People Before Profit blog

Thaïs: Religion versus sexuality on an epic scale

Fri, 30 May 2014 12:45:00 +0000

Jules Massenet's Thaïs is a tale of religion and sexual repression, with baritone Plácido Domingo as Athanaël, a meddler of epic proportions, masquerading as a monk in order to hide his inner psychological conflicts.

Finding the fourth-century-CE Egyptian city of Alexandria to be swept by sin (translation: people are enjoying life), the desert hermit makes it his unsolicited mission to convert the heathen in the form of Thaïs (Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze), although, like other lunatics pretending to have a higher calling, Athanaël would probably claim, "God told me to do it."

The enticing Thaïs is not only a priestess of Venus, the Roman goddess of love, but also a courtesan, renowned beauty, and what may be most offensive of all, the girl's in show biz, too! Athanaël confesses to a conclave of his co-religionists that in his youth he had lusted after Thaïs-but, beneath his blather about blasphemy, does he still?

Louis Gallet's libretto, based on Anatole France's novel, reminded me of Somerset Maugham's classic saga Rain, about a demented missionary proselytizing prostitute Sadie Thompson at Pago Pago, as well as the relationship between Marlene Dietrich's cabaret singer and Emil Janning's professor in Josef von Sternberg's 1930 film The Blue Angel.

The stunning Machaidze excels in the title role, which she has the stage presence to pull off. But beneath Thaïs' persona of beauty and bluster, she is world weary, as she reveals in Act II in her opulent dressing room in an aria about her inner doubts. Anxious that her beauty will eventually fade, she exquisitely asks her mirror, "Tell me that I am beautiful."

Enter Athanaël, who-like any number of men of the cloth (or hair shirt, as the case may be) -- exploits her uncertainties and fears, promising Thaïs that an eternal love awaits her. All she has to do is give up her fame, fortune, and libido. As both lead characters have divided selves and are full of conflicting needs, the opera is full of dramatic tension: Who will succumb to whom? Like Claggert in Herman Melville's novella and Benjamin Britten's operatic version of Billy Budd presented earlier this season by LA Opera, Athanaël seeks to destroy the object of his desire in order to deny his own attraction and lust. The story perfectly illustrates the struggle between Eros and Thanatos-the life and death forces-that Sigmund Freud identified in Civilization and Its Discontents.

Massenet's music, conducted by Patrick Fournillier, is often somber, although a lovely use of haunting harps suggests the saga's heavenly themes. In addition to the subject matter of sinister religious fanaticism, this production has some of the best sets this opera aficionado has ever seen onstage. Indeed, working with scenery and costume designer Johan Engels, in her LA Opera debut director Nicola Raab has conjured a highly cinematic sensibility. Along with lighting designer Linus Fellbom, Engels and Raab use filmic devices such as split screen, scenic transitions, chiaroscuro, and more. Thaïs offers an eye-popping optical opulence.

Kudos to this creative team, led by that ever-present operatic virtuoso Plácido Domingo, now 73 and starring in baritone roles. The overzealous penitent he portrays doesn't recognize that even the sensuous and worldly too have their story. This version of Thaïs is opera par exemplar, and the very epitome of psychosis parading around as piety by those who stick their noses into others' business, ever terrified that someone somewhere is having fun. LA Opera's season goes out with a bang with this breathtaking Thaïs.

Thaïs is performed May 29, June 4 and 7 at 7:30 pm, and June 1 at 2:00 pm at LA Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave. For more info: (213) 972-8001; www.laopera.com.

Photo: Nino Machaidze as Thaïs.

Magnus Hirschfeld: Germany’s pioneer fighter for LGBTQ equality

Wed, 28 May 2014 11:00:00 +0000

Many unsung heroes exist in the gay liberation movement across the globe. One of them, Magnus Hirschfeld, who helped found the first successful gay rights movement in the world, is the central figure in Ralf Dose's absorbing new short new biography.

Working in Magdeburg, Germany as a medical doctor, Hirschfeld (1868-1935) recounted that the suicide of a young army officer who shot himself - because he could not be openly gay - one day before his marriage, had a profound impact on him. The young man left a letter to Hirschfeld explaining the reasons for his suicide and asked that something be done to deal with the hostile environment against gays. At the time, Paragraph 175 in the criminal code specified that male (but not female) homosexuality was a criminal offense in Germany. Hirschfeld, then only 29 years of age, along with others formed the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in 1897, the first successful movement to work for the liberation of gays in the world.

From 1897 until 1920, the Committee - which he chaired until 1929 - sent numerous petitions to Parliament, asking for Paragraph 175 to be struck down. None were successful but the petitions kept on growing in size as each time more people agreed to add their signatures. The Committee published articles in medical journals, magazines and newspapers, distributed brochures and held public meetings to make their case. Hirschfeld argued from a scientific point of view that male homosexuality was as normal as hetereosexuality and should not be criminalized and repressed. The Committee's membership and support grew, notwithstanding divisions and mistakes that cost ii support.

After the World War 1, other gay rights groups, such as the Friendship Leagues and Community of Self-Owners, emerged across the country with thousands of members. The movement nearly achieved its goal of eliminating Paragraph 175 in 1929 when the Parliamentary Committee for Penal law recommended the law be struck down. However, political strife and division that characterized the Weimar Republic during the 1920s led to Parliament being dissolved before its recommendation could be implemented.

Hirschfeld and other leaders of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee later pushed for broader changes that not only included gay rights but reform of marriage and divorce laws and the widespread availability of birth control and abortion. Herschfeld's mission was a complete overhaul of Victorian era sexual and gender mores in Germany.

Hirschfeld was politically on the left and supported the Social Democrats.

In 1919, Hirschfeld founded the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin. Apart from being a teaching and research institute, it provided, among other things, medical treatments, counseling services and birth control information. In the evenings popular sex education classes were offered to the public and the Institute's library was open to the public. The Institute even offered sex change operations to men and women who wanted to change their gender.

The Institute's fame grew to the point that it became a popular destination for tourists during the 1920s.

According to Dose, Hirschfeld's other contribution was as a co-founder of the growing field of Sexology. He advanced the theory of sexual intermediacy where all men and women consist of masculine and feminine characteristics in an unending variety of mixtures and ratios, to find a place for gays and lesbians in nature. He also developed a therapeutic protocol for doctors to help gay patients accept their sexuality instead of reject it. The Institute for Sexual Science provided counseling along these lines and established support groups for gays, transvestites and transexuals.

While Hirschfeld never outed himself, part of what motivated his activism was his own homosexuality. For the most part, he lived his life as an openly gay man, according to Dose. In 1919, at the age of 52, he start living with 19 year old Karl Geise and later added a second boyfriend, 24 year old Li Shiu Tong, whom he met while touring China in 1930. Both men, who jealously competed for Hirschfeld's attention, stayed loyal to him until his death in 1935.

On November 15, 1930, Hirschfeld departed Germany on a world tour that took him to the U.S., Mexico, Japan, China, Egypt and India where he gave lectures, newspaper interviews and conducted research. Hirschfeld, who met many gay and lesbian activists during the U.S. leg of his tour, found the country's climate of sexual puritanism stifling. By the time he returned to Europe from his long tour in 1932, Hirschfeld, was being warned by his colleagues not to return to Germany. The dark shadow of Nazism was descending over Germany and articles appeared in German newspapers slandering and threatening Hirschfeld.

Nazi physical education students ransacked and plundered the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin on May 6, 1933. A Nazi lawyer took over the Institute as Director and he auctioned off or sold back to Hirschfeld the Institute's vast collection of books, documents, and sexual artifacts.

The German sexual reformer fled to Paris and then Nice where he died in 1935. He was never able to realize his plans to establish another Institute for Sexual Science in France. When Hirschfeld died, the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee and the Institute for Sexual Science also died. The World League for Sexual Reform also ceased to exist because of political differences. "There no longer existed any institution that might have been able to pass on either Hirschfeld's scientific legacy or advocacy of social reforms. Conditions in exile and during the war were not conducive to individuals trying to continue Hirschfeld's work", writes Dose. The Nazi's murdered many of the German sexual reformer's medical colleagues living in exile in France and elsewhere in Europe.

Interestingly, Hirschfeld's Chinese boyfriend Li Shiu Tong lived and studied in Europe, the U.S. and then finally immigrated to Vancouver, Canada in 1960, where he lived out the rest of his life until he died in 1993.

Hirschfeld's contribution to gay liberation was largely forgotten until the late 1960s when a third gay rights movement emerged in Germany that revived his legacy. In 1982, the Magnus Hirschfeld Society and Magnus Hirschfeld Federal Foundations were established in Berlin to honor and continue the German sexual reformer's work.

While Dose does justice to Hirschfeld in his short readable biography, as he admits, there are still things we do not know about this remarkable man, such as his early life as a gay man, because Hirschfeld never spoke about his private life and personal diaries, if they ever existed, have vanished into the mists of time. Tong, who lived another 58 years after his lover's death, never spoke or gave interviews about Hirschfeld. Perhaps new material will surface in the future that will allow other scholars to build on Dose's illuminating work.

"Magnus Hirschfeld: The origins of the gay liberation movement"

By Ralf Dose

Monthly Review Press, 2014, 128 pages

Groundbreaking new documentary about the 1984-85 Miners' Strike

Tue, 27 May 2014 12:28:00 +0000

Thirty years after Britain's mining communities were convulsed by the Great Miners' Strike, a new documentary about the year-long dispute will be premiered at the Sheffield Documentary Festival on June 7.

In 1984, a conservative government under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared war on the unions, taking on the strongest in the country, the National Union of Mineworkers. Following a secret plan, the government began announcing the closure of coal mines, threatening not just an industry but whole communities and a way of life.

Against all the forces the government could throw at them, 160 000 coal miners took up the fight and became part of a battle that would change the course of history. Still the Enemy Within tells the story of a group of miners and supporters who were on the frontline of the strike for an entire year. These are the people that the media dubbed 'Arthur's Army' and who Margaret Thatcher called 'the Enemy Within'. Many of them have never spoken on camera before.

Still The Enemy Within is a true labour of love for producers Sinead Kirwan and Mark Lacey and director Owen Gower. Kirwan and Gower have a background in television production for major broadcasters, while Lacey has worked on a number of Oscar-nominated shorts and feature films..

"The real thing was finding a story that we were passionate about, something we would give up a year of our lives to make. In the end it was the strike."

None of the filmmakers are old enough to remember the strike, although all were aware of the significance of the dispute. "I grew up hearing stories from miners that clashed with the mainstream story that we are told about the strike. We wanted to tell their story," says Kirwan

Mike Simons, who is executive producer on the project, was a journalist during the strike and wrote two acclaimed books about it, "Striking Back" and "Blood, Sweat and Tears: Photographs from the Great Miners' Strike."

Three of the photographers who covered the strike, John Sturrock, John Harris and Martin Shakeshaft, have contributed many powerful images to the film, including some photos that were never developed at the time and will be seen for the first time.

"Our film has a huge amount of unseen archive, or archive that has not been seen in 30 years. There were some amazing films made in 1984-85 that we were the first to request from the archive houses in 30 years. We've developed boxes and boxes of negatives from events at the time that have never been developed."

The central narrators who tell the story of the strike in the film - ordinary miners and the women who organised so much of the support in the community - were in some cases chosen from the photographs, explained Kirwan. These confrontations are described by the participants as they remember them.

"We've been making this film for about a year from the point of view of the people who took part in the strike on the frontline.

"The most important thing for us is not about us as filmmakers but the people involved. We try to look at the strike from the position that they could have won. The film doesn't look back in hindsight but takes us through the strike from the beginning as it actually happened. There is a huge amount of humour and fun in the interviews.

"Although we did talk to experts, we decided not to use them in the end - that kind of approach has been done before. The miners are able to speak eloquently about economics and about how big the stakes were. We wanted people to know what it was like to live through it."

Miners and miners' wives and families from Wales, Scotland and Yorkshire feature in the film. "We travelled to a lot of different areas. All of the miners who we hear in some way played quite a significant role, but very much on the ground. So our miner from Scotland was never a union official but he organised pickets right across the Scottish coalfields."

Getting the film made has been a major challenge, says Kirwan.

Without mainstream funding, they turned to the trade unions and crowd funding and discovered a huge groundswell of interest. "It's been entirely created by going out to organisations and asking for their support. It's been a challenging experience but also an amazing one, just to see how important this story is to people.

"The film is totally different from everything else that's been made about the strike. Every time you show a little bit of the film we get some feedback and that's been fantastic for us.

"We've been overwhelmed by how much support and interest we've had from union members and ex-miners, musicians and photographers."

Ken Loach has supported the project with a donation from his film company, but more importantly, allowing use of archive footage from his films Which Side Are You On? and The Price of Coal.

Kirwan says they are hoping to get mainstream support for the distribution of the film later in the year. "It's done in the style of a mainstream documentary - we've made it visually very beautiful, but it's all from the point of view of miners. It was an epic confrontation and deserves an epic treatment."

When the Star met Kirwan at the London Labour Film Festival, she said the production was "picture locked" - that is, the film was finished and in post-production. However she explained that the project still needs significant funding, especially to pay for use of archive from the news houses to clear it for commercial distribution, which is "unbelievably expensive."

"We've had nearly 1,000 people donate to the project, and eight national trade unions. We spent a lot of time going to visit union branches around the country. The response to the film has been incredible."

After the Sheffield premiere, the filmmakers are planning to have event-led screenings around the country. "Most of the mining areas don't have independent cinemas so there will be local screenings organised by union branches - 120 branches have said they want to show the film.

"Trade union and individual donations are what have allowed us to get this far, however in order to release the film commercially, put on screenings and release a DVD we need continued support.

"The film will be an essential tool for anyone who wants to stand up to austerity and the current government or simply learn about one of the most dynamic periods in British history."

To find out more about the film or to make a donation go to: www.the-enemy-within.org.uk/the-film/

The world premiere of Still the Enemy Within is at 1.45pm on June 7 at Sheffield Documentary Festival Showroom 4, then 8.30pm on June 11 at Showroom 4. Also screening on July 13 for the Durham Miners' Gala at the Durham Miners Hall in Redhill.

Interview reposted from Morning Star.

Farley Mowat: Writer, socialist and environmentalist

Fri, 23 May 2014 12:54:00 +0000

(MorningStar) -- The Canadian author Farley Mowat, who died on May 12, wrote with humour, keen perception and passionate social commitment, completing over 40 books and numerous articles. He died at his home in Port Hope, Ontario.

His works were translated into 52 languages and his books sold more than 17 million copies. He achieved fame with his works on the Canadian North such as "People Of The Deer" (1952) and "Never Cry Wolf" (1963).

Mowat's advocacy for environmental causes and his own claim to never let the facts get in the way of the truth earned him both praise and criticism, yet his influence is undeniable. Noted Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki called him "an inspiration."

"Never Cry Wolf," a fictional narrative of a man living among wolves in the sub-Arctic was made into a successful film [in 1983 directed by Carroll Ballard]. It is credited with shifting the mythology and fear of wolves. After the Russian version was published, the government even banned the killing of the animal.

His stories are fast-paced, gripping, personal and conversational and descriptions of Mowat refer to his commitment to ideals, poetic descriptions and vivid images.

His first non-fiction work "People Of The Deer" became a classic. In it he documented the disappearing communist way of life of Canada's native Inuit people, among whom he lived while writing the book. He showed how a colonial arrogance and an exploitative system had driven the Inuit and their culture to the edge.

"The Siberians," written almost two decades later in 1970, showed how the Soviet Union, in contrast, was attempting to help the Inuit maintain their way of life but at the same time inter-relate with an industrialised society.

Mowat became a lifelong advocate of indigenous people's rights, labeling Canada's treatment of them abominable. Never one to shy away from controversy, Mowat was outspoken about many environmental and social issues.

During the WW II, Mowat was commissioned as a second lieutenant, rising to the rank of captain. After the war he returned to Canada, desperate to escape from what had been and seemed likely to remain a world run by maniacs. He fled north to live among the Inuit people. Many of his works such as "Owls In The Family" about childhood and "And No Birds Sang" about his experience fighting in the Second World War are autobiographical,

Mowat published a denunciation of the destruction of animal life in the north Atlantic entitled "Sea of Slaughter" in 1984. In 1985, as a part of the promotional tour for the book, Mowat was invited to speak at the university in Chico, California, but U.S. officials denied him entry: His security file indicated he should be denied entry for violating any one of 33 statutes. Reportedly, these statutes included being a member of a group considered radical by the U.S. government.

Ian Austen wrote in The New York Times that Mowat said he had been blacklisted for once telling a newspaper that he had fired his rifle at American bombers carrying nuclear weapons as they flew thousands of feet above Canada.

The result was a media circus, which brought worldwide attention to Mowat. The negative publicity eventually forced the Reagan administration to allow Mowat to enter the US but he declined because to accept would be undignified as the permission was valid for only one visit, his book tour. He documented the reasons why he was refused entry to the United States in his 1985 book, "My Discovery of America."

Mowat won a number of prestigious awards for his books and environmental work and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship RV Farley Mowat was named in honour of him.

Mowat, a strong supporter of the Green Party of Canada, died less than a week before his 93rd birthday.

Reposted from MorningStar.

Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada and Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands, said of Mowat:

Farley Mowat was a champion for the wild things. He spoke with unflinching courage against humanity's destruction of each other and of the other species with whom we share this planet.

He raised public consciousness of the famine that laid siege to the Inuit. Farley spoke for whales and seabirds, for tadpoles and mosses. He was possessed of a ferocious talent, able to write stories that provoked laughter, tears and action.

We owe him more than I can say."

Mowat's papers are held at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

"Now they tell me that I have my own website - my faithful typewriter is apoplectic about the indignity."

"Donations in Farley's memory may be made to any charity dedicated to helping animals or saving our environment."

U.K.: Performers condemn woes facing the entertainment arts

Wed, 21 May 2014 11:04:00 +0000

U.K.-- Performers united May 19 to condemn a catalogue of woes facing the stage and screen - including funding cuts to the arts, chronic low pay and the dearth of black and ethnic minority representation.

Theatres, broadcasters and other arts centres are not just hurt by national and local funding cuts but from sponsorship as patrons are forced to balance the books, delegates attending actors' union Equity heard [Equity: UK Trade Union representing artists from across the entire spectrum of arts and entertainment].

In a bleak outline of the challenges facing the industry by the all-party parliamentary group for performers, its chairwoman Kerry McCarthy said total government spending on arts is a miniscule 0.05 per cent but brings in far more.

The Labour MP said the future of many theatres were at risk because of the ongoing cuts to the arts, as highlighted in Equity's My Theatre Matters campaign.

But when quizzed by a delegate she could not promise that a future Labour government would protect arts funding.

Ms McCarthy praised Equity's campaign against "low pay and no pay" and criticised a culture that expects actors to work for free.

She said it was vital to get a grip on low pay so acting did not become the preserve of amateurs or the privileged.

Equity young members' committee vice-chairwoman Nicola Hawkins said: "I have been paid with cake for my skills."

The lack of black and ethnic minority representation across the industry was also highlighted, with unnerving figures from Creative Skillset network showing that the number working in broadcasting has declined by a third between 2006 and 2012 to account for just 5.4 per cent of the workforce.

Both the British Film Institute (BFI) and the Arts Council were criticised for not keeping figures on the number of BAME workers [black and minority ethnic employees] or even carrying out any equality monitoring.

Equity assistant general secretary Martin Brown told the Star: "They must start monitoring talent.

"Until they have proper figures we can never know how bad black and ethnic minority representation has become.

"But it's a generally held belief that it's heavily weighted towards men and caucasians."

Stressing the importance of pay he added: "All of our members aspire to make acting their principle income.

"We are not trying to put fringe productions out of business but we are strongly against the exploitation of hard-working actors by larger companies that could afford to pay more but choose not to."

Reposted from Morning Star

Photo: Equity Facebook page.

Letters from Zora: In her own words

Fri, 16 May 2014 16:39:00 +0000

"I was able to conjure my own self," says Black American writer Zora Neale Hurston through a gauzy mist of mysticism and time, in the characterization currently on view (but hurry!) at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Hurston (1891-1960), folklorist and author of several volumes of fiction and anthropological works, as well as an autobiography, was a celebrated, if controversial figure in the Harlem Renaissance world of the 1920s and '30s, who, like many others from that era, "went missing" in subsequent decades. Her rediscovery can be attributed to novelist Alice Walker, whose Ms. Magazine March 1975 article "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" re-established her as a feminist lioness.

Now her books, such as the novels Their Eyes Were Watching God and Moses, Man of the Mountain, the studies Mules and Men and Tell My Horse, and the autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road are assigned reading at many universities. Zora cherished friendships with Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, two great Harlem writers, but suffered what can only be described as a literary lynching from white critics who didn't understand her, as well as from Richard Wright and other Black writers of the time, who judged her work as condescending, oversimplified, and caricatured. They failed to appreciate that with her anthropologist's eye, and with her finely tuned esthetic sensibility, she explored the interstices, as she put it, "between, below, and above the stereotypes."

And there's another thing her male critics didn't like: Zora's irrepressible expansiveness when it came to defining her own Black woman's sexuality. Resilient, curious, intelligent, and audacious, she created a world to fit her own life's needs, drawing from all she saw and learned in her extensive travels to sites of the African diaspora in the rural South, Honduras, Haiti, Jamaica, and other countries. She became a "voodoo queen," and later, in her father's footsteps, an ecstatically mesmerizing Christian preacher, at least for a time.

Hurston was criticized for, and misunderstood as saying that "Jim Crow worked in the South." Zora grew up in the independent Black township of Eatonville, Florida, a place she returned to again and again. Her father had served as mayor off and on. Her interest bent toward celebrating the sources of Black agency, the self-advocacy of a capable people defined not merely by their oppression, but also, and mainly, by their self-sustaining culture, music, creativity, religion, institutions, industry, and a great deal of unknown and unrecognized autonomy. Only in her second decade of life did she even learn what the word "colored" meant.

She was suspicious of white patronage, and for good reason. Her "godmother," Charlotte Osgood Mason, supported her research and writing, but that support included ownership. Zora basically wrote for hire. Her resentment extended to politics. She criticized FDR's Four Freedoms as something he "can call names across an ocean," but lacked "the courage to speak even softly at home." Zora did not fall in line for anyone.

Forget Disneyland. Letters from Zora is the best ride in town. Fasten your seat belt. The prominence on stage of a spanking red dress, seen but never worn, signals that we are dealing with one loud, lusty lady. The play delivers a Victoria Falls verbal cascade overflowing with torrents of wild, quick-witted, unmodulated observations-laughter, curses, excitement, memory, umbrage, and despair-a jumble of books, friends, marriages, trials and travels, re- and dislocations, spiritual expressions, and possessed dances.

The non-stop phenomenon that is Letters from Zora is the masterwork of four powerful Black women: Zora herself; the playwright, Gabriella Denise Pina (also an accomplished novelist and a faculty member in the USC professional writing program); director Anita Dashiell-Sparks, herself a Broadway actor; and of course the amazingly gifted, versatile, mercurial, hilarious Vanessa Bell Calloway, whose many credits on screen and stage include the original production of Dreamgirls on Broadway. Dr. Ron McCurdy, professor of music at the USC Thornton School of Music, provides a constantly shifting, original jazz-infused score that sets moods, underlines emotions, and tells its own story of Black America in the 20^th century.

Remaining performances for this short run are Friday, May 16 at 8 pm, Saturday, May 17 at 4 and 8 pm, and Sunday, May 18 at 2 pm. The theater is located at 39 S. El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA. Tickets available at www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org or call 626.356.7529.

Entrapment, food wars, and capitalism in three films

Thu, 15 May 2014 11:12:00 +0000

In the aftermath of 9/11, our government acquired unbridled power to surveil, intimidate, arrest, and imprison many innocent people. Millions have died in Iraq, Afghanistan, and anywhere our country has gone to protect its "interests." Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo prison, assassination drones have come to symbolize our forlorn foreign policy. And now it's turning on our own citizens as surveillance is being ramped up. Arab Americans have been increasingly profiled, Muslims are considered suspect, and several have even been targeted for drone attacks.

A film that debuted at the recent Tribeca Film Festival offers compelling evidence that our government has gone too far in "protecting" its citizens. The Newburgh Sting, directed by David Heilbroner and Kate Davis, utilizes an amazing collection of footage gathered from hidden cameras to tell the shocking story of four men enticed (or entrapped) into participating in a bomb plot.

Newburgh is a poverty-stricken town 60 miles north of New York City, with high unemployment and homelessness. In 2009 a mysterious Pakistani-American government informant went to great lengths to enlist "Muslims" in a plot to bomb two Jewish centers in the Bronx. The only "Muslims" he could attract were low-income African Americans enticed by the $250,000 offered by the eager informant, who seemed driven to prove he could supply the "goods" to the FBI.

One of the "terrorists" had recently been informed his brother needed expensive surgery to save his life, another was a loner with mental illness, and the other two were also in it for the money only. Only one had actually attended the local mosque that was depicted as the center of terrorism by the media, and all were far from serious practicing Muslims. From the hidden cameras, we learn that none had any intention of harming any human being. After much pressure to go through with the plan, they were assured that no one would be hurt, and only buildings would be damaged. They all desperately needed the money and the movie supports the claims that they were entrapped.

The film is deftly structured, powerful with its revealing hidden camera images, driven by family members whose passions tear at your heartstrings, as sadness rather than fear develops for these so-called "homegrown Muslim terrorists."

The only Italian film at the Tribeca Festival, Human Capital (Il capitale umano), dissects the capitalist system and reveals excessive greed and dehumanization. Cleverly structured and filmed, the story starts at the end and works backward, with stories of three individuals affected by the supposed death of a bicyclist in a wealthy Italian countryside.

Director Paolo Virzì's assured hand is supported by a stellar cast. Famed Italian actress Valeria Bruni Tedeschi won the Best Actress Award at Tribeca for her fine performance as a compromised housewife desiring to be a good wife and mother while balancing her husband's drive for money and profits against her own humanism. The award citation says, "Human Capital twists love, class, and ambition into a singular, true-life story that exposes the consequences of valuing certain human lives over others. A nuanced account of desire, greed and the value of human life in an age of rampant capitalism and financial manipulation."

Food Chains is a film that exposes the often hidden stages of how food gets to our table. The screening at Tribeca was accompanied by a panel discussion that further raised awareness of the plight of migrant workers and the attempt to raise their standard of living. The film focuses on the campaign started by Florida tomato pickers, members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), to force supermarkets to pay just one cent more per pound. This would double their poverty wages. Publix, the largest supermarket chain in Florida, and one of the largest in the world, as usual, refuses to negotiate with the workers. They say it is just a labor issue between the workers and the farmers, and have ignored the protests and hunger strikes going on outside their main headquarters for months. Ethel Kennedy and members of the famous political family attend a rally and speak on behalf of the hunger strikers, along with many supporters.

The struggle for years has been with the growers, but it was realized that the big supermarket chains actually control the food industry, earning more than $4 trillion globally. By going to the top of the food chain, new alliances have been formed between farmers and farmworkers, with several farmer allies interviewed in the film.

For a different take that challenges the status quo and searches for solutions outside the "capitalist greed" model, I highly recommend a brilliant series available free on YouTube, produced by the mastermind behind the Zeitgeist Trilogy that revolutionized social media. Hundreds of millions worldwide have watched the Trilogy, noted as the most downloaded video in Internet history. Now Peter Joseph has moved on to create an entertaining and educational series entitled Culture in Decline, an extension of his insightful analysis of the decaying American empire and the failed economic system. His support and development of Jacque Fresco's lifelong work, the Venus Project, putting forth an alternative "resource based economy," is an eye opener and something to actually consider. These brilliant thinkers and artists deserve our attention, they offer hope and ideas that can help move the struggle forward. You can buy the Culture in Decline DVD and help fund future episodes, or you can watch them free on YouTube.

Photo: Scene from "The Newburgh Sting." TribecaFilm.com

"Belle": young love in shadow of the slave trade

Wed, 14 May 2014 14:27:00 +0000

"The trade," referred to in the new English film Belle, set in the latter 1700s, was the slave trade. A historical character at that time, Dido Elizabeth Belle, was the progeny of an African and a British sea captain. The sea captain drops daughter Belle off at his rich uncle's, then disappears from the movie. The uncle is William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, then Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. He raises her alongside a white niece. Both were amazing beauties, as proven by their portrait and a very thin historical record, which still exist.

This historical drama takes up Belle's first encounters with young love, the stratified class system of the times, and two totally disgusting forms of chauvinism. While she and her cousin begin to negotiate the aristocratic process of mate selection, Lord Mansfield is taking up the case of the Zong massacre, in which a shipload of African slaves, chained together, were cast into the sea to drown. Belle, in her subtle aristocratic way, peeps into both processes and takes a stand.

As costume dramas go, this one is better than most. The costumes and settings are exquisite. The fanciful language among aristocrats of the time, while clear enough to modern audiences, carries shades of passion that might have been less effective if spoken outright. The acting is wonderful. We would expect no less, of course, of Tom Wilkinson as the earl, Emily Watson as his spouse, and Miranda Richardson as a scheming mother/matchmaker. But Matthew Goode, as Belle's lower-class suitor, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the title role exceed all expectations.

The tension in the movie comes from the developing love story with all its obstacles, and from the impending legal decision affecting the slave trade. It's a talky movie with little action, but splendid scenes and a story well worth attending.

Movie information:
"Belle"
Directed by Amma Asante

Starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Matthew Goode, Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson, Miranda Richardson
2013, UK, 104 minutes, PG

Photo: Wikipedia (CC)

Review: "Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself "

Wed, 14 May 2014 12:31:00 +0000

The PBS American Masters series is airing a biopic about the writer who made a career out of being a "professional amateur."

As Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself shows, the so-called "participatory journalist" would step into the ring with champ Archie Moore in order to write about boxing or fly through the air with the greatest unease at a circus to get the insider take on being a trapeze artist or, with triangle in hand, perform with an orchestra under Leonard Bernstein's baton. In a sense, Plimpton's inside-looking-out technique was to New Journalism what "method acting" is to the stage and screen.

The writer's most famous stint - or "stunt," perhaps-was suiting up to toss the old pigskin as a quarterback for the NFL's Detroit Lions. Paper Lion, Plimpton's book about this raucous rookie undertaking, became his biggest bestseller, and was adapted into the 1968 football film of the same name, with Alan Alda amiably portraying Plimpton. (As I recall, there are no clips from the feature in the PBS documentary.)

Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself is similar to that movie, and perhaps like the author himself-entertaining, but not very deep. Plimpton (1927 - 2003) was the son of a WASPy, patrician family raised in Manhattan's exclusive Silk Stocking district. He spoke, like his contemporary, William F. Buckley, with an élite accent and attended upper-class private schools (but was expelled from Phillips Exeter Academy!) and Harvard University, where he wrote for the famed Harvard Lampoon and belonged to the Hasty Pudding Club. All this made his slumming as a do-it-yourself athlete all the more compelling.

Some considered Plimpton to be a "dilettante" because of his forays into foreign lines of work. Although he made a name for himself writing these insider accounts about his outsider excursions into rarified realms for various books and magazines such as Sports Illustrated, they're not what he's most proud of. Unlike his literary contemporaries, Plimpton may never have written a great American novel, but his greatest accomplishment was as the longtime editor of The Paris Review, wherein he published his counterparts who did (or at least tried to).

When it began in the early 1950s Plimpton actually relocated to the City of Lights in order to edit this literary magazine. But for most of his tenure as editor, the journal was not located in Paris (nor, did it actually run reviews as such), but was situated in Plimpton's apartment in his beloved Manhattan's Upper East Side. In between frequent swanky parties he'd edit fiction by William Styron or Norman Mailer or interviews with Ernest Hemingway and other literary lions in his posh perch.

The Paris Review may have had great writing but ran at a loss for much of its run during Plimpton's reign. I remember seeing the tall, white haired writer/editor at what I believe was the L.A. Times Festival of Books, hawking his wares (i.e., subscriptions to the eternally in the red Review), and he exuded a persona of what could best be described as jovial, genteel poverty.

Much to his credit, Plimpton poured money he earned from his amateur outings into various different dimensions into supporting the magazine. His fame as the upper crust journalist who'd take a stab at sports full of physical danger and derring-do also led to his being used as a pitchman for various gadgets and the like in TV commercials. Like Orson Welles, he used this money not to line his own pocket but to support his noble artistic calling at the helm of his adored Review.

Interestingly, Plimpton, who hobnobbed with the Kennedys, never wrote about the most dramatic event he ever eyewitnessed, one of the political crimes of the century*, wherein he even tussled with the person convicted of being the gunman.

Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself includes archival and original interviews about the title character with publishers, writers, friends, relatives, and filmmakers who knew him, including Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter, authors Gay Talese, Peter Matthiessen, and Jay McInerney, and documentarian Ric Burns. Like most of Plimpton's work, this nonfiction look at the man of letters who would be quarterback is enjoyable and interesting.

Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself airs on PBS stations starting May 16. Check local listings

* At Harvard, Plimpton was a classmate and close personal friend of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy had just won the 1968 California Democratic primary when he was assassinated following his victory at a hotel in Los Angeles. Plimpton, along with former decathlete Rafer Johnson and football great Rosey Grier, was credited with helping wrestle the shooter to the ground. -- Editors

H.R. Giger, 74: Surrealist artist known for his "Alien"

Tue, 13 May 2014 16:30:00 +0000

Hans Rudolf "Ruedi" Giger, born February 5, 1940 and better known as H.R. Giger, was a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor, and set designer. He passed away on Mar. 12, 2014 from injuries suffered when he fell down the stairs in his home.

Known worldwide by fans of alternative and surreal art and having something of a cult following, Giger was known for his unsettling and unique style of biomechanical science fiction designs. He is best known in the mainstream for having designed the horrific titular creature of the 1979 film Alien, as well as its sequels. The alien was based on the one featured in his 1976 painting Necronom IV, and its look upset 20^th Century Fox so much that they initially turned down the design, feeling it might be too disturbing to audiences. However, Giger's work was eventually used, and has strongly influenced many science fiction and horror artists since.

Giger spent the early part of his career doing small ink drawings, before progressing to oil paintings and sculptures. Giger's pieces are known for the nightmarish dreamscapes they depict, and were largely inspired by night terrors he endured due to a sleep disorder. His signature style was the cold melding of human and mechanical anatomy, often depicted in monochrome, with there being a certain irony in the juxtaposition of the two elements that was not lost on him.

Giger was inspired by figures including fantasy-horror author H.P. Lovecraft, director Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí.

Giger's other notable work includes a design for the Batmobile intended for use in the film Batman Forever (though the design was later scrapped); designs used in the films Poltergeist II, Species, Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis, and Prometheus; and designs used for album covers by metal bands including Celtic Frost and Carcass, and punk artists including Danzig.

Giger also applied his biomechanical imagery to interior design, and two "Giger bars" based on such looks were created in Switzerland, where they remain today as tourist and artist attractions. A third Giger bar is currently planned for the U.S., likely for New York or New Orleans.

There is currently a museum dedicated to him and his works, called the H.R. Giger Museum, in Gruyeres, Switzerland. There is also currently an H.R. Giger Exhibition taking place in Leipzig, Germany from Mar. 13 through June 13 this year.

Last year, Giger was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in Seattle.

Photo: Giger with two of his sculptures and one of his more well-known paintings, "Necronom IV," which depicts the "Xenomorph" made famous in the "Alien" films. Comicbookmovie

Two progressive films to win your heart

Tue, 13 May 2014 15:33:00 +0000

There were two rousing and heartwarming docs at the Tribeca Film Festival shining the spotlight on two charismatic politicians. One followed the campaign of a brand new 22-year old Stockton, California City Councilman, Michael Tubbs, and the other was about a beloved Texas governor who passed away in 2006. I know, it's hard to believe there are progressives in Texas politics, but, once upon a time, there was Ann Richards, and she is lovingly remembered in an HBO doc entitled All About Ann: Governor Richards Of The Lone Star State.

Directors Keith Patterson and Phillip Schopper have created a highly entertaining love fest centered on the first elected female governor of Texas. She had an acid wit with a great sense of humor. Always defending women in politics, her famous line was, "Ginger Rogers could do everything Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards ... and in high heels!"

A liberal Democrat intent on building "the new Texas," she had to constantly contend with folks like the Bushes. She often said, "George can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth!" She served as the state treasurer, gave a howlingly funny keynote address at the 1988 Democratic Convention and was subsequently elected governor of the biggest state in the Union. She was defeated in her re-election bid by conservative pro-big business candidate, George W. Bush during the Republican landslide. And the rest is unpleasant history, as folks would say. Watch for it on HBO this spring.

Now if anyone reading this column has lost faith in the electoral process, you might be motivated to give it another chance after seeing True Son, an inspirational tale of a young 22-year-old Black man from Stockton, California, who graduated from Stanford at the top of his class, and rather than continue on with a promising future, chose to return to his depressed home town which is heading towards bankruptcy, record homicides and considered by most polls, the worst city in America. Choosing to run for the 6^th district, the most poor and most African-American, but having to win majority votes from all the districts, Michael Tubbs gathers a Bad News Bears campaign team, with lots of heart but little experience. Stockton is divided racially, but voting is citywide. He sets out to beat a politician twice his age and bring his community back from bankruptcy. Tubbs displays his skill at appealing to a diverse audience in the film and jokingly states, "it's great to show that you can be Black and talk to white people."

This was a film started by first time director, Kevin Gordon, without knowing the outcome. [Spoiler alert] Many surprises await the viewer as well as the film team, who, for example, didn't expect nearly all the volunteers to drop out approaching Election Day. Michael refused to let it stop him, and went door-to-door himself to gather last minute support. Surprise endorsements by Oprah Winfrey and rapper MC Hammer and a veteran campaign manager stepping in to work on the campaign, took the film (and campaign) in new unexpected directions. Director Gordon states "we wanted to capture what it was like for a 22-year old to run a campaign, to use this as a way to inspire other youth, to engage in politics and to aspire to higher education. This is an inspirational story."

Michael Tubbs is an enormously charming and charismatic leader who constantly credits his whole team rather than take personal credit. By now, you've probably surmised that Tubbs won the council seat. He's already working on reducing crime, avoiding bankruptcy and healing the racial divide and bringing all the people in the city together to solve longtime problems. His relentless exuberance, humble selflessness, faith in humanity (and the political process), is hard to resist.

French culture panel mulls Picasso studio future

Tue, 13 May 2014 11:34:00 +0000

A French historical preservation panel met May 13 to ponder the fate of artist Pablo Picasso's Paris studio.

A legal group has owned the 17th-century manor containing the studio since before Picasso worked there and now wants to redevelop it - possibly as a luxury hotel.

Picasso worked in the Left Bank studio in the Hotel de Savoie for 19 years, and it is where he painted his famed anti-war opus "Guernica" in 1937 [after the April 26 infamous carpet-bombing of a defenseless civilian population in the Basque town, Guernica, by Franco's German and Italian fascist allies. Ed.].

Art lovers are up in arms and say the studio deserves state protection and preservation.

A selection of artists and actors have signed a petition decrying any possible redevelopment.

The Culture Ministry last year ordered a one-year pause to any development while officials considered the implications. That expires in July.

The panel meeting could put it on a national register of historic sites, which could make redevelopment more costly and time-consuming.

Whatever officials decide, the redevelopment "will in no way impact the historic character of the building," insisted site owners' spokeswoman Alexandra Romano.

She declined to specify the "several" development plans being considered.

Alain Casabona, an official at the state-backed National Committee for Arts Education, says the owners want to make the building a hotel.

The committee enjoyed free office space in the studio for a decade.

Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti's office said last week that she favoured stronger protections for the site and instructed ministry delegates from the preservation panel to vote to put it on a historic register.

Reposted from Morning Star

Photo: Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica, now in the collection of Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid. Wikipedia

Latin America in film: Catch these when you can

Fri, 09 May 2014 15:09:00 +0000

Several films by or about Latin Americans stood out at the 13^th Annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York last month. One, the stylish black and white Güeros, won the award for Best Cinematography. It was reviewed in an earlier column. Another, produced by Spike Lee, addresses the international drug trade in Colombia. Manos Sucias, directed and written by Josef Wladyka, won him the Best New Narrative Director award at the festival. The jury said, "Not only did this director spend several years immersed in a marginalized community in order to tell the story in the most truthful way possible, he impacted and contributed to that community." The jury called the film "an eye and mind opener, that transported us to a different place, stimulating our thinking, allowing us to meditate on the relationship between violence and circumstance."

Rather than a road movie, Manos Sucias could be called a "river movie," as one unexpected event after another builds to an unexpected climax. It involves two young men trapped in the drug trade who find themselves towing a submerged torpedo behind their fishing boat down the Pacific coast of Colombia, trafficking millions of dollars worth of cocaine. It's either that - or try to survive a life of extreme hardship and deprivation. Five years in the making, Manos Sucias "refuses to glamorize the drug trade but rather seeks to offer a rare glimpse of its devastating effects."

Three films at the festival deal with famous sports events in Latin American history. They also reveal the politics behind the headlines.

Maravilla tells the story of Argentine boxer Sergio "Maravilla" Martinez, who tries to reclaim the boxing title he feels was unfairly snatched from him because of the boxing industry's emphasis on entertainment value over the sport itself.

Maradona '86 tells the story of Argentine soccer legend Maradona in the famous World Cup Series of 1986 where his winning goal caused a near riot. Even the instant replays couldn't prove that he touched the ball with his hand. The controversial athlete, who rose from the slums to become one of the world's most amazing and beloved athletes, dealt with a life of drug abuse, but became a strong opponent of U.S. imperialism and its pernicious attempts to take back control of Latin America. Maradona '86 is a short film so it might be available on YouTube soon. It's a thrilling portrait of the charismatic footballer, with all his complexities and talents. To learn more about his politics search out the stunning Serbian documentary, Maradona by Kusturica.

Another short film, The Opposition, shown in a double bill with Maradona '86, is a powerful reminder of the tragic 1973 Chilean military coup that resulted in the suicide of the nation's beloved leader, Salvador Allende. The film follows the training of the Olympic soccer team during the time of the coup. As a matter of fact they were training in the national stadium at the same time that leftists were being rounded up, tortured and killed. Most players were unaware of what was going on in the stadium, but one of the players refused to shake hands with coup leader Gen. Augosto Pinochet as the team headed off to the Soviet Union for playoffs. When they received a chilling welcome there, it became clear to most of them that a major tragedy had taken place in their country. When the Soviet Union was scheduled to play the next game in Chile in the same stadium, the Soviets refused to travel to Chile knowing that crimes were being committed in the stadium. In the only instance of a one-team Olympic soccer game, the Chilean team was told they had to play the game without an opposing team in order for it to be official. Watch this movie to see how that turned out.

Meanwhile, in a small Scottish town in 1974, engine workers expressed an amazing act of solidarity. They refused to repair engines from warplanes that were used in the Chilean coup. The planes had been sent to Scotland to be repaired, and the workers left them to rust in a factory yard where they mysteriously disappeared - never to be returned. The protest is artfully portrayed in a beautiful 13-minute Scottish film called Nae Pasaran that was shown along with many other wonderful shorts at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Preview of Nae Pasaran:

Photo: Scene from Manos Sucias

Unauthorized

Wed, 07 May 2014 14:38:00 +0000

For Gil Scott-Heron

You'll not be able to stay home my sisters n brothers.

You gotta plug in n not turn away from one another.
You find yourself in a brand new bag
'cause the change you channel is a bodacious flag:
The revolution will be unauthorized.

The revolution comes to you raw-boned n unwrapped my sisters n brothers.
Radio Free Rockefeller is ring-toned n booby-trapped by corporate muthers.
When the people declare a genuine eruption
their voices will orbit 'round radical gumption:
The revolution will not be colonized.

At Circus Maximus we vie for the mud ball almighty
my sisters n brothers. Faced off with flunkies
of drunken elites born n bred in box seats
who'd smother mettle n delete every Dada drum beat
of our rebel-righteous fisticuffs.
With telephonic cans n string n apostolic
jazz of spring we'll antiquate their stuff:
The revolution will be polarized.

That's you stirrin' the revolutionary brew gone viral
my sisters n brothers. Hear the hip cats purrin'
ever louder a pulmonary blues of spiraling druthers.
That's you liberatin' the load
of an overfed boll weevil n that's you
agitatin' with banty roosters
n defibrillatin' the upheaval:
The revolution will be galvanized.

The raucous shot heard 'round the world won't
fire from the flash of fashion-conscious flingers.
That's you paintin' social grace 'bout gentle people clubbed n maced
for bein' rainbow singers n that's you vaccinatin' folks
who suffer vitriolic pokes from Mister Cat Scratch Fever
n that's Lady Liberty you kissed her called her your sister
n said you'd never leave her:
The revolution will be humanized

The revolution will be super-sized.
Sisters n brothers, there will be no revolutionary re-runs.
There may be revolutionary sudden death by smart guns.
There will be no revolutionary time-outs 'til we've finally won
'cause the revolution will be unauthorized.

Photo: Cover from (the late) Gil Scott-Heron's famous 1970 album "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." (Michael Brown/CC/Flickr)

The war on film

Wed, 07 May 2014 13:43:00 +0000

On May 9, the world will celebrate the 74^th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. As the generation who fought that war begins to dwindle in numbers, we are losing crucial first-hand testimony of the heroic struggles and sacrifices that were made to defeat fascism.

We still have the opportunity to gain insights into the war and the people who fought it by examining the films both from, and about, that era.

One of the best is The Dawns Are Quiet Here (1972), which was the Soviet Union's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1973 Academy Awards. The story focuses on the crew of an anti-aircraft artillery battery, who happen to be young women. When a large German patrol locates their remote outpost on the northwestern frontier, their courage is put to the test in a desperate battle.

During the war, brave combat cameramen shot miles of footage right where the action was happening. When it comes to documentaries of the Second World War, none can hold a candle to The Unknown War, a 1978 Soviet production featuring Burt Lancaster as the host and narrator. The series covers everything from the harrowing behind the lines exploits of the partisan groups to the Soviet invasion that broke the back of the Imperialist Japanese army and freed hundreds of Allied POWs.

One cannot speak of World War II without illuminating the enormity of the atrocities committed by the Nazi state and their collaborators from those capitalist nations that quickly capitulated in the face of the Blitzkreig. This genocide against political opponents, the Jewish people, the Roma people, and other so-called "enemies of the Reich" collectively became known as the "Holocaust."

One of the most poetic and memorable of the films dealing with this subject is Fateless (2005), a film based on the reminiscences of Imre Kersatz.

Of course not all Germans cooperated with the Nazi war effort, some actively resisted. One of the best stories in this regard is told in the German language film, I Was Nineteen (1968), drawn from the experiences of Konrad Wolf, whose Communist family fled to the USSR when Hitler gained power. The film dramatizes his return to his homeland, uniformed as a Soviet lieutenant.

The difficulty of the combat veteran who returns to peacetime society was also explored, both in Soviet films, such as Clear Skies (1961), and in the American film, The Best Years of our Lives (1946). The latter won seven Academy Awards and explored such topics as alcoholism, alienation, unemployment, and adjusting to life with disabling injuries. The best scene in the film comes near the end when a veteran happens upon a right-wing loudmouth at a lunch counter. The pontificating anti-Communist says that during the war, "we were fighting the wrong people," prompting the veteran to tear the American flag pin from the lapel of the creep and knock him flat on his back.

So while there may not be a veteran on your block with whom to have a personal conversation about the war against fascism, viewing films such as these make an appropriate addition to Victory Day observances and add insight to the heroic struggle to build a peaceful world where working people need not live in fear.

Photo: via movieworld.ws

Progressive cinema: Whistleblowers at Tribeca

Wed, 07 May 2014 12:45:00 +0000

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." - George Orwell

Certainly the film of most interest to progressives at the Tribeca Film Festival this year would be 1971, directed and written by Johanna Hamilton. It tells the heroic story of a group of activists who broke into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania in 1971. The Citizens' Committee to Investigate the FBI stole cases of classified documents and released them to selected politicians and media outlets. All returned the files to the FBI, except Betty Medsger, a young journalist at the Washington Post. The far reaching impact of this daring deed led to the first disclosure of FBI crimes including J. Edgar Hoover's illegal COINTELPRO program that devastated the activist movement. In this riveting heist story, the perpetrators reveal themselves for the first time, reflecting on their actions and raising broader questions surrounding security leaks in activism today.

Activist Bill Davidon, a Haverford College science professor, secretly formed the group of eight. Many had been in the draft resistance movement, and they were frustrated. Bill felt they needed another strategy to prove there was illegal FBI spying in the movement - that there were two wars, the one in Vietnam and the one at home against dissent. The group included a young couple, John and Bonnie Raines, who were raising three young children at the time. John had previously participated in the Mississippi Freedom Summer and has now taught for 46 years in the Religion Dept of Temple University. Bonnie was used to case the FBI office, longtime activist Keith Forsyth was the lock picker and Bob Williamson played comic relief for the tense and criminal act that could lead to long prison sentences if caught. They planned for 6 months, and after the burglary, none of the 8 were ever caught, but both Keith and Bob went on to be arrested with the Camden 28 who were eventually acquitted.

So why are they coming out with the story now? The statute of limitation on the burglary charges ended a while back and with headlines screaming about Snowden, Assange, Manning and other whistleblowers, it was perfect timing. The FBI admitted that the revelations revealed in the 70s helped reform the institution. Many feel not far enough. John and Bonnie were nervous all these years. John admitted that "back then we needed whistleblowers, because the people we sent to Washington to protect our freedoms, weren't doing that. They were terrified of Hoover and would never hold him accountable. So we the citizens had to do what the folks in Washington wouldn't do. And now we are in the middle of the same thing, once again, with Mr. Snowden. It just shows that what goes around comes around. People of privilege in power will always try to make the big decisions behind closed doors."

The film runs parallel to the release of Medsger's new book, The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI, which tells the full story and its ramifications. 1971 is not only an exciting story but a thrilling and suspenseful movie utilizing reenacted scenes, contemporary interviews with the protagonists and amazing archival footage. And it features the long unsung heroes of the whistleblower community. Probably the first ones.

Another film focusing on contemporary whistleblowers is titled Silenced: America's War on Whistleblowers, by Academy Award®-nominated documentarian, James Spione. It's an investigation into the post 9/11 security establishment as revealed through the testimonies of insiders who discover the government's growing harsh response to unauthorized disclosures. Only 11 Americans have ever been charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 - eight of them since President Obama took office. This film follows two of them, Thomas Drake and John Kiriakou, along with accountability advocate and Snowden's attorney, Jesselyn Radack, as they deal with the governments extreme charges. Radack explains that "Snowden simply made available documents for journalists to decide what should be published. No documents were released that had security concerns." But when Snowden was asked why he left the country, he stated "because I saw what happened to Drake and Kiriakou."

The film, produced by Susan Sarandon, is an impassioned and thought-provoking defense of whistleblowers everywhere. Kiriakou, the first current or former CIA official to confirm that waterboarding was established policy, writes from federal prison where he is serving a 30 month sentence, that Silenced "is not just a documentary, it's an act of patriotism."

Unique films get honors at Tribeca Film Fest

Mon, 05 May 2014 14:50:00 +0000

NEW YORK - The 13th annual Tribeca Film Festival in Lower Manhattan wound up a week ago with awards announcements. The 12-day festival co-founded by Robert De Niro screened 89 feature films and 57 shorts to an audience of almost a half a million viewers, including panels and other special events.

Progressive viewers would especially be interested in the films that focused on activists and whistleblowers. Night Moves, directed and written by Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy, Meeks Cutoff) was reviewed last year when it was shown in Toronto. Radical activists commit an act of environmental sabotage by blowing up a dam in Oregon, but their plan goes awry in this psychological political thriller. Both Silenced and 1971 were the powerful documentaries at Tribeca that addressed whistle blowing, and they will be reviewed in an upcoming Peoples World column.

The festival honored a remarkable black-and-white Mexican film for Best Cinematography, saying that "the film perfectly captured the energy and hope of the youth in its nation's capital." Güeros is directed and written by first-time filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios, and is an amazing Fellini-esque adventure, full of life and humor with many scenes that make you feel like you're watching cinema for the first time. Set in 1999 during the 11-month student strikes at Mexico's largest university, the film focuses on two brothers who travel throughout the city searching for an aging legendary musician. The film offersa revealing inside view of the organizing of the student strikers.

The inspirational Keep On Keepin' On, directed and written by Alan Hicks, won the Audience Award for Best Documentary as well as Best New Director. This loving tribute to trumpet great 89-year-old legend Clark Terry, acknowledges his decades of mentoring young students, including Miles Davis and Quincy Jones. In failing health, and mostly from his sick bed, Terry mentors his newest student, a young blind pianist training for the Thelonious Monk Piano Contest who has stage fright. The film captures the magic of this relationship and the power of music and family.

A disturbing film about a young adventurist, by acclaimed director Marshall Curry (If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front) won the Best Documentary Feature Award. Point and Shoot was described by the jury this way: "The award goes to a film that makes its own rules. Working with hundreds of hours of first-person-selfie-footage by Matthew Van Dyke, director Curry creates an unsettlingly ambivalent and often darkly amusing portrait of a generation hellbent on documenting itself. Do we celebrate the so-called 'manliness' of its protagonist-or wonder what the hell he's doing inserting himself into the middle of a violent revolution, like a Zelig with his own camera? It's a question viewers will brood on-much as this jury did."

The "violent revolution" they are referring to is the one in Libya. After striking up an unlikely friendship with a Libyan "hippie" during his motorcycle adventures across the North African continent (and with little political grounding) Matthew renamed himself "Max Hunter" and joined whatever forces he considered "freedom fighters." With a gun in one hand, video camera in the other, he documented his sometimes reckless escapades in his quest for "manhood" while being driven by his desire to overcome his own obsessive-compulsive disorder. While embedding himself in the opposition forces he ended up in Qadaffi's jails for almost six months. He now admits being involved in Syria, but not as a militant. This unique documentary, using mostly social media, selfies and homemade footage, challenges the viewer to question the changing role of youth in world struggles in an age of growing social media influence.

The award for Best Narrative Feature, and the Nora Ephron Prize, went to an Israeli film, Zero Motivation, directed and written by a talented young artist, Talya Lavie. It's a dark comedy about everyday life for a unit of young female Israeli soldiers, a universal coming of age story. Although the program describes the film as a "comic-tragic glimpse into the Israeli militaristic society, depicting a real and surreal, humorous and gloomy journey inside a maze of military bureaucracy," it somehow overlooks the massive tragedies of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and avoids reference to the crimes of the Israeli regime. The boredom of military life in Israel is certainly nothing compared to the day to day struggles of the oppressed people of Palestine. This writer, in support of the Palestinian request for a cultural boycott of Israel products that sustain the occupation, asks all progressive activists to close ranks and help end apartheid in Israel/Palestine as we helped accomplish in South Africa.

Photo: A scene from Güeros. Tribeca Film.

"Porgy and Bess": Gershwin - You is my man now!

Mon, 05 May 2014 13:18:00 +0000

Quite simply, the Ahmanson Theatre's splendiferous production of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, directed by Diane Paulus, is a joy. Accompanied by a 23-piece orchestra under Dale Rieling, the hits include the haunting "Summertime"; the ebullient "I Got Plenty of Nothing"; "It Ain't Necessarily So"; and the heart-melting duet "Bess, You Is My Woman Now." A delight for the ears, the show is also a feast for the eyes, with the cast of about 20 performing dazzling dances choreographed by Ronald Brown in colorful costumes by Esosa.

Inspired by a newspaper clipping about a true-life crime, this perennial classic takes place in Charleston's fictionalized Catfish Row (alas, Riccardo Hernández's nondescript sets are the show's one letdown) during the 1920s or 1930s. Porgy was originally a 1925 novel by the white Southerner DuBose Heyward, which his wife Dorothy adapted into a 1927 play, prior to their collaboration with the Gershwins. Catfish Row's African Americans are a mix of the God-fearing, typified by the matriarchal Mariah (Danielle Lee Greaves) and Serena (Denisha Ballew); hardworking fishermen; gamblers and criminals, exemplified by the flashy lowlife Sporting Life (Kingsley Leggs), a dope dealer.

Among Sporting Life's clientele is the beauty Bess (sizzling mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran), a character who once would have been considered "a fallen woman." In addition to having an addiction to cocaine-"happy dust"-Bess appears to be abused by her partner, the brutal, brawny Crown (Alvin Crawford).

Enter into this combustible mix the disabled, poignant Porgy (the touching Nathaniel Stampley). Porgy's disability has set him apart from others, rendering his days-and his nights-lonely. In the Gershwins' 1935 iteration, Porgy gets around in a goat cart, which Sidney Poitier also used in the 1959 movie, although in the current production Stampley hobbles bent over a cane.

After Crown commits a crime and flees Catfish Row, Porgy takes in the abused, drug-abusing Bess and, against all odds, they fall in love. Both find a happiness and tenderness that had previously eluded the unlikely pair. But temptation, in the form of the drug-dealing, glitzy Sporting Life and Crown, who is lurking about, lures the reformed Bess back to her old wild ways.

Sporting Life has sampled the sophisticated life in Harlem and sneers at the religiosity of Catfish Row's Bible thumpers. Indeed, the "It" in Sporting Life's big solo number refers to the Bible, as he humorously disputes some of the Good Book's assertions.

In addition to that song's atheistic assertions, over the decades, Porgy and Bess has experienced its share of controversy. Is it a play, a musical, or an opera? I say "yes"; George Gershwin called it a "folk opera." This version, its score adapted by Diedre L. Murray, presents as more of a musical per se.

Even more contentious has been the issue of Porgy and Bess' depiction of Black people and culture, as construed by white Southerners and then by Jewish New Yorkers. With their strutting, high-stepping dances, vernacular that's not exactly the King's English, drinking, gambling, coke snorting, crime and prayer, are Porgy's characters stereotypical?

However, the book for the current production was adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks, the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, who wrote the screenplay for a Spike Lee movie and a 2005 TV movie adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, starring Halle Berry. Parks and company have made the work more accessible to 21^st-century theatergoers. Much of the audience at Porgy's premiere was Black, and gave the Catfish Row cast a sustained standing ovation.

During the Ahmanson's run a dozen post-show discussions are scheduled, providing ticket buyers with opportunities to explore the issue of racial clichés and more.

After almost three hours, the grand finale transcends race and expresses that which is ultimately, profoundly most universally human: True love. As Porgy gallantly rises to the occasion, my heart was bursting and I wanted to sing not "I'm On My Way" but:

"Gershwin, you is my man now, you is, you is! ...Now and forever."

The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess is playing Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 1 and 6:30 p.m. (except for May 25 and June 1 when there are only 1 p.m. performances), through June 1 at the Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. For more info: www.centertheatregroup.org/; (213) 628-2772.

Photo: The cast of "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess." Michael J. Lutch

Noir genre fiction from L.A.

Mon, 05 May 2014 12:52:00 +0000

Think "Stonewall," and you conjure up images of gay and trans bar patrons in New York's Greenwich Village who finally had seen enough of police brutality and baseless arrests, and fought back in June 1969: the beginning of the gay rights movement.

Not so fast. There were early stirrings of homosexual emancipation in central Europe in the mid-19^th century, the elimination of sexually repressive laws in the early years of the USSR, an important movement in the Weimar years in Germany, and beginning in the 1950s, the homophile movement in the U.S., led at first by Marxist-minded men, such as Harry Hay.

In fact, the first mass protest demonstrations in the U.S.against anti-gay police oppression took place not in New York, but in front of the Black Cat bar in Los Angeles in 1967.

There are books by historians and scholars where you can look all this up. But if you happen to love fast-paced mystery thrillers that use words like Weegee used scandal-dripping crime photos, and you want to tuck a bit of this underground social history under your belt, Steve Neil Johnson may be your ticket.

As avid crime readers well know, Los Angeles is a familiar locale for genre writers. It's a canvas upon which they can project their intensely focused social analysis. The noir sensibility lends itself to uncovering secrets, corruption, deception, vice at unexpected levels of society.

Noted for his Doug Orlando murder novels involving a gay cop, the socially conscious, streetwise Johnson has in recent years started "The L.A. After Midnight Quartet," a series of four books using the L.A. LGBTQ community as his setting, over a period of four decades. Recurring characters have already appeared in The Yellow Canary, taking place in the 1950s, the early dawn of the gay liberation movement, and most recently in The Black Cat, which brings the central figure of Paul Winters, a closeted but ambitious City Hall prosecutor, up into the 1960s.

It's easy enough to pick on the prostitutes, bums, and down-and-outs who inhabit a large city like L.A. It's quite another thing to lift the curtain on the murderous antics of prominent families such as the Chandlers, owners of the Los Angeles Times and major political power players in town. It was important for Johnson to include this disclaimer on his new book, "Names, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously." Because the Chandlers would most certainly not appreciate seeing themselves depicted in this very noir light.

Being a crime novelist, Johnson concentrates on tightly plotted exposition of murders and investigations, in the process revealing layer upon layer of L.A.'s many subcultures and their interpenetrations, from the inner-city to the glittering halls of the new Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Downtown Music Center. Who could have guessed that the tax base funding this gleaming palace of culture was extracted from sudden property tax increases on small, minority homeowners who likely would never set foot in the place?

"Three people dead," Johnson writes, "and tens of thousands cheated out of their hard-earned wages, Paul thought, and it all started with a little adulterous pillow talk. 'Whoever said adultery is a victimless crime?' he muttered under his breath." More than that I shall not reveal, but that's only the beginning of the fun!

The mark of a significant genre writer is not just that the pieces of his ingenious puzzle fit neatly together like the mechanism of a fine Swiss watch. It's what he does with the genre that makes him stand out from the rest. Johnson shows character traits through the words and actions of his large cast, so that the reader is genuinely concerned about their fate. The Black Cat will be hard to put down.

From the point of view of gay history, Johnson's new novel is set at a moment when for the first time large numbers of LGBTQ people were willing to identify themselves as such, thus transforming our cultural scene forever. Who could have imagined that less than 50 years later, same-gender marriage would be normal in a dozen or more countries, and undoubtedly very soon in every corner of the United States? We need our artists and writers to remind us of where we came from.

The Black Cat

By Steve Neil Johnson

Available from Clutching Hand Books in print and Kindle versions.

“Roberta’s Fire”: Homophobia, hate, redemption in a Texas town

Mon, 05 May 2014 10:56:00 +0000

I had some mind-traveling to do in reading "Roberta's Fire," by Texas songwriter-singer-journalist Kelly Sinclair. My only direct experience with Texas was a couple of days in an air-conditioned El Paso conference room a few years back, and I have no personal experience with what it was like to be gay or lesbian in America in the 1950s, or what it's like today. But this slim novel of only 150 pages tells a story that anyone can relate to and learn from.

It's told from the viewpoint of E.L. Signoret, an 85-year-old retired literature professor, who returns to Tantona, a small Texas town where shocking events altered her life more than 65 years earlier. Going back for the funeral of someone she knew back then, Signoret encounters people with surprising connections to her past. In alternating chapters of past and present, the story unfolds of a young woman of 19 grappling with her emerging identity as a lesbian in 1951 in a town swirling with homophobia, anti-immigrant prejudice, and racism. Things escalate into a tragic hate crime which costs the life of one person and changes the lives of everyone involved.

Some years later, Signoret writes a novel based on the events she experienced, much like real-life Harper Lee's famous 1960 novel "To Kill a Mockingbird," which also dealt with small-town prejudice. Like "To Kill a Mockingbird," Signoret's novel, the only one she will ever write, becomes a runaway best-seller. The similarity is not coincidental. Sinclair says she was interested in the fact that Harper Lee, long believed by some to be a lesbian, had written one and only one great book: "I thought, what if a Harper Lee-like character spent one summer in Tantona," during a time of civil rights violence. In "Roberta's Fire" Sinclair tells a "Mockingbird"-like tale, a bittersweet story bathed with both nostalgia and outrage, despair and a kind of hope.

In addition to writing fiction and song, Sinclair is also a contributing writer for People's World (see her bio and recent articles here). She grew up in a succession of small Texas towns, although she was born well after the 1950s. In "Roberta's Fire" and the two earlier novels in her Tantona Trilogy, Sinclair draws on real people and details from her life and observations. As she puts it, these novels "depict the rise and fall and possible rebirth of a small Texas town as told through its gay, lesbian and straight citizens."

Like in any community, people in the fictional town of Tantona are of all stripes - decent, hateful, fearful, courageous, selfish, giving, and many combinations of these. "In my story and in real life, there are good people, straight and otherwise, who behave heroically, who do the right thing," Sinclair says. Really, these people do some mind-expanding of their own.

Some bookstores and libraries these days compartmentalize their offerings: "African American," "women," "gay and lesbian," and so on. That can be a mind-limiting trap. Whether you are gay or straight, Lone Star or Land of Lincoln, I recommend you mind-travel with "Roberta's Fire."

Book information:
"Roberta's Fire"
By Kelly Sinclair
2013, Blue Feather Books, paperback $13.00; Kindle $8.99