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we are not extreme, but the rhetoric is
(from guest blogger Vegina – musings from a feminist vegan rabble rouser…)
Check out this power point from the US State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Board. (FYI, I covered the faces of all activists since they did not give their consent to be in this slideshow; otherwise it is in the original). This presentation is geared toward corporations that rely on or support animal exploitation.
This power point was first released publicly on GreenIsTheNewRed.com http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/state-department-powerpoint-corporations/560/. Will Potter does an excellent job of covering the important political issues surrounding this issue, so check it out.
The logic and rhetoric demonstrated here is absurd. Be sure to download the slide show and read the “notes” section for the full “WTF” effect. Some of the most ridiculous parts of this slideshow include a fallacious link between SHAC and the ALF and highlighting the mainstream U.S. Animal Rights conference as a place where “extremists” gather.
Liberation in Celebration of the 4th of July
(from guest blogger Vegina – musings from a feminist vegan rabble rouser…)
The 4th of July is here! Today is the day when we come together to commemorate our liberation from oppression. We celebrate by hanging out with the people we love, eating a lot of food and watching the sky explode with fireworks. But while we celebrate there are billions in this country who are not free.
Many are imprisoned physically and often unjustly. The prison industrial complex is big business and it is a growing business that leaves countless victims trapped without their freedom.
Since 1991 the rate of violent crime in the United States has fallen by about 20 percent, while the number of people in prison or jail has risen by 50 percent…[This increase is largely] because of imprisonment of people who have committed nonviolent offenses. Instead of community service, fines, or drug treatment [nonviolent offenders are sentenced] to a prison term, by far the most expensive form of punishment.
Others are imprisoned by a sense of fear because our society is sexist and homophobic; in 2008 the FBI recorded over 1,600 hate crimes against people based on their sexual orientation (likely a gross underestimate) and transgender individuals are so discriminated against that the Southern Poverty Law Center suspects that they have highest rates of being murdered compared with other hate crime targets.
The Rebirth of Revolutionary Filmmaking
Peter Biskind’s landmark history of 70’s filmmaking Easy Riders to Raging Bulls details the rise and fall of America’s golden era of revolutionary filmmaking. The contemporary cinema of the 60’s was not reflecting the exploding underground protest movement and the huge cultural and political changes that were rocking the country. A small group of Hollywood rebels changed all that. The surprise success of Easy Rider shocked the Hollywood establishment and ushered in a series of challenging, provocative films that questioned our government and society and pushed the boundaries of cinematic expression. Films like Harold and Maude, Apocalypse Now, Medium Cool, Taxi Driver and Shampoo changed the way we thought about the movies. They were no longer just an escape and diversion; they were a unique and powerful way of exploring the pressing issues of the day and opening minds and hearts to other points of view.
With the blockbuster success of Star Wars and Jaws, Hollywood again found its footing in safe mainstream entertainments and the movies returned to their position as a harmless way of entertaining the masses. Since then, some films have strived to challenge audiences and a few have succeeded. But for the most part, politics and social change have been relegated to the documentary world and fictional treatments that lull us into a false distance from the subject being covered. Most fiction films that attempt to deal with important issues are sanitized by the very expensive process of development and production into glossy reenactments of the dangerous and lively spark that ignited them. There are some exceptions, such as the brilliant German film The Edukators.
With Bold Native we sought to work in the spirit of the great revolutionary films of the 70’s, films like Easy Rider that were both inspirational and challenging, films that didn’t let the audience off the hook and didn’t pull their punches. We looked at the subject of animal liberation and saw a story that was filled with all the cruelty and barbarism of which our species is capable, as well as all the compassion and hunger for justice and freedom which makes us so proud to be human. We wanted to provoke thought and discussion and celebrate that thing within us that makes us take extraordinary risks in order to save another’s life.
Who is the Bold Native?
Bold Native is the culmination of almost ten years of work by literally hundreds of people. It was conceived in the summer of 2001. It was shepherded through numerous drafts by Denis Henry Hennelly, Casey Suchan, Mary Pat Bentel, Jeff Bollman, Jessica Hagan, Todd Helbing, Ted Deiker, Jashub Absher, Danielle Lurie, Jimmy Franklin, Peter Alton, Goody-B Wiseman, and too many others to name here.
From the spark of its beginning to today, we’ve watched as terrorist attacks, oppressive government regimes, and draconian laws have radically changed the landscape of political and social protest in our country and the world. We’ve maintained a hope that we could create a film that spoke to the hopes and dreams of millions of compassionate people and the suffering of billions of non-human animals that have at every moment occupied our hearts and minds.
The film would not be possible without the generosity and kindness of everyone who gave their time and labor. The film is dedicated to you. And it’s dedicated to the brave, anonymous women and men who risk their freedom to give freedom to another. It’s dedicated to the individuals and groups who fight for legislative and social change, work to educate the public, and care for abused and rescued animals at farm sanctuaries. And it’s dedicated to the billions of animals who were never saved and whose brief time on our earth was filled with pain and sadness.
Finally, it’s dedicated to everyone who watches this trailer and says, “Yes.” Yes, the time has come to reject the notion that the saving of a life or the protest of an industry is terrorism or violence. Yes, there is something more important than our momentary pleasure or convenience. Yes, the lives we take have value and their interests, no matter how different from ours, deserve consideration.
Who is the Bold Native? Find out this summer.
Paradise Recovered
My friend Andie Redwine recently did two things I never would have expected. And I am enormously proud of her and humbled by both.
I went to high school with Andie. We co-wrote a column for the school paper called “Mo’ Better Bagels” in which we pontificated upon numerous subjects and generally raised questions regarding society, culture, and our sanity.
Andie grew up in a repressive religious environment, and as an adult she has dedicated much of her time to helping others who have escaped from cults. A few years ago she mentioned to me that she was interested in making a film about cult survivors. Living in LA, I’m surrounded by people who say they want to make a film. The vast majority of them never do. Andie does not live in LA. She lives in a rural southern Indiana community. She knew nothing about how to write a script or make a film. But she taught herself how to do both in the most efficient way possible… by doing it.
Here’s the trailer for the film she wrote and produced totally outside the Hollywood system, created solely by her passion and energy.
The second thing Andie did that I never expected was to go vegan. Her film is called Paradise Recovered. I think it’s worth noting that in Paradise (Eden), Adam and Eve were not consuming animals.
She recently wrote me and my business partner Casey a letter about her decision. She agreed to let us share it. It’s one of the more moving things I’ve ever read.
Dear Denis and Casey:
Despite the fact that I feel absolutely fantastic about not contributing to the deaths of animals and eating their pain and grief…and that should be enough there, right?…I want to share with you both the benefits of going completely vegan for 30 days. Completely vegan means no animal products with an emphasis on low fat and fiber. A lot has happened both physically and spiritually for me. It’s been pretty amazing.
Sing a Song of Freedom – Music of Bold Native.
Hush Hush for Haiti Jan 29, 2010
During the editing process, we utilized about a dozen temp tracks. I tried not to put anything in the film that we had absolutely no chance of getting permission to use. However, the difference between having a chance at getting permission and actually being able to get in touch with those who might give you that permission can be pretty stark.
Every time a piece of music is used in a film, two separate permissions must be granted – master rights for the use of the actual recording and publishing rights for the use of the song as written. Neither of these rights are generally controlled by the artist (though this is changing with more and more artists retaining ownership of their work). So just finding out who you need permission from and actually getting in contact with them can be a real challenge… which is why it’s part of an entire job called music supervision. Without a music supervisor on the project, we were left to navigate the wilds of the music business on our own. Fortunately, we’ve had the help of music supervisor friends Mark Wike, Joel Sill, Philip Steir, and Andrea von Foerster to get us phone numbers, assure labels we were decent people, offer contract advice, etc.
An open letter to the FBI on the occasion of a Salt Lake City raid
Agent Dale Cooper
If I hadn’t become a filmmaker, I would have been an FBI agent. I feel confident I would have gotten in… I’m smart and disciplined and a good problem-solver. As a child, I read every detective story and mystery book in the library… literally. I was the kid who played detective instead of cops and robbers. I staked out neighbors’ garages and houses in elaborately imagined crime stories. I would have never believed you if you’d told me that as an adult I would feel deeply disillusioned with the FBI.
My impression of an FBI agent was a stalwart defender of American justice and a tireless fighter against crime and violence. It seemed a noble and righteous vocation. Digging through evidence, interrogating witnesses, following leads, analyzing clues, and getting your man (or woman). That man or woman would be someone who committed a crime against an innocent individual, someone who was a threat to society and a danger to our freedom.
Ironically, it was the story of a very peculiar FBI agent that drew me into filmmaking and away from dreams of working for the bureau. Agent Dale Cooper drove into the town of Twin Peaks and my bedroom television one night in 1990. The mystery and beauty of that world entranced me, and I became obsessed with the idea of creating fictional worlds. Agent Cooper was intuition and virtue embodied. He was everything an FBI agent should be: concerned with justice, open to unique ways of solving a case, and always alert to the changing dynamic of a case. He never took the question of good and evil at face value and never let prejudices get in the way of seeking the truth. And he always had time for a slice of cherry pie and a damn good cup of joe.
Darwin’s ascent
Obey Natural Selection
Charles Darwin wasn’t the first person to propose the theory of evolution or natural selection, but he was the person who wrote the defining text (at that time) on the subject. Therefore he is the person we credit for bringing that theory of life into the public sphere. His book was the blockbuster of the time. Natural Selection has been misused and misconstrued through the ages, and evolutionary theory is only understood by a small percentage of Earth’s human inhabitants. But his books and theories are not what make Darwin threatening to some people. What is conveyed by evolutionary theory and evolutionary fact is a shattering of pedestals, the human pedestal. Evolutionary fact binds all life on this planet together.
The new film, Creation: The true story of Charles Darwin, gives us insight on how he wrote On The Origin Of Species. There is a defining scene in Creation and it isn’t about his book or his struggle with religion. It is the moment in the film that captures what a true understanding of evolution teaches us. The scene begins as Charles’ daughter, on her death bed, asks to hear the often told story of an orangutan captured in the jungles of Africa and brought to a London zoo to later die of an illness. As Charles describes the death of the orangutan to his daughter we see in flashback the orangutan die in the arms of the zookeeper. Annie herself is also in the process of dying, and these two deaths are inter-cut as simultaneous events carrying equal emotional weight. The film posits both Annie and the orangutan as fully conscious beings, aware of their inevitable fates and able to communicate that awareness and consciousness without speaking.
Making connections
The amazing political blog Down With Tyranny just put up a great post on meat-eating and its environmental impact. The post mentions Thom Hartmann, a truly genius writer and radio talk show host. I have not read his latest book mentioned here, but I did read The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, What Would Jefferson Do?, and The Prophet’s Way, and they each had a huge impact on my thinking. Apparently, in the new book Thom says (quite accurately), “A sudden and worldwide shift to vegetarianism… would have more impact on global warming than if every jet plane and car in the world were to fall silent forever.”
Down With Tyranny also mentions Cheri Shankar’s recent Huffpo post on the same subject.
And they mention us! Howie Klein, the writer, saw a test screening of the film:
“Last year my friend Phil took me to the screening of a groundbreaking movie that is mostly filmed, Bold Native; they’re still working on it. I still haven’t gotten it out of my mind.”
My Cheesy Break-Up
Cheese and I had a long relationship – we’re talking major duty hot n’ heavy LTR here. Cheese. Any kind of cheese. On anything. Anytime. With wine, tea, olives, nuts. OMG, serious romance. I had eyes only for cheese. Now look, I’m no stranger to the bad LTR. I won’t get into tedious details, cause hey, we’ve all had ‘em, right? You know it’s not good for you. There’s no future, no romance, your friends judge you, you’re not yourself, you gain weight, you’re moody, and next thing you know, he’s lying and like totally, completely smothering you, deliberately misunderstanding everything you say, picking fights and -
Oh. Wait. Got a little carried away with the ol’ relationship metaphor… Ahem. The point is, it’s just so hard to break up sometimes, right?!?!?
That was me and cheese. I’d read about dairy cows. I knew intellectually that the family farm was a myth. But, like any bad-for-you relationship, I chose to ignore the truth. I was vegetarian for many years before I finally broke up with dairy and took the vegan plunge.
