the earth to heart:

I mean, isn't it great that high school students in some inner city area will greet me as I walk in, as though I were a pop star. That is so amazing. Because all that they've got out of what I've done is a message of hope. And the fact that our main message is "You make a difference every day. You matter. Your life is important."

Dr. Goodall now travels the world raising awareness about the dire situation facing the natural world — and many of its species. Her mission includes programs for communities in Africa to protect forests, create sustainable livelihoods and support health and education. The Jane Goodall Institute runs a global program to create a new generation of conservationists called Roots & Shoots.

The Sand Hill Cranes

Jane Goodall found a heroic conservation story far from the Tanzanian forests — the plains of Nebraska. There she participated in George Archibald's crane migration program. Archibald, founder of the International Crane Foundation, is credited with raising the population of 66 Whooping Cranes left in the wild to more than 350. His techniques include rearing cranes in human care, having human handlers wear crane costumes to avoid human imprinting and using ultra-light aircraft to lead cranes on migration flights.

Biography

Jane Goodall began her landmark study of chimpanzees in Tanzania in June 1960, under the mentorship of anthropologist and paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey. Her work at what was then called the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve would become the foundation of primatological research and redefine the relationship between humans and animals.

One of Jane's most significant discoveries came in her first year at Gombe, when she saw chimps stripping leaves off stems to make the stems useful for fishing termites out of nearby mounds. This and subsequent observations of Gombe chimps making and using tools would force science to rethink the definition that separated man from other animals: "man the toolmaker." Jane also observed chimps hunting and eating bushpigs and other animals, disproving the widely held belief that chimpanzees were primarily vegetarians.

Dr. Goodall defied scientific convention by giving the chimpanzees names instead of numbers and insisted on the validity of her observations that the chimps had distinct personalities, minds and emotions. She wrote of lasting chimpanzee family bonds. Through the years her work yielded surprising insights such as the discovery that chimps engage in a primitive kind of warfare.

Dr. Goodall established the Gombe Stream Research Center in 1965. Under the stewardship of Tanzanian field staff and other researchers, it continues Dr. Goodall's work today, making it one of the longest uninterrupted wildlife studies in existence.

In 1977, Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which supports the Gombe work and other research, education and conservation and development programs. These include community-centered conservation efforts in Africa which provide local people with tools to build sustainable livelihoods while promoting regional conservation goals such as reforestation and an end to the illegal commercial bushmeat trade. JGI's Roots & Shoots program, which supports students from preschool through university in projects that benefit people, animals and the environment, today hosts about 8,000 groups in 96 countries.

Dr. Goodall travels an average 300 days per year, speaking about the threats facing chimpanzees, other environmental crises, and her reasons for hope that humankind will solve the problems it has imposed on the earth. She continually urges her audiences to recognize their personal responsibility and ability to effect change through consumer action, lifestyle change and activism. Dr. Goodall's scores of honors include the Medal of Tanzania, the National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal, Japan's prestigious Kyoto Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research 2003, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, and the Gandhi/King Award for Nonviolence. In April 2002 UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Dr. Goodall to serve as a United Nations "Messenger of Peace." In 2004, Prince Charles invested Dr. Goodall as a Dame of the British Empire, the female equivalent of knighthood. In 2006, Dr. Goodall received the and the French Legion of Honor, presented by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, as well as the UNESCO Gold Medal.

Dr. Goodall's list of publications is extensive, including two overviews of her work at Gombe - IN THE SHADOW OF MAN AND THROUGH A WINDOW - as well as two autobiographies in letters, the best-selling autobiography REASON FOR HOPE and many children's books. Her latest book is HOPE FOR ANIMALS AND THEIR WORLD: HOW ENDANGERED SPECIES ARE BEING RESCUED FROM THE BRINK. THE CHIMPANZEES OF GOMBE: PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR is recognized as the definitive work on chimpanzees and is the culmination of Jane Goodall's scientific career. Dr. Goodall has been the subject of numerous television documentaries and the film, JANE GOODALL'S WILD CHIMPANZEES (2002). In 2004, she was featured in two Discovery Channel Animal Planet specials-JANE GOODALL'S RETURN TO GOMBE and JANE GOODALL'S STATE OF THE GREAT APE.

To Watch/Listen to the Episode and Access More Resources

Michael Griffin: McFate and Co.

McFate and Co.
by Michael Griffin
Nth Position

...

In 2005, the Pentagon took McFate and Kilcullen's ideas on waging COIN and submitted them to further testing in a 'proof-of-concept' programme, entitled Cultural Operational Research Human Terrain System, under the aegis of the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), in Fort Monroe, Virginia. With its focus on intimate, local knowledge, the Human Terrain System (HTS), as it became known, was quickly identified as having a 'left of boom' application that could help to detect the fabricators and placers of roadside bombs if HTS teams could pinpoint the internal, cultural logic that, it was hoped, would endear villagers to the government, and the material and security benefits provided by the US military. HTS' initial funding, as a result, came from the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), created in 2003 to pool and prove efforts by the services, private enterprise and academia to develop IED counter-measures and improve intelligence gathering. Steve Fondacaro, the retired army colonel who had commanded JIEDDO for one year, was appointed HTS programme manager, while his deputy, Steve Rokoff, was closely linked with McNeil Technologies, a purveyor of 'intelligence solutions' and interpreters in Afghanistan. BAE Systems was designated lead personnel contractor, without going through a bidding process. [7] ' We're great at killing people and breaking things,' said Fondacaro of his new mission. 'But if we want to be relevant in the 21st century, we have to adapt. This is a competition for the support of the population. So we've got to understand how the society is hardwired.' [8]

McFate was appointed HTS' chief scientific advisor at a salary of $200,000, according to John Stanton, a specialist on national security, who has maintained a running watch on HTS since 2008. [9] At brainstorming sessions in the High Noon Saloon, 1 Choctaw St, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where the programme was located, McFate, Fondacaro, Rotkoff and Maxie McFarland, TRADOC's deputy chief of staff for intelligence, laboured to put flesh on the concept they'd worked so hard to envisage. A Human Terrain Team (HTT) consisting of five to nine members, weighted three parts to two between military and civilian personnel, was to be imbedded in each of the 26 US brigades deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were to employ interviews, focus groups and opinion polls to generate complex databases on local leaders, tribes, political disputes, economic issues and social problems, and to advise commanders on nuances of body language, table manners, gift giving and the local art of the quid pro quo. In 2007, Defense Secretary Robert Gates awarded HTS a $40 million budget, increased to $143 million two years later, and Petraeus, a social sciences post-graduate himself, looked benignly on the manoeuvre. 'The HTTs have evolved into important elements in our operations in Iraq,' he said. [10] HTS had struck pay dirt.

The reaction among anthropologists was horrified dismay that their principles of impartial observation of human groups were about to be sold to the defence sector as a template for intelligence gathering or, more candidly, spying. HTS triggered flashbacks to Chile and the Vietnam War where anthropologists in the 1960s were recruited to provide insight into dissident movements that informed clandestine US campaigns to prop up dictatorship or assassinate enemy sympathisers. 'You pitch a tent... among the people you want to understand,' said Hugh Gusterson, professor of Cultural Studies at George Mason University, 'you live with them, you catch their diseases, you eat their horrible food, you share their joys and pains. The thought that you would cultivate these relationships of trust and intimacy, and then ... go to the Pentagon and say, "these are the people you should kill, these are the people you shouldn't kill." That's extremely problematical for people with that methodology.' [11] On 31 October 2007, the American Anthropological Association (AAA) warned that HTS jeopardised its code of conduct, which orders practitioners to do no harm to subjects, but fell short of outright condemnation until two years later when, after further study, it ruled that HTS 'can no longer be considered a legitimate professional exercise of anthropology'. [12] An AAA blog set up to gauge the opinions of its members - mostly Democrats by a wide margin [13] - vilified McFate for bringing the profession into disrepute; her name, manner and blog, doubtless, lent themselves to easy demonisation. HTS supporters countered that professional researchers would help reduce the need for indiscriminate, lethal force, improve negotiating strategies and yield more appropriate development options, objectives all imbedded in the new COIN strategy, but to no avail. 'I'm frequently accused of militarising anthropology,' she quipped, 'but we're really anthropologising the military.' [14] But it was a disingenuous remark: HTTs, outfitted with combat uniforms, body armour and weapons, were indistinguishable from soldiers in appearance and no amount of geniality could disguise that first impression.

To Read the Rest of the Essay

Dinosaur Jr.: Feel the Pain

Left Field Cinema: Horror Movies as Modern Day Morality Tales

Analysis: Horror Movies as Modern Day Morality Tales – Introduction
by Mike Dawson
Left Field Cinema

Part one of a five part series asking whether horror movies are the modern day equivalent of the classical morality tales from the years before cinema.

“There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie. Number one: You can never have sex… Sex equals death… Number two: You can never drink or do drugs. It’s the sin factor, it’s a sin, it’s an extension of number one. And number three, never, ever, under any circumstances say ‘I’ll be right back’, because you won’t be back.” (Craven, 1996)

This quote is taken from the Wes Craven film Scream (1996), a part parody, part pastiche, part postmodern thriller. It can easily be considered the most self-observant horror movie ever made. It examines its own genre clichés and traits with the keenest eye. The ‘sin factor’, which the character of Randy (played by Jamie Kennedy) refers to in Scream, is rightly stated to be the creative force behind these clichés and traits. The ’sin factor’ is central to the nature of horror films, and means that the issue of morality is innate within the genre. The horror film can be viewed as a modern day version of the classical morality tales which took the popular shape of nursery rhymes and fairy tales in the years before cinema was invented. Morality tales are narratives with a clear moral message that is reinforced as the plot unfolds; usually the message of the piece is a warning of some kind that is often set in a metaphorical scenario. The supernatural or hyper real settings and the simplistic plotlines of morality tales are often in place for two reasons. Firstly to simplify the message to a form which is not complicated by the intricacies and ambiguities of the modern world. Secondly to produce messages and warnings about sensitive or recent subjects without directly commenting on those subjects, therefore reducing the culpability for any offence taken by the readership or audience. This is a four part episode and a study of whether horror films can truly be viewed as morality tales, whether the various elements and narrative details of morality tales also apply to horror films.

Horror is arguably films most excessive, extroverted, and exploitative genre, (using in many cases, grim prosthetic effects, sudden bursts of sound or music, incredulous resurrections, and unnecessary scenes of nudity to surprise or titillate the audience) it also has a very conservative undertone intrinsic to most morality tales. This undertone contradicts the violent uncensored approach that most horror films adopt.



The ‘creature feature’ films of the 1950’s are interesting examples where radiation (usually) from A-bombs creates a giant insect or lizard of some kind. This was a thinly veiled metaphor for the then current communist fears, they could be simple everyday creatures like tiny insects, or a friendly next door neighbour, but then nuclear bombs are detonated and they transform into deadly monsters, just as the next door neighbour transforms into a soviet agent ready to invade the USA from within.

P. Wells makes the connection between national fears and the horror movie in the 2000 book The Horror Genre:

“The history of the horror film is essentially a history of anxiety in twentieth century. In the way that fairytales, folktales and gothic romances articulated the fears of the ‘old’ world characterised by a rationale of industrial, technological and economic determinism. Arguably, more than any other genre, it has interrogated the deep-seated effects of change…”

However it has interrogated these effects with a largely conservative bias, essentially fighting against change. This bias is not only in terms of international politics, or xenophobia, but also domestic conservatism.

To Read the Rest of the Introduction

To Listen to the Analysis



The rest of the series:



"Horror Movies as Modern Day Morality Tales – The Exorcist."





"Horror Movies as Modern Day Morality Tales – Friday the 13th and Halloween"





"Horror Movies as Modern Day Morality Tales – The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en."



"Horror Movies as Modern Day Morality Tales – Conclusions."

AK Press: Dear Glenn Beck

Dear Glenn Beck
by Kate
Revolution by the Book (AK Press)

Dear readers: We here at AK Press were both shocked and (we’ll admit it) thrilled when right-wing media mogul Glenn Beck held up our new book on the Greek Insurrection of December 2008 on his FOX News program a couple of weeks ago, and compared it to The Coming Insurrection, saying that this book was the next “playbook” that radicals in this country would be taking a page from. (We wish.) But we were also kind of confused, because Beck seemed eager to interpret the book as a yet another installment in the “communist” conspiracy … only, well, we’re anarchists, we’re damn proud of that fact, and we’re frankly a little hard pressed to understand why Beck went out of his way to say explicitly that this wasn’t an anarchist book. And then we watched hours and hours of Beck blabbing on YouTube, and we started to notice a more general pattern: Beck tends to avoid directly confronting “anarchism” as a system of political actions and ideals. So we started thinking about why that might be, and the result of our deep deliberations follows in an open letter to Mr. Beck. We encourage you to post this far & wide; let’s take advantage of this unexpected moment and try and push for some real public discourse around anarchism, about what it means, and about why it works.

To Read the Letter

Here is the episode that the letter is responding to Glenn Beck on Two Books

Pinewood Dialogues: Food Inc. Panel -- Eric Schlosser, Alice Waters, Robert Kenner, Gary Hirshberg, Marcel van Ooyen

Food Inc. Panel: Eric Schlosser, Alice Waters, Robert Kenner, Gary Hirshberg, Marcel van Ooyen
Pinewood Dialogues



The documentary Food, Inc., which lifts the veil on America's food industry, is a muckraking film that is elegantly made and entertaining. The Museum of the Moving Image presented the New York premiere, followed by a discussion with: Eric Schlosser, whose best-seller Fast Food Nation inspired the film; Robert Kenner, the director; Alice Waters, the renowned chef of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California; Gary Hirshberg, the president of Stonyfield Farm, the world's leading organic yogurt producer; and Marcel Van Ooyen, the executive director of the Council on the Environment of New York City, which runs nearly fifty greenmarkets.

To Listen to the Panel Discussion

Matt Zoller Seitz: Reliving Freaks and Geeks

Reliving Freaks and Geeks
by Matt Zoller Seitz
L Magazine



Link

Bill Moyers & Michael Winship: Chevron's "Crude" Attempt to Suppress Free Speech

Chevron's "Crude" Attempt to Suppress Free Speech
by Bill Moyers & Michael Winship
Bill Moyers Journal



Even as headlines and broadcast news are dominated by BP's fire-ravaged, sunken offshore rig and the ruptured well gushing a reported 210,000 gallons of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico, there's another important story involving Big Oil and pollution - one that shatters not only the environment but the essential First Amendment right of journalists to tell truth and shame the devil.

(Have you read, by the way, that after the surviving, dazed and frightened workers were evacuated from that burning platform, they were met by lawyers from the drilling giant Transocean with forms to sign stating they had not been injured and had no first-hand knowledge of what had happened?! So much for the corporate soul.)

But our story is about another petrochemical giant - Chevron - and a major threat to independent journalism. In New York last Thursday, Federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered documentary producer and director Joe Berlinger to turn over to Chevron more than 600 hours of raw footage used to create a film titled CRUDE: THE REAL PRICE OF OIL.

Released last year, it's the story of how 30,000 Ecuadorians rose up to challenge the pollution of their bodies, livestock, rivers and wells from Texaco's drilling for oil there, a rainforest disaster that has been described as the Amazon's Chernobyl. When Chevron acquired Texaco in 2001 and attempted to dismiss claims that it was now responsible, the indigenous people and their lawyers fought back in court.

Some of the issues and nuances of Berlinger's case are admittedly complex, but they all boil down to this: Chevron is trying to avoid responsibility and hopes to find in the unused footage - material the filmmaker did not utilize in the final version of his documentary - evidence helpful to the company in fending off potential damages of $27.3 billion.

This is a serious matter for reporters, filmmakers and frankly, everyone else. Tough, investigative reporting without fear or favor - already under siege by severe cutbacks and the shutdown of newspapers and other media outlets - is vital to the public awareness and understanding essential to a democracy. As Michael Moore put it, "The chilling effect of this is, [to] someone like me, if something like this is upheld, the next whistleblower at the next corporation is going to think twice about showing me some documents if that information has to be turned over to the corporation that they're working for."

In an open letter on Joe Berlinger's behalf, signed by many in the non-fiction film business (including the two of us), the Independent Documentary Association described Chevron's case as a "fishing expedition" and wrote that, "At the heart of journalism lies the trust between the interviewer and his or her subject. Individuals who agree to be interviewed by the news media are often putting themselves at great risk, especially in the case of television news and documentary film where the subject's identity and voice are presented in the final report.

To Read the Rest of the Essay

ENG 102: Cultural Analysis

(Developing for my students who are researching/writing cultural analysis essays)

Subjects/Themes

Action

Hauka, David. "'Christ That Hurts': Rewriting the Jesus Narrative -- Violence and the Language of Action Cinema in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ Cinephile #2 (March 2006)

Aesthetics

Flanagan, Matthew. "Towards an Aesthetic of Slow in Contemporary Cinema." 16:9 (November 2008)

Animals

Geller, Conrad. "Grizzly Man." Cineaste (Winter 2005): Reprinted in Annual Editions: Film 07/08 158-159 [Available in BCTC Library PN1993 A6285]

North, Dan. "“All a Man Can Do is Look Upon it”: What’s With the Werckmeister Whale?" Spectacular Attractions (December 3, 2009)

Animation

"Animation: Timeline -- From Trick Effects To CGI." Sight and Sound (August 2006)

Barsam, Richard. "Evolution of Animation Techniques." Looking at Movies. 2nd ed. (Student Website: W.W. Norton, 2006)

Bordwell, David. "Coraline, Cornered." Observations on Film Art (February 23, 2009)

Sabo, Lee Weston. "Inimitable Charm: Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox Bright Lights Film Journal #67 (February 2010)

Apocalyptic/Post-Apocalyptic

Pomerance, Murray. "What Ever is Happening to M. Night Shyamalan: Meditation on an 'Infection' Film." Film International 8.1 (2010) [Professor has copy]

Vincent, Jonathan. "Left Behind in America: The Army of One at the End of History." Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture and the "War on Terror." ed. Jeff Birkenstein, et al. NY: Continuum, 2010: 45-56. [Professor has copy]

Body

Cromb, Brenda. "Gorno: Violence, Shock and Comedy." Cinephile #4 (Summer 2008)

Krautheim, Graeme. "Aspiring to the Void: The Collapse of Genre and Erasure of Body in Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible." Cinephile #4 (Summer 2008)

British Media/Culture

Helsby, Wendy, ed. Understanding Representation. London: BFI, 2005.[Available in BCTC Library PN 1995 U4977 2005]

Censorship

Roth, Chris. "Three Decades of Film Censorship ... Right Before Your Eyes." The Humanist (January/February 2000): Reprinted in Annual Editions: Film 07/08 89-91 [Available in BCTC Library PN1993 A6285]

Children

Rapold, Nicolas and Matt Zoller Seitz. "A History of Creepy Kids on Film." L Magazine (August 3, 2009)

Cinematography

American Cinematographer (Magazine)

Crime

Ashbury, Roy. "Prostitution." Understanding Representation. ed. Wendy Helsby. London: BFI, 2005: 115-142. [Available in BCTC Library PN 1995 U4977 2005]

Helsby, Wendy. "Roughs and Respectables: Representing the 'Other.'" Understanding Representation. ed. Wendy Helsby. London: BFI, 2005: 143-164. [Available in BCTC Library PN 1995 U4977 2005]

Documentaries

Geller, Conrad. "Grizzly Man." Cineaste (Winter 2005): Reprinted in Annual Editions: Film 07/08 158-159 [Available in BCTC Library PN1993 A6285]

Lesage, Julie. "Torture Documentaries." Jump Cut #51 (Spring 2009)

Mieszkowski, Katharine. "Did Al Get the Science Right." Salon (June 10, 2006): Reprinted in Annual Editions: Film 07/08 89-91 [Available in BCTC Library PN1993 A6285]

Roth, Chris. "Three Decades of Film Censorship ... Right Before Your Eyes." The Humanist (January/February 2000): Reprinted in Annual Editions: Film 07/08 89-91 [Available in BCTC Library PN1993 A6285]

Dreams

Rose, James. "The Dreaming and The Dreamt: A Lexicon of Neil Jordan’s The Company of Wolves." Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies #2 (March 2007)

Environment

Mieszkowski, Katharine. "Did Al Get the Science Right." Salon (June 10, 2006): Reprinted in Annual Editions: Film 07/08 89-91 [Available in BCTC Library PN1993 A6285]

Family

Cozzalio, Dennis. "Code Unknown and Crash: Collisions, Connections and Catharsis." Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly (February 13, 2006)

Turner, Pauline. "Images of the Family." Understanding Representation. ed. Wendy Helsby. London: BFI, 2005: 33-50. [Available in BCTC library PN1995 U4977 2005]

Fantasy

Snider, John C. and David Driscoll. "The Golden Compass American Freethought (December 15, 2007)

Food

Koresky, Michael. "Raw Meat: Fast Food Nation Reverse Shot #26 (2010)

Stephens, Gregory. "Corn-Fed Culture: Living Large and "Eating Shit" in King Corn and Fast Food Nation." Bright Lights Film Journal #6(May 2010)

French Cinema

Phillips, Craig. "Primers: French New Wave." Green Cine (2005)

Gender

Cherry, Brigid. "Gothics and Grand Guignols: Violence and the gendered Aesthetics of Cinematic Horror." Particip@tions 5.1 (May 2008)

"Gender and Violence." Cinephile #1 (2005)

Genre

Arthur, Paul. "Endgame." Film Comment (November/December 2005)

Eig, Jonathan. "A Beautiful Mind(fuck) -- Hollywood Structures of Identity." Jump Cut #46 (2003)

MacDowell, James. "The 'Quirky' New Wave." Alternate Takes (July 21, 2005)

Moine, Raphaelle. Cinema Genre. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008. [available in BCTC Library]

"Post-Genre." (Special Issue) Cinephile #4 (Summer 2008)

Sorfa, David. "Uneasy domesticity in the films of
Michael Haneke." Studies in European Cinema 3.2 (2006)

Tait, R. Colin. "The HBO-ification of Genre." Cinephile #4 (Summer 2008)

Tarancon, Juan A. "Genre Matters: Film Criticism and the Social Relevance of Genres." Cineaction #80 (2010) [Available from your teacher]

Ghosts

Jarvis, Brian. "Anamorphic allegory in The Ring, or, seven ways of looking at a horror video." Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies #3 (November 2007)

Kermode, Mark. "Spirit Levels." Sight and Sound (August 2005): Reprinted in Annual Editions: Film 07/08 89-91 [Available in BCTC Library PN1993 A6285]

Nelson, Lindsay. "Ghosts of the Past, Ghosts of the Future: Monsters, Children, and Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema." Cinemascope #13 (July-December 2009)

Ozawa, Eimi. "Remaking Corporeality and Spatiality: U.S. Adaptations of Japanese Horror Films." 49th Parallel (Autumn 2006)

"Paranormal cinematic activity: ghost film studies." Film Studies for Free (April 27, 2010)

Gypsies/Travelers

Helsby, Wendy. "Roughs and Respectables: Representing the 'Other.'" Understanding Representation. ed. Wendy Helsby. London: BFI, 2005: 143-164. [Available in BCTC Library PN 1995 U4977 2005]

HBO

Tait, R. Colin. "The HBO-ification of Genre." Cinephile #4 (Summer 2008)

History

Burgoyne, Robert. Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at U.S. History. revised ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010. [BCTC Library: PN1995.9 H5 B87 2010]

Holocaust

Nelson, Anne. "The Obligations of History: Accuracy versus irony in depictions of the Holocaust." Moving Image Source (April 1, 2010)

Horror

Balmain, Colette. "Inside the Well of Loneliness: Towards a Definition of the Japanese Horror Film." Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies (May 2, 2006)

Becker, Matt. "A Point of Little Hope: Hippie Horror Films and the Politics of
Ambivalence." The Velvet Light Trap #57 (Spring 2006): 42-59.

Bloom, Michael. "Reanimating the Living Dead: Uncovering the Zombie Archetype in the Works of George A. Romero." Offscreen (April 30, 2009)

Burris, Gregory A. "Shocked and Awed?: Hostel and the Spectacle of Self-Mutilation." Cine-Action #80 (2010) [Available from your teacher]

Chapman, Mark. "Reconceptualizing the Uncanny Vampire: Claire Denis' Trouble Every Day Bright Lights Film Journal #68 (May 2010)

Cherry, Brigid. "Gothics and Grand Guignols: Violence and the gendered Aesthetics of Cinematic Horror." Particip@tions 5.1 (May 2008)

Cromb, Brenda. "Gorno: Violence, Shock and Comedy." Cinephile #4 (Summer 2008)

Dawson, Mike. "Horror Movies as Modern Day Morality Tales, Pts 1-5." Left Field Cinema (2008/2009)

Hilden, Julie. "Free Speech and the Concept of "Torture Porn": Why are Critics So Hostile to Hostel II?" Find Law (July 16, 2007)

Jarvis, Brian. "Anamorphic allegory in The Ring, or, seven ways of looking at a horror video." Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies #3 (November 2007)

Kermode, Mark. "Spirit Levels." Sight and Sound (August 2005): Reprinted in Annual Editions: Film 07/08 89-91 [Available in BCTC Library PN1993 A6285]

Orange, Michelle. "Taking Back the Knife: Girls Gone Gory." The New York Times (September 3, 2009)

Ozawa, Eimi. "Remaking Corporeality and Spatiality: U.S. Adaptations of Japanese Horror Films." 49th Parallel (Autumn 2006)

"Paranormal cinematic activity: ghost film studies." Film Studies for Free (April 27, 2010)

Identity

Eig, Jonathan. "A Beautiful Mind(fuck) -- Hollywood Structures of Identity." Jump Cut #46 (2003)

Helsby, Wendy. "Beyond Britishness: Identity and Difference." Understanding Representation. ed. Wendy Helsby. London: BFI, 2005: 189-204. [Available in BCTC Library PN 1995 U4977 2005]

Indian Cinema

Khair, Tabish. "The Ironies of Bollywood." 16:9 (April 2009)

Japanese Cinema

Balmain, Colette. "Inside the Well of Loneliness: Towards a Definition of the Japanese Horror Film." Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies (May 2, 2006)

Kermode, Mark. "Spirit Levels." Sight and Sound (August 2005): Reprinted in Annual Editions: Film 07/08 89-91 [Available in BCTC Library PN1993 A6285]

Nelson, Lindsay. "Ghosts of the Past, Ghosts of the Future: Monsters, Children, and Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema." Cinemascope #13 (July-December 2009)

Ozawa, Eimi. "Remaking Corporeality and Spatiality: U.S. Adaptations of Japanese Horror Films." 49th Parallel (Autumn 2006)

Memory

"On Popular Memory and Third Cinema: The Work of Teshome Gabriel." Film Studies for Free (June 18, 2010)

Mental Illness

Cassey, Joe. "Mental Illness." Understanding Representation. ed. Wendy Helsby. London: BFI, 2005: 99-114. [Available in BCTC Library PN 1995 U4977 2005]

Music

Piechota, Carole Lyn. "Give Me a Second Grace: Music as Absolution in The Royal Tenenbaums." Senses of Cinema (2005)

Nationalism

Fletcher, Phoebe. “Fucking Americans”: Postmodern Nationalisms in the Contemporary Splatter Film #18 (December 2009)

Helsby, Wendy. "Beyond Britishness: Identity and Difference." Understanding Representation. ed. Wendy Helsby. London: BFI, 2005: 189-204. [Available in BCTC Library PN 1995 U4977 2005]

Kleinhans, Chuck. "Imagining Torture." Jump Cut #51 (Spring 2009)

Kleinhans, Chuck, John Hess and Julia Lesage. "The Last Word: Torture and the National Imagination." #50 (Summer 2008)

Ramey, Mark. "Football and Film: Representing Nationality." Understanding Representation. ed. Wendy Helsby. London: BFI, 2005: 169-188. [Warning to Americans--this is about what you call soccer. Available in BCTC Library PN 1995 U4977 2005]

Police

Helsby, Wendy. "Constables, Coppers, Rozzers, the Old Bill--The Police." Understanding Representation. ed. Wendy Helsby. London: BFI, 2005: 75-92. [Available in BCTC Library PN 1995 U4977 2005]

McMillan, Alasdair. "Dramatizing Individuation: Institutions, Assemblages, and The Wire>" #4 (Summer 2008)

Prostitution

Ashbury, Roy. "Prostitution." Understanding Representation. ed. Wendy Helsby. London: BFI, 2005: 115-142. [Available in BCTC Library PN 1995 U4977 2005]

Race

Cozzalio, Dennis. "Code Unknown and Crash: Collisions, Connections and Catharsis." Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly (February 13, 2006)

Religion

Hauka, David. "'Christ That Hurts': Rewriting the Jesus Narrative -- Violence and the Language of Action Cinema in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ Cinephile #2 (March 2006)

Snider, John C. and David Driscoll. "The Golden Compass American Freethought (December 15, 2007)

"Theology and the Political." Cinephile #2 (March 2006)

Vincent, Jonathan. "Left Behind in America: The Army of One at the End of History." Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture and the "War on Terror." ed. Jeff Birkenstein, et al. NY: Continuum, 2010: 45-56.

Watching Theology (Podcast)

Representation

Helsby, Wendy, ed. Understanding Representation. London: BFI, 2005. [Available in BCTC library PN1995 U4977 2005]

Romance

Schneider, Richard, Jr., et al. "Not Quitting Brokeback/Lost in Adaptation/The Hate Crime/Beyond the Mountain." Gay & Lesbian Review (May/June 2006): Reprinted in Annual Editions: Film 07/08 170-174 [Available in BCTC Library PN1993 A6285]

Scene Analysis

"The Scene." (Special Issue) Cinephile 5.1 (2009)

Schools, Students and Teachers

Ashbury, Roy. "Schools and Teachers." Understanding Representation. ed. Wendy Helsby. London: BFI, 2005: 51-74. [Available in BCTC library PN1995 U4977 2005]

Seitz, Matt Zoller. "It Was Ten Years Ago Today: Reliving Freaks and Geeks (September 25, 2009)

Science Fiction

Brin, David. "Star Wars despots vs. Star Trek populists: Why is George Lucas peddling an elitist, anti-democratic agenda under the guise of escapist fun?." Salon (June 15, 1999)

McKitterick, Christopher. "The Literature of Change." World Literature Today (May/June 2010)

Sex and Sexuality

Ashbury, Roy. "Prostitution." Understanding Representation. ed. Wendy Helsby. London: BFI, 2005: 115-142. [Available in BCTC Library PN 1995 U4977 2005]

Benton, Michael. "American Culture: Sex and Sexuality 2.0 Dialogic (May 27, 2010)

Schneider, Richard, Jr., et al. "Not Quitting Brokeback/Lost in Adaptation/The Hate Crime/Beyond the Mountain." Gay & Lesbian Review (May/June 2006): Reprinted in Annual Editions: Film 07/08 170-174 [Available in BCTC Library PN1993 A6285]

Soldiers

Vicari, Justin. "Post-Iraq cinema — veteran heroes in The Jacket and Harsh Times." Jump Cut #51 (Spring, 2009)

Sound

Creekmur, Corey K. "The Sound of the 'War on Terror.'" Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture and the "War on Terror." ed. Jeff Birkenstein, et al. NY: Continuum, 2010: 83-93.

Sports

Ramey, Mark. "Football and Film: Representing Nationality." Understanding Representation. ed. Wendy Helsby. London: BFI, 2005: 169-188. [Warning to Americans--this is about what you call soccer. Available in BCTC Library PN 1995 U4977 2005]

Stereotypes

Helsby, Wendy, ed. Understanding Representation. London: BFI, 2005. [Available in BCTC library PN1995 U4977 2005]

Surveillance Society

McMillan, Alasdair. "Dramatizing Individuation: Institutions, Assemblages, and The Wire>" #4 (Summer 2008)

Teens

Seitz, Matt Zoller. "It Was Ten Years Ago Today: Reliving Freaks and Geeks (September 25, 2009)

Third Cinema

Marzana, Nicola. "The Art of Hunger: Re-Defining Third Cinema." 16:9 (November 2009)

"On Popular Memory and Third Cinema: The Work of Teshome Gabriel." Film Studies for Free (June 18, 2010)

Torture

Burris, Gregory A. "Shocked and Awed?: Hostel and the Spectacle of Self-Mutilation." Cine-Action #80 (2010) [Available from your teacher]

Fletcher, Phoebe. “Fucking Americans”: Postmodern Nationalisms in the Contemporary Splatter Film #18 (December 2009)

Hilden, Julie. "Free Speech and the Concept of "Torture Porn": Why are Critics So Hostile to Hostel II?" Find Law (July 16, 2007)

Kleinhans, Chuck. "Imagining Torture." Jump Cut #51 (Spring 2009)

Kleinhans, Chuck, John Hess and Julia Lesage. "The Last Word: Torture and the National Imagination." #50 (Summer 2008)

Lesage, Julie. "Torture Documentaries." Jump Cut #51 (Spring 2009)

Murray, Gabrielle. "Images of Torture, Images of Terror: Post 9/11 and the Escalation of Screen Violence." Monash University Film and TV Studies (Podcast of a Lecture: March 20, 2008)

Rosler, Martha. "A Simple Case for Torture." Jump Cut #51 (Spring 2009)

Vampires

Chapman, Mark. "Reconceptualizing the Uncanny Vampire: Claire Denis' Trouble Every Day Bright Lights Film Journal #68 (May 2010)

Veterans

Vicari, Justin. "Post-Iraq cinema — veteran heroes in The Jacket and Harsh Times." Jump Cut #51 (Spring 2009)

Violence

Benton, Michael Dean. "Violence in Films." Dialogic (October 8, 2008)

"Gender and Violence." Cinephile #1 (2005)

Hauka, David. "'Christ That Hurts': Rewriting the Jesus Narrative -- Violence and the Language of Action Cinema in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ Cinephile #2 (March 2006)

Murray, Gabrielle. "Images of Torture, Images of Terror: Post 9/11 and the Escalation of Screen Violence." Monash University Film and TV Studies (Podcast of a Lecture: March 20, 2008)

War on Terror

Creekmur, Corey K. "The Sound of the 'War on Terror.'" Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture and the "War on Terror." ed. Jeff Birkenstein, et al. NY: Continuum, 2010: 83-93.

Froula, Anna. "Prolepsis and the 'War on Terror': Zombie Pathology and the Culture of Fear in 28 Days Later...." Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture and the "War on Terror." ed. Jeff Birkenstein, et al. NY: Continuum, 2010: 195-2008.

McSweeney, Terence. "The Land of the Dead and the Home of the Brave: Romero's Vision of a Post-9/11 America." Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture and the "War on Terror." ed. Jeff Birkenstein, et al. NY: Continuum, 2010: 107-116. [Professor has a copy]

Zombie

Bloom, Michael. "Reanimating the Living Dead: Uncovering the Zombie Archetype in the Works of George A. Romero." Offscreen (April 30, 2009)

Froula, Anna. "Prolepsis and the 'War on Terror': Zombie Pathology and the Culture of Fear in 28 Days Later...." Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture and the "War on Terror." ed. Jeff Birkenstein, et al. NY: Continuum, 2010: 195-2008. [Professor has a copy]

McSweeney, Terence. "The Land of the Dead and the Home of the Brave: Romero's Vision of a Post-9/11 America." Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture and the "War on Terror." ed. Jeff Birkenstein, et al. NY: Continuum, 2010: 107-116. [Professor has a copy]

Read, Jason. "Zombie as Critic." Unemployed Negativity (June 11, 2007)

"Understanding the Zombie Mentality, Pt. 3." Dialogic (July 29, 2005)

Johnella E. Butler: What Is an American?

Butler, Johnnella E. “Reflections on Borderlands and the Color Line.” Power, Race, and Gender in Academe. eds. Shirley Geok-Lin Lim and Maria Herrera-Sobek. NY: The MLA, 2000: 8-31.

What is an American? What are new frameworks for community identity? How can the larger narrative for an inclusive civic culture and democracy be forged? . . . How do we encourage an American consciousness encompassing a cooperative, relational pluralism that connects, matrixlike, these merged entities with a mestiza consciousness to result in the American, the United States citizen, the America that Tocqueville projected, without the “tyranny of the majority” and binary individualism at the expense of community? … [How do we develop] ways of perceiving the relationships between and among people, our pasts, our pasts’ legacies, our present lives and struggles, our environments, disciplines, and texts. … How do we shape policies to encourage the best in human beings? How do we utilize scientific discovery and progress and technological advancement to the benefit of all human beings and our environment? How do we use our positions [of power] … to help the greatest number of [persons] become human beings who care about one another and their environment? How can we reveal the unity in diversity, the sameness in difference, and how can we engage long-term intractable differences and conflicts in ways productive to humans and not necessarily with the goal of winning and defeating? How can we live together with different moral positions without hatred, violence, or imposition and without permissiveness and amorality? How can we begin to understand that my freedom ends where your denial of freedom begins? Can we reconcile individualism with community and individual needs and desires with community needs and desires? (23-24)

Saul Williams in the Film Slam (1998)

Michael J. Anderson: Histoire de Marie et Julien: Jacques Rivette's Material Ghost Story

Histoire de Marie et Julien: Jacques Rivette's Material Ghost Story
by Michael J. Anderson
Senses of Cinema



There is no such thing as morality in the films of Jacques Rivette. Nor could there be, given the particular logic that dictates the narrative structure of his films, namely that everything contained therein belongs to the category of fiction. In this way, Rivette has preserved a tradition in French film that commenced with Georges Méliès, achieved maturity in the serials of Louis Feuillade, and reached its apogee in the post-war work of Jean Cocteau. Like these forebears, Rivette avoids neat delineation between fact and fiction, and dream and reality, opting rather for a universe in which all thoughts, actions and events maintain the same degree of verisimilitude. Yet, unlike a figure such as Cocteau whose adoption of this technique can be understood in terms of a Surrealist critique of traditional moral codes and their rational basis, Rivette's assimilation of a similar idiom instead corresponds to a manifest interest in the narrative process. In this way, then, the work of Rivette is hermetic in its neglect of anything that might exist beyond the immediate contours of the film's fictional universe.

In the septuagenarian director and former critic's latest work, Histoire de Marie et Julien (Story of Marie and Julien) (2003), the ubiquitous presence of fiction moves beyond mere formal matrix, however, to become the actual subject of the art. The film surely represents a dissection of the process of fiction which is particular to cinematic art. Indeed, Rivette's narrative is shaped by a consideration of the three discrete stages of filmic creation: the conception of the idea (pre-production), its actualisation (production) and its final molding through the process of editing (post-production). Thus, Histoire de Marie et Julien is a film about filmmaking, which one is tempted to read nevertheless in terms broader than pure didacticism, which is to say a film that teaches its viewer about the nature of the art form. To be sure, Rivette's is a work that cues its audience to consider not only the creative layers of the process of narration, but also the creator's place within this construction, which naturally implies Rivette's function in the creation of this specific film. Hence, it would not be unreasonable to attach the tag of “personal” to Histoire de Marie et Julien given both the narrative's recourse to referencing the creator in the process of creation, and also the director's biography. Following a cineaste's education in Parisian cinemas during the late 1940s and early 1950s, Rivette wrote and later served as editor of Cahiers du cinéma (June 1963 to April 1965) before devoting himself full-time to filmmaking; in other words, he has spent the bulk of his adult life devoted to the medium.

Before commencing an examination of Rivette's rhetoric in Marie et Julien, it does need stating that a traditional analysis which details the plot and characterisations utilised in the narrative is of little use in talking about Rivette's film. Such accountings generally rely on the logic of causality and psychological penetrability which are both utterly inimical to Histoire de Marie et Julien. Ultimately, the film is an exceptionally complex one that offers its viewer a cogent exposition of the nature of filmic narrative that a recapitulation of plot and character would in no way illuminate. Thus, rather than tracing these elements of the film, the subsequent analysis will instead consider the more relevant exigencies of Rivette's thought as explicated by the form of his art. Certainly, Histoire de Marie et Julien is a work of substantial abstraction that demands of its audience both their active participation and also an eye to the manner in which the elaboration of narrative serves the discursive purposes of its author. The following, then, is less a straight recapitulation of plot and character than it is an introduction to the basic discourses at work in one of Rivette's most important (and difficult) films.

To Read the Rest of the Essay

The Marketplace of Ideas: Peter Brunette on Austrian Filmmaker Michael Haneke

Peter Brunette on Austrian Director Michael Haneke
The Marketplace of Ideas (KCSB: Santa Monica)



Colin Marshall talks to Peter Brunette, Reynolds Professor of Film Studies and director of the Film Studies program at Wake Forest University. The author of books on such beloved filmmakers as Michelangelo Antonioni, Wong Kar-Wai and Roberto Rossellini, Brunette has now written a book on Austrian cinematic provocateur Michael Haneke. The latest published entry in the University of Illinois Press’ “Contemporary Film Directors” series, Michael Haneke examines in depth the art of and the ideas behind the auteur’s theatrical releases, from late-1980s and early-1990s works such as The Seventh Continent and Benny’s Video through his newest and best-known pictures Caché and The White Ribbon.

To Listen to the Episode (MP3)

Black Sabbath: War Pigs

Micheal Benton: Mother's Day

I give thanks to my mother for teaching me to ask questions, for challenging me to be a man who is not afraid to be sensitive, to perceive how others feel, to fight against social injustices, and, most importantly... the power of collective action (she was a union activist) and that we can't do it alone.

In that spirit, I also give thanks to all mothers who do the same :)

Bill Moyers Journal: Theodore Olsen and David Boies -- Marriage Equality

Theodore Olsen and David Boies
Bill Moyers Journal (PBS)

The quest for marriage equality has created some unlikely allies in attorneys Theodore Olson, a conservative, and David Boies, a liberal. Long well-known within the field of law, the two became nationally famous as the opposing counsels in Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court case that halted the Florida recount, and resolved the 2000 Presidential election in favor of George W. Bush.

Now the two lawyers, both veterans of multiple Supreme Court cases, have mounted a well-financed legal challenge to Proposition 8, California's 2008 ballot initiative that put an end to same-sex marriage in that state. The case could make it as far as the Supreme Court and define the debate on same-sex marriage for years to come.

... Olson and Boies join Bill Moyers to discuss why the issue of same-sex marriage is so important, why they chose to pursue the matter in the courts, even against the wishes of some in the LGBT community, and why conservatives and liberals must come together to solve the big issues facing the country.

The case they've brought, Perry et al v. Schwarzenegger et al, has created a major stir, with some advocates of same-sex marriage worried that they are bringing the case too soon, that a loss at the Supreme Court could set back the movement for same-sex marriage by years. Olson argues that waiting for civil rights is not an option:

In the first place, someone was going to challenge Proposition 8 in California. Some lawyer, representing two people, was going to bring this challenge. We felt that if a challenge was going to be brought, it should be brought with a well-financed, capable effort, by people who knew what they were doing in the courts. Secondly, when people said, 'Maybe you should be waiting. Maybe you should wait until there's more popular support.' Our answer to that was, 'Well, when is that going to happen? How long do you want people to wait? How long do you want people to be deprived of their Constitutional rights in California?'

And on the other side, conservatives have argued that courts shouldn't be involved in this issue, that it's an improper use of "judicial activism." Boies points out that, to the contrary, protecting fundamental rights is a primary role of the court:

Conservatives, just like liberals, rely on the Supreme Court to protect the rule of law, to protect our liberties, to look at a law and decide whether or not it fits within the Constitution. And I think the point that's really important here, when you're thinking about judicial activism, is that this is not a new right. Nobody is saying, 'Go find in the Constitution the right to get married.' Everybody, unanimous Supreme Court, says there's a right to get married, a fundamental right to get married. The question is whether you can discriminate against certain people based on their sexual orientation. And the issue of prohibiting discrimination has never in my view been looked as a test of judicial activism. That's not liberal, that's not conservative. That's not Republican or Democrat. That's simply an American Constitutional civil right.

David Boies
David Boies is the founder and chairman of Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP and is widely regarded as one of the nation's preeminent trial lawyers. He has been named "Lawyer of the Year," by the NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL, runner-up for "Person of the Year," by TIME magazine, The antitrust Lawyer of the Year by the New York Bar Association, and "Commercial Litigator of the Year" by WHO'S WHO.

Mr. Boies is perhaps best known for serving as lead counsel for former Vice-President Al Gore in connection with the litigation relating to the 2000 Presidential election and for serving as special trial counsel for the United States Department of Justice in its successful antitrust suit against Microsoft. In addition, from 1991 to 1993, Mr. Boies was counsel to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in its litigation to recover losses for failed savings and loan associations. Mr. Boies also served as chief counsel and staff director of the United States Senate Antitrust Subcommittee in 1978 and chief counsel and staff director of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in 1979.

Recent cases include Mr. Boies' successful representation of American Express in its Antitrust case against Visa and MasterCard in which American Express received a record-breaking $4 billion recovery, Mr. Boies' successful defense of Lloyd's of London in the World Trade Center insurance litigation, Mr. Boies's successful defense of NASCAR in Antitrust litigation charging NASCAR with monopolizing the market for championship auto racing, and the representation of Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg and the C.V. Starr Companies in connection with regulatory and civil litigations.

Mr. Boies is the author of numerous publications including COURTING JUSTICE, published by Miramax in 2004, and PUBLIC CONTROL OF BUSINESS, published by Little Brown in 1977. He has taught courses at New York University Law School and Cardozo Law School.

Mr. Boies received honorary LL.D. degrees from the University of Redlands, and from New York Law School, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the LD Access Foundation, the Outstanding Learning Disabled Achievers Award from the Lab School of Washington, D.C., and the William Brennan Award from the University of Virginia. He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and a trustee of St. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital Medical Center and of Continuum Health Partners, Inc.


Theodore Olson
Theodore B. Olson is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Washington, D.C. office; a member of the firm's executive committee, co-chair of the appellate and Constitutional law group and the firm's crisis management team.

Mr. Olson was solicitor general of the United States during the period 2001-2004. From 1981-1984 he was assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. Except for those two intervals, he has been a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. since 1965.

Mr. Olson is one of the nation's premier appellate and United States Supreme Court advocates. He has argued 56 cases in the Supreme Court, including Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board and Bush v. Gore, stemming from the 2000 presidential election; prevailing in over 75% of those arguments. Mr. Olson's practice is concentrated on appellate and Constitutional law, federal legislation, media and commercial disputes, and assisting clients with strategies for the containment, management and resolution of major legal crises occurring at the federal/state, criminal/civil and domestic/international levels. He has handled cases at all levels of state and federal court systems throughout the United States, and in international tribunals. Mr. Olson's Supreme Court arguments have included cases involving separation of powers; federalism; voting rights; the First Amendment; the equal protection and due process clauses; sentencing; jury trial rights; punitive damages; takings of property and just compensation; the commerce clause; taxation; immigration; criminal law; copyright; antitrust; securities; telecommunications; the environment; the internet; and other federal Constitutional and statutory questions.

Mr. Olson has served as private counsel to two Presidents, Ronald W. Reagan and George W. Bush, in addition to serving those two Presidents in high-level positions in the Department of Justice. He has twice received the United States Department of Justice's Edmund J. Randolph Award, named for the first attorney general, its highest award for public service and leadership. He has also been awarded the Department of Defense's highest civilian award for his advocacy in the courts of the United States, including the Supreme Court, on behalf of that department. He was a visiting scholar at the National Constitution Center in 2007.

Mr. Olson served in the President's Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board from 2006 to 2008. He is co-chair of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. He is also a member of the board of trustees on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and a member of The steering committee on The Sandra Day O'Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary.

Mr. Olson is a fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. The NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL has repeatedly listed him as one of America's Most Influential Lawyers. THE AMERICAN LAWYER and LEGAL TIMES have characterized Mr. Olson as one of America's leading advocates. In December of 2007, WASHINGTONIAN magazine listed him as number one on its list of the finest lawyers in the nation's capital. THE NEW YORK TIMES columnist William Safire has described Mr. Olson as this generation's "most persuasive advocate" before the Supreme Court and "the most effective solicitor general" in decades. Mr. Olson received his law degree in 1965 from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) where he was a member of the CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW and Order of the Coif. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of the Pacific, where he was recognized as the outstanding graduating student in both forensics and journalism. Mr. Olson has written and lectured extensively on appellate advocacy, oral communication in the courtroom, civil justice reform, punitive damages, and Constitutional and administrative law.

To Watch the Episode

More Resources:

Bill Moyers Journal: Marriage Equality