Amy Goodman: Sundance and the Art of Democracy

[marmar]

from truthdig:




Sundance and the Art of Democracy
Posted on Jan 25, 2011

By Amy Goodman


PARK CITY, Utah—This small, alpine mountain town is transformed every winter during the Sundance Film Festival into a buzzing hive of the movie industry. While much of the attention is focused on the celebrities, Sundance has actually become a key intersection of art, film, politics and dissent. It is where many of the most powerful documentaries premiere, films about genuine grass-roots struggles, covering the sweep of social justice history and the burning issues of today. They educate and inspire a growing audience about the true nature, and cost, of direct democracy.

“The Last Mountain” is a documentary about the threat to Coal River Mountain in West Virginia, which is slated for destruction by mountaintop-removal coal mining, one of the most environmentally devastating forms of mining being practiced today. The worst offender is the coal giant Massey Energy and its former CEO, Don Blankenship. A broad coalition of activists from around the world has been active in trying to stop Massey, led by regular, working-class people from the surrounding towns and hamlets of Appalachia. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime environmentalist and lawyer, joined them in the fight and is featured in the film. I asked him about the struggle:

“This film is about the subversion of American democracy. Last year, the Supreme Court overruled a hundred years of ironclad American precedent with the Citizens United case, and got rid of a law that was passed by Teddy Roosevelt in 1907 that saved democracy from the huge concentrations of wealth that had created essentially a corporate kleptocracy during the Gilded Age, and Americans had forfeited their democracy during that time…. For the first time since the Gilded Age, we’re seeing those kinds of economic concentrations return to our country.”

Kennedy describes the subversion by corporate power of the press, the courts, and Congress and state legislatures: “The erosion of all these institutions, I think, of American democracy have forced people who care about our country, and who care about civic health, into this box of civil disobedience and local action.” ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/sundance_and_the_art_of_democracy_20110125/

[Bluenorthwest]

1. Don't take this wrong, I like Amy, RFK Jr mostly and Sundance

I love. But our dear Ms Goodman takes a dig at Sundance coverage focusing on celebrities, then she turns around and speaks with a Kennedy who appears in a doc rather than the creator of the film, at a film festival. She is doing just what she snarks at a few lines above. She goes on to speak of Sargent Shriver, and of Harry Belefonte, famous names, celebrities.
In the entire article, Amy fails to mention the name of the filmmaker, the director of The Last Mountain, allegedly the focal point of her review and her reason for being at Sundance.
The Last Mountain was directed by Bill Haney, who has made other good films in the past, including 'The Price of Sugar'. It was written by Haney and Peter Rhodes, who did great work on Frontline and elsewhere.
I hate to make the point so strongly, but to call out others for a celebrity focus and then focus on famous names while actually excluding the names of the artists who made the piece in question is past ironic and solidly into self parody territory.
This is a pet peeve of mine. It seems that the liberal political pundit class is devoid of understanding about who makes movies, and of understanding that credit should go where it belongs, or short of that, understanding that if you are going to fawn over the famous, you should not mock others for doing so.
Thom Hartmann also does this with films. He always refers to 'The Eleventh Hour' as being Leonardo DiCaprio's film, although he did not direct the film, nor pay for the film, he served as narrator and in this case he is one of the producers of the film. That film was directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners. It is their film, not Leo's. Hartmann never mentions their names. In fact, he hands their credit to Leonardo, fully. This is really, really not cool.
I do not mind when Goodmans and Hartmanns lay on the celebrity names to help promote a product, but to at the same time fail to mention the names of the makers of the movie at all is lousy film writing as well as being rude and name droppy.
Even Bobby did not mention the filmmakers, but that is of course the job of the person writing about their film.
So yes, people come to Sundance, and they focus on the famous names, to the point of forgetting the names that brought them there in the first place.
Amy, very lazy, and if you read this, please learn about film or stop writing about it, and share that slice of empire with a qualified writer.

[costahawk1987]

2. Harsh

I adore Amy but can't argue with your post.

[MasonJar]

3. I am glad that Amy is highlighting the good work that

is promoted via Sundance. Robert Redford is often on my e-mail list doing an environmental plea, as are other celebrities like Al Gore and Ashley Judd and Jimmy Carter. Sometimes just hearing from a truly committed environmentalist or humanitarian like Robert Kennedy, Jr. can increase the interest of the public and thereby the impact.