  At a time when documentaries are flourishing in numbers and all attributed towards exposing desperately needed facts and references of the most powerful social and political institutions in the world, checking out such films, as I have done in the recent past, should be just as important as picking up a novel by Mark Twain and Farley Mowat. It's very good to witness a movie by talented individuals- both in front and behind the camera, like Benicio Del Toro and Francis Ford Coppola. I want to listen to the best, too, like Pink Floyd and Trent Reznor. That's not so much to ask. I want to be entertained. I want to blow my freaking mind. And I want to be able to see the truth. Here's something interesting. Documentaries are now a marketable endeavour for do-it-yourselvers, and others skilful enough to just make a good film.
Independent media at it's best. Now a form of journalism is making a tidal wave comeback. A flourish of video's in the market seems to be at it's peak, and films of interest, like the new one by urlLink Christine Rose "Liberty Bound" are popping up at local social establishments, like the urlLink Ottawa (Central) Public Library , and urlLink The Bytowne Theatre .
Now let's see a whole new side of the story. Michael Moore may have helped to prop the genre onto another level by jabbing a stick into the hides of the Bush administration and revealing their seemingly inept capabilities as powerful leaders of a great and powerful country and the ridiculously childlike tactics employed before and after September 11th. A jabber head from a blue-collar town in Michigan is not very happy at the way things are going, and has now become a member of the meathead activist groups, that include such distinguished persons as Naomi Klein and Greg Palast, Howard Stern, and Marilyn Manson. There had to be a break from the deflation of acceptable news and entertainment content, and the time to tell it like it is before it's too late, couldn't come sooner. Before... BOREDOM! I feel that people should be saying "There has to be a better way. " And there is. Just listening to the plight of desperate people, in a desperate world, where people are urlLink dying unnecessarily would make anyone aware that to make things a lot more friendly is to create a friendly atmosphere,eh?
Nah. Instead we have to listen to madmen talking to other, or not talking to other, or just plain talking at other madmen. And, in a way it can be quite hilarious at times, comical, but then it can get frustrating, foolish, and quite, uh, crazy. I have had my fair share of conversations with madmen and I do have to say, they can be some kind of fun. Just watch the spit, and the sudden aggression, and you'll be alright. They can get both physical and psychological.
I'd tell you about urlLink 'Prof. ' Scott Starling , but I've heard that he doesn't like to be talked about in the press - unless he knows about it, and he consents. The genius is, after all, in the starry abyss. What should be done, is to find some kind of grounds where, when worlds collide, we have the structures in place for that time when the fat is in the fire.
When a drastic time sets in, you hope that you don't have a spring-loaded character on your hands. Just look at how Bush and his posse reacted. What set off World War I? We now have, because of the UN, a way to deal with the Hitler's and the Stalin's. The slow and deliberate kills, you know. Bush doesn't want a debating society, so he reacts. Without the use of an international institution, the future may not be capable of dealing with the war and anarchy that he and his lot have helped to bring. But it seems that we are all urged into a flux, and warring nations are coming together, and breaking apart, and some just don't know what to do. To get everyone to cooperate on both sides of the world, is imperative. It seems we are now having to come to the hope that the Americans can pull together and become stronger as a nation, regardless of what happens in their election.
As Canadians we should feel that we may becoming very much isolated from the States, now. As my Bolognese friend Rita says of that country, "Hard to go. Easy to leave. " She's leaving for NYC at the end of the month. She says now that if she known it was going to be that much trouble to go, she would have stayed here in Ottawa. But before she leaves at the end of the month, she's helping to put together a film premier at the the Ottawa Public Library.
That's the way it should be done, my friends. Learn a skill. Show it off to all those you know, and those who would like to know you. Show off the goods with what you got, and fuck the consequences, eh? It's great though, to see the art world fighting back. Folk songs don't to seem to have as much of the singy songiness effect as it did in the 1960's. Even in these media saturated imes, loud heavy metal-industrial bands like stalwarts Ministry can't be lound enough to get anyone's attention.
But they are not alone. One nail on a nail bed hurts. Hundreds of them gives you quite a nice cushion. The art world is desperately fighting back against the waywardness of a country whose government is conducting it's business in a shadey manner sending a great democratic institution on a rollercoaster ride. So let's listen up, or we'll be dealing with an massive influx of out of work Americans looking to sell a story. There are several decent documentaries out there that have been making more headway for the genre of documentaries and it's producers, directors, writers, and other affected people that try to get into the gory details of our current state of affairs, making Michael Moore look like a boyscout.
There's award-winner urlLink Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me," where gluttony and this continent's faith in fast food dining is taken to greater proportions. In terms of making a documetary, Spurlock's approach is just gross. Robert Greenwald's urlLink "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" takes a crack at dichotomizing the "Fair and Balance" approach to journalism that the network claims to provide to it's viewers, those lacklustre inbreds who tend to think in an unreasonably skewed view of things.
Here in Ottawa, Carleton OPIRG and the Ottawa Public Library, will be host to a special treat. A premier will be taking place Monday, August 23 at the public library on Albert St. featuring a film by American Christine Rose called urlLink "Liberty Bound: A US Citizen's journey of discovery into the lies, oppression, and corruption that has invaded her country since 9/11. " Possibly a movie that will lend a more of a heavyhanded approach than Michael Moore's own pretty tough foray into the heart of the American Nightmare. Because Moore seems to have had to relax his smarminess to a certain degree in a tactical maneuver. The watering down of his movie, so that right wing loonies can't write him off as a eunuch, shows that were not quite there, yet.
Now "Fahrenheit" and "Liberty" are movies of a seemingly parallel wish: to "Get Bush Out. " As Canadians, there isn't really much we can do for the American's but hope that Bush get's voted out, and that Kerry can show that he is any better. We can help them out by showing that we will see their best work in our little Seat of Power town, where opinions should be heard (as anyplace should. ) Let them into the country so that they may go back saying, "Well, the Canadians liked my stuff. That should count for something... or , pay for something anyway. Now I can go ahead with the next project and do this touring thing all over again and hit it harder, faster, and smarter on all sides. " Documentaries as punk-rock, eh? What could be better than that? 
