Grey Gardens 1975

Grey Gardens is a documentary by the Mayles brothers, who appear occasionally in the mirror.

Robert Greenwald vs. the History Channel

www.stopkennedysmears.com -A petition telling the History Channel that until they stop running politically motivated fiction as historical "fact," you will refuse to watch their programming.

Robert Greenwald: "Joel Surnow, a hard-right activist and former Fox News producer who supported Rick Santorum and is close friends with Rush Limbaugh, is the executive producer of an upcoming mini-series on the Kennedys that is character assassination of the most disgusting kind.

Unfortunately, in its desperate quest for ratings, The History Channel has decided to let fiction pass for historical scholarship. The History Channel has decided to push Surnows sleaze, degrading the accomplishments and trashing the memory of one of our nations most beloved families."

Dos Americas: The Reconstruction of New Orleans

via UC Television.

Friday, 18 December 2009:Taxi to the dark side

2007 Documentary by Alex Gibney. Please disregard the introductory remarks by the uploader, as they are very definitely not part of the program..

My brilliant brain- Brit doc about Susan Polgar

My Brilliant Brain - Make Me A Genius - 46:58

Alternate Focus:The rise and fall of Blackwater in Potrero

from Alternate Focus.(about 27 minutes)

an Iraqdoc 2008 update: Syria

map: US State department

My plans for what I've been calling "Iraqdoc 2008" have been postponed repeatedly, mostly due to personal financial hardship, although I note again the many fine people who've helped me since the Fall of 2005, like Apocalyptic Bill, Rob Payne, Micah Holmquist, Harry McDougal and Bubba. For a while I was unemployed, then precariously employed(well, like millions of us), unemployed again, and just recently, I've attained what appears to be a state of comparatively stable underemployment.

When I hear about a bigshot blogger holding a fundraiser and saying it's because "the bills won't pay themselves" and they're on a free service like Blogger I often feel annoyed*, because I don't think anybody owes a blogger so much as one red cent for holding forth sundry opinions about punditry's topic du jour. It's a little like saying, "hey, pay me to read the New York Times and Washington Post for you, and as a bonus I'll tell you what to think about the topics discussed in the articles." (I note that the people asking for money in such terms often run ads as well.)

Yes, undoubtedly there's an element of jealousy in my response, and if I insist that I'm trying to do something more altruistic or high-minded with the funds I ask for, I recognize I've done nothing to tangibly demonstrate this so far. In November 2007 I last discussed this project, saying that my financial picture wasn't so good, and that I was reluctant to try to raise money just then since I'd probably just spend it on living expenses at that point.

Well, 2007 was pretty rough for me, and I did dip into the funds people donated for non-documentary expenses like food and the light bill, etc. I'm sorry if I let anyone down who's helped me out, but it was a difficult time. Within the next 30-45 days I will replenish the Iraqdoc fund back to where it was before, less the price of a mini-DV camcorder that I got some time back for 115 bucks and a used 3.0 megapixel still camera I got for 22 bucks.

Also: my plans at this point are to go to Syria in May, for 2-3 weeks, to document the Iraqi diaspora in Syria. I've found a contact person who's said she will help me as possible, which is a great blessing.

In the meantime, I will post at least two more films to my Youtube channel within the next 30 days, to give persons thinking of helping me a chance to see something more tangible by way of reasons to invest in me, whether financially, which I still need, or simply advocating on my behalf through your own websites, etc. I will also follow Karena Espuela's sound advice that I seek out a newspaper, preferably an independent one, to help me defray the costs.

If I do go to Iraq eventually, which I still mean to do, it would be only some time after returning from Syria and making the first documentary available. (I also imagine the initial Syrian trip will give me a much better idea of what I need to do to go to Iraq afterwards, as well as give me more of a voice to raise funds for the second project.)

My intention is that the Syrian Iraqdoc and any subsequent Iraqdoc projects be freely available to download, with the stipulations that I'm given attribution and that they not be sliced and diced to make derivative works by others without my consent.


Finally, on a sort of side note, I'm still going to add some links to myblogroll for "B.A.D.", so please don't automatically assume I decided not to add you if you've added me and still don't see your link. If you're not sure if I know that you've added me, assume I don't know and leave me a comment or just email me. This also applies to anyone who may have blogrolled me some time back of whom I'm not aware. So let me know.



*I don't feel that way about Arthur Silber or Gary Farber, both of whom strike me as sincere(and are often better writers than the bigshots).

B.A.D. blogging, etc.

"Maha Barb" O'Brien of the Mahablog informs us that today is "blogroll amnesty day" a day wherein lefty bloggers may pledge to freely blogroll somebody else in exchange for the same favor.Call it quid pro quo blogging, or networking, or what have you.

As a lowly nanoblogger with very little "traction" and a documentary project I've been trying to fund, naturally I owe it to myself to participate, so I am. As an added inducement to persons who might wish to "blogroll" me, I'm offering a free j-peg of virtually-rich, virtually-buttery Lorna Doone cookies.

The cookies are offered on the honor system naturally, and I can't exactly stop you from copying my j-peg without blogrolling me. But somewhere, there's a virtual Irish priest who will scold you for taking my virtual cookies under false pretenses, and he will haunt you in the long virtual night, so just don't do it. (Cheaters never win unless they're the New England Patriots, as fellow documentarian Terrell Owens reminded us last year.)

So, I say: blogroll me, and go Giants. If you want me to blogroll you, please leave a message in the comments below.


See also: Skippy th' Kangaroo: "blogroll amnesty day"
Jon Swift: "blogroll amnesty day,"
HZ(2005),"Lorna Doone blogging,"

Finally, I will have additional comments about "Iraqdoc 2008" later this week, by Wednesday.

from Alive in Baghdad

I'll be gone for a few days, returning next week.
(I meant to post this last week...)

In the meantime, go check out the short documentaries at Journeyman Pictures(most under 1 hr). The following link is to their latest, on far-right groups in Russia(21 min.)

"greetings from Kabul"(and an Iraqdoc update)

photo courtesy irwfp.org

No, I'm not in Kabul, but presumably our friend Mr. Karzai is. I've included the above image because I'm using it in a short film I'm working on, which I mean to post on youtube in a few days, mainly to refresh and maybe improve my fallow and primitive video editing skills.(I removed the caption for a wee bit of suspense.)


I'm not soliciting funds for the Iraqdoc project right now, because if you sent me money presently I'd use it to pay for niceties like food and dsl. Fortunately I've got rent and electricity covered, so I'd say others have it far more dire than I do, and I expect to actually make some money in the 3-dimensional world in December.

Anyway: at present I plan to go to Syria in March 2008, for 6 to 10 days, to cover the Iraqi diaspora. Then if I can raise funds when I come back I would go back in May for 2-3 weeks, going to Jordan and Lebanon, or to Iraq if it appears funds and conditions allow it. Or maybe in the opposite order, as far as the 1st three countries go: to Lebanon and Jordan in March, then to Syria and maybe Iraq in May.

I've come to the conclusion that one of the things I need to do in order to realize these projects is to post some short films on the internet, so that I can demonstrate my editing skills, video and audio mixing, plus my ability to weave together a coherent and compelling narrative.

Sibel Edmonds, the motion picture

"KILL THE MESSENGER - UNE FEMME A ABATTRE"

via Lukery: "The Sibel Edmonds case: the real culprits of 9.11"

Much as I hate to say it, but this promotional trailer seems a bit too slick to me, making Sibel Edmonds come across more like a Hollywood diva playing a real-life whistleblower than a real person.

I hope this just a symptom of some unfortunate editing choices and not a reflection of someone who started out as earnest but who has since acquired an inflated sense of self-importance. Don't get me wrong-- Sibel Edmonds' experiences working for the government, and her subsequent struggles are important-- it's just that she doesn't do her cause any justice if she has since become pompously self-righteous in her presentational style.

Sibel Edmonds' official site, Just a Citizen

Iraqdoc 2008

In the past I've postponed my plans to go to Iraq from the summer of 2007 to the fall(i.e., now) and now I am postponing again, to February of 2008. The main reason is money. I estimate I need another $4500-5000 more than what I presently have. My plans have also changed, insofar as I now mean to go to Jordan and Syria, and I don't think I will make it into Iraq. In the meantime, I've been working on some other posts, which I will put up soon.

therealrudy.org

Robert Greenwald, the documentary filmmaker who made Outfoxed and Iraq For Sale, among other works, has a new documentary out about Rudy Giuliani. Some snippets are available on Youtube, like the one above. (Via Mark Kleiman, who notes that Giuliani has a nervous laugh that seems to correspond with his getting ready to lie about something. )

also, this youtube-like site has Osama Bin Laden's recent video, in its entirety(well, as far as I know!), here. He praises Noam Chomsky(!?), which to me only reinforces the sense so many people have that the neocons and the extremist fundamentalist terrorists are perversely dependent on one another.