The Depths of Denial

The inclusion of the stories of the people who were players in this documentary was often disturbing to me.  I almost wish it was made by a Catholic because I feel like there is a mythology about the religion.

It's ironic because while the papacy and church officials profess a code that is ridiculous in today's world, it is also one of the religion's most concerned with education and higher learning.  How these two things can coexist is beyond me.

I was raised Catholic because it was important to my grandmother who was born in 1906.  My grandmother was devout but no one else in my family was.  I was also molested but not by a priest.  I feel like child molesters in general aren't prosecuted as fully as they should be.  I think that all this attention put on Cathiloc priests ignores the millions of other pedophiles. 

What bothers me is that the children and parents are obviously destroyed by this and it doesn't seem to make any difference.  I feel like the main perpetrator was treated with too much compassion and should be behind bars.  The documentary doesn't attempt to offer any ways to help deal with this issue.  Bush shouldn't have pardoned the Pope.  It might have cost a billion dollars for the Cathiloc Church to fight these cases in court but how much do they have left?  A lot.  And it is just about accension and gaining power. 

Learning that the reason the Cathiloc church started their celibacy restriction so that the church would inherit their estates makes perfect sense.  It is an incredibly sexist institution.   And the scariest part of their impact isn't in upper and middle class America it's in Latin America and the poorest countries.  As the people in the film said, protection of children should be the most important goal of the church. I think they think its normal.

The website didn't seem very connected to the film.  I wish that there was some sort of follow up.  Like they provide a list of controversial statements but they don't say whether the statements are true or false. I think it would have been helpful to show examples of people who have managed to make peace with their past, which isn't to minimize the crimes of the priests but if everyone is just falling apart it's kind of a dead end.  Like maybe if the film showed a support group, and talked about the father losing his job. Or why was the invitation suddenly withdrawn?

There are a lot of powerful, people who can't accept that what they believe is false, that the people they trusted are crooks, I don't know the documentary makes me feel more hopeless than ever.  From my Google search it's still happening, there are still problems and there are going to be problems until people are willing to look at the very structure.  The latest headlines is that an Australian born human rights lawyer is calling for the Pope to resign because of child abuse.  This is an article against the lawyer from New Zealand which asks "is he serious?", that I can hardly understand because of the language but shows how deeply entrenched resistance to change is internationally.

Whacko Religious People: Keeping Documentarians Employed

I had this problem with Promises, Jesus Camp, Fahrenheit 911, and this week with Deliver Us From Evil; some of these documentaries make me so angry that I cannot without much difficulty focus my attention on the questions Wendy asks us without having to first briefly address the documentary-of-the-week subject matter itself. It’s brief I promise.

We saw Promises, in which both Muslims and Jews carry on an insane and bloody war over religion, then we saw Jesus Camp, wherein Evangelical Christians brainwash a bunch of children, Fahreheit 911 and lunatic Muslim fundamentalists, and now this film, in which the Catholic Church covers up the pedophilia of Oliver O’Grady, a priest who among hundreds of similar molestations “forced his penis into the vagina of a baby.” Where are the documentaries about atheists committing unspeakable acts of pedophilia, terrorism, brainwashing, or murder in the name of their beliefs? Do people now understand why atheists can be angry about this stuff? It’s nice to know documentary filmmakers will never be out of work as long as religious people keep doing what they do.

Okay here’s the segue: I believe the path to sanity is not just to create multi-platform media, but for people to personally choose a life of unadulterated reason and clarity; a life free of religion. We wouldn’t have to worry about “outreach” and “communities of victims” if religion did not have such a grasp on people to begin with. Maybe if I pray hard enough religion will go away.

The website http://www.deliverusfromevilthemovie.com/ we are given in the assignment page fails to connect people because there is nothing on the site that creates a community or even features user comments. First of all, who is the author of the site? The site is very rudimentary and not interactive in any capacity. The mysterious author of the website promises that content and reader comments are coming, but where are they? It took some digging to find relevant websites that ran even tangentially to Deliver Us From Evil and the effects of the film. The sites I found were not generated by Amy Berg or the producers of the film, which leads me to conclude that this documentary did not appear to rely on multi-platform media to increase outreach and distribution of the film. The sites I did find ran tangentially as I said, but one in particular discusses the actual film and reactions to it.

Greta, of Greta Christina’s Blog made a great statement about the film, which was screened at the Atheist Film Festival just up the street from me. She said on her blog that Deliver Us From Evil “...made clear in an entirely new way just how deeply religion can twist the moral compass, creating an institution that loudly and publicly cries its outrage over the desecration of a cracker... but that whispers and stonewalls, turns a blind eye and covers it up, when thousands upon thousands of children are being molested by its most trusted representatives.” While I don’t know how multiplatform Greta’s website is, I can say there is significant contribution to creating a meaningful community that participates within the blog and within the greater atheist blogosphere that I have talked about in previous posts. I think blogging, vlogging, and other user-contributed media is maybe not essential for outreach and distribution of documentary media, but it is damn helpful.

For those in the class who appreciate the “rare pleasure to listen to rational debate” and who may be craving some clearheadedness after all this religious-people-are-whacko media (Promises, Jesus Camp, Deliver Us From Evil) here is your (user-generated!) dessert: The Four Horsemen. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel C. Dennet; four brilliant minds, one interesting, relevant, and funny conversation. You’re welcome.

The Four Horsemen HD: Hour 1 of 2 - Discussions with Richard Dawkins, Ep 1

"up close and personal-how close is too close"?

Documentary producers should plan to promote by asking local personalities and djs to promote their stuff, also hook up with a few internet people who can create a vlog, blog, you-tube, my-space,face-book to get your short film or documentary seen by the right people.word of mouth and flyers and many ways now a days to be both heard and seen, you can upload a 10minute video tp promote yourself for free.
-Deliver Us From Evil did it by interviewing people directly from the church, they interviewed people who knew the real un hidden truth.I feel they did a fairly accurate job with exposing creepy Bishop o Grady, the father confessed, he knew he was wrong in molesting both male and female children, he should burn in hell that is my oppinion. how is it that the Church knew what was going on, they knew about the sexual abuse, they just kept on moving him to different Churches, in different cities, were he continued to abuse countless amounts of innocent young children, it is a damn shame to say the very least.
-as everything there is a downside, overexposure can be one, also you may upset alot of people with children im sure they will have heated comments after viewing a film with such emotional and disturbing content.a multi platform can also help you to reach a larger broader audience more main stream.
-websites do create meaningful community, it helps people get out their singing talents and it helps people find lost love ones and helps you to date and meet others of whom you may not meet at a local coffee shop. It can be a  haven for crazies and molestors and weirdos because they can trick young children and others by creating fake internet profiles were they prey on the children. it also can let those weirdos with the same sick fetishes to meet up in person to plan up something wicked.<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sbfq3lo77pE?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/sbfq3lo77pE?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>  <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IKUP8BXiB80?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IKUP8BXiB80?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

In a world where documentaries gross a fraction of that of commercial films, networking is everything.

As I've become more interested in internet blogging or vlogging, I have come to see a proliferation of independent filmmakers incorporating different ways to reach out to their audiences. These different methods of branching out can be seen as social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are utilized. The intent to reach out and distribute through these means can be very beneficial, especially when people recognize the potential of a film, and want to help.

Blogging and vlogging have become seemingly easy ways to reach out to a population. People are no longer isolated in thought and in culture--internet blogging has procured a way for people to communicate on many different levels.

In a recent documentary, yet to be released, I have witnessed an upsurge in activity resulting from internet blogging and vlogging. The film, The Spirit Molecule, is a recently developed documentary, adapted from a scientific and psychedelic informative book on the powerful hallucinogen, DMT. Through the course of a year, I have heavily followed the process of a new movie coming out through networking sites such as Facebook and Youtube. Seeing this process before my eyes has increasingly stimulated my interest in the film, and has made me feel that I have a role in its success. This has been advantageous for the filmmakers, as the growth of the film will simultaneously result in it monetary success and individual fulfillment.

All in all, blogging and vlogging have the potential to incur great success for documentary films. However, by no means does this mean a horribly done movie will have success--quite the contrary. It would sort of be like that movie that everybody knows about but doesn't want to see.

Up Close & Personal - Evil Within Us

Deliver Us From Evil is probably one of the most influential and awakening documentary films to have been made on such a sensitive subject. I personally was raised Muslim and don’t know very much about the Catholic religion except for what I have read in the history books and now from this documentary. I have always believed that religion is our deepest root to salvation and purity. That our religion and our practices will keep us humane, giving us hope, peace, and tranquility. Watching this documentary gave me chills with the hairs on my arms literally standing up straight. When O’Grady speaks about the details of the abuse towards the young girls, I can feel the pain, the fear, the helplessness of the young girls. The fact that O’Grady can speak with barely any emotion on his face about the incidents, makes me tremble with disgust and astonishment. How could such evil exist in what we perceive and believe is pure and sacred?

It is because of documentary films like this, that people are brought to attention by the wrongdoings of people all over the world. Deliver Us From Evil has brought comfort to others who have been abused but were left in silence because of fear and embarrassment. Knowing that you are not alone in this fight is something that can alter a life. Parents who watched this documentary are made aware, which will hopefully caution them with their children, not only towards the church, but overall to anyone. You can never be too sure of anyone in this world, because if you cannot even trust your church, the place of the divine, there is little hope for anyone else.

Media is always perceived according to each individual. One may look at this document and see the media being corrupt and unjust for exposing the secrets of the churches, causing outrage. Another may look at the film as rude awakening that must be followed with awareness and organized groups against such corrupt behavior. Many blogs and websites are organized daily against abusers worldwide. Not only abusers in the church but in the government, or your next door neighbor. A blog called Abuse Tracker was formed by Kelly Shaw that exposes the allegations from the some of the highest holding powers. Websites and any other form of media do create meaningful communities through communication and awareness. Ignorance is everywhere, but with the help of people speaking out, makes each step towards a better world (if there will ever be such a concept achieved), a little easier.

Link: http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTracker/

Hurricane Hubris would have been a bettter name...

This week no smarmy comments, weary dismissals of American politics or ironic repartee.  This week I only have questions leading to more questions without easy answers; without any answer.  Always returning to the only question, WHY?

Why did no one order an evacuation of New Orleans PRIOR to Katrina making landfall.  Why did everyone in power ignore the warnings from Brendon Loy?  Why is human nature revealed at its best in the worst of times?  Why was Lt General Russell Honore overlooked for a Nobel Peace Prize?  "PUT THE GUNS DOWN! THOSE ARE AMERICAN CITIZENS"!

Why were the levees blown, without forewarning in the 9th ward?  Who was out of their rabbit ass mind; exacerbating the already unthinkable consequences of a force 5 hurricane making landfall in New Orleans? 

On our Forum post this week I included a comment about Chris Rose of the Times Picayune and his live broadcasts in the evening from their little old building in New Orleans. His citizen "first person” journalism, on the RADIO, offered a human voice alternative to the CNN/BBC Disasters-Are-Us coverage on the TV.  Broadcasting live on NPR Radio his graciously, self effacing southern recounting of his immediate situation gave the first inkling of the enormity of what transpired. 

Do we learn anything from the Corporate News Channels visually branding each new disaster or tragedy they Web-cast, Pod-cast, & Cable-cast?  Within minutes of every tornado, hurricane, flood or earthquake there is a headline logo, a tag line, theme music, a solemn voice over and a TV flicker of reptilian sincerity.  Then we 'go LIVE' to what ever locations provide visual shorthand for a real "Act of God Moment".  Gasp!  When people are interviewed "on camera", they are bewildered, in shock, in tears, talked over, manipulated, then assaulted by technology.  This is not digital media at it's finest. 

I do not believe a digital game can convey the immediacy of a tornado shredding livestock.  As much as I loved the interactive maps at http://www.bridgethegulf.info/ , the realtime photos available from science based web sites like NASA's showing Hurricane Katrina's roiling clouds are chilling http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/efs/atmo.htm.  Yet,I never want to have to wade in the water that covered New Orleans.

After rereading the first half of the Patricia Aufderheide assigned text, I am humbled by the enormity of the choices Spike Lee made in this long-form documentary.  We have 'guides for dummies' and categories and neat little names to describe what we do as documentary filmmakers.  But the emotional consequences of our films are paid by the participants we film.  When this film took on a life of its own. The filmmakers capitulated to the 'truth' of those we have watched over and over.  It was transformed from an established two hour HBO documentary format into an extraordinary broadcast, DVD, community website, learning tool, and epic Greek tragedy.  Maybe there is a time and place for choosing each of the digital formats we were asked to consider.

Maybe the questions I am still asking will be answered by other citizen journalists.  Maybe we will all live long enough to see MTV raise enough money to reunite the Diaspora of irreplaceable musicians, who carry more than a tune. 

Maybe Lt. General Russell Honore will be greeted by the archangel Michael, whom I have always envisioned as a winged John Wayne with a Sword of Truth.  

And maybe all those who lost their lives will have found peace and higher ground.

                                                                        

Roger and Me

This documentary is so important, for so many reasons. An institution like the Catholic church is far too politicized to not be monitored by the public, and Deliver Us From Evil not only does that job, but it also gives license to others to do the same. This film offers a voice to those hundreds of thousands of abuse victims who have dealt with their pain in isolation. It is also an eye-opener to people within the Catholic faith who have not suffered directly, but have been deceived by the church. Although I've always considered myself politically aware, I was somehow blind to the deep flaws of the Vatican. This may make me sound like an idiot, but I really only thought clergy abuse happened to boys. I come from a devout Catholic upbringing, and the few stories I know of personally are boys. I was stunned to find that the two main characters in the film were women.

Another stunner for me when I first saw the film was the presence of Roger Mahony. Imagine my shock when the man I knew as a child, who my father affectionately called "Rog," was revealed as the ringleader of the O'Grady cover-up. Mahony, the man who ate dinner at my house, who counseled my parents during tough times in their marriage, the man who was adored and trusted by fleets of followers in the Los Angeles diocese. This man is really just a corrupt politician whose only concern is for his career advancement. I can't really describe the mix of feelings I felt when I watched the movie for the first time. Confusion, shame, nausea, sadness, rage.

I knew about clergy abuse, of course, and of the cases that were coming out more and more throughout the years (which, of course, was one reason why I left the church), but SEEING (not just hearing) someone who my family had trusted... seeing this man lie onscreen about his actions that caused so much devastation to so many lives... well, it rocked my world. And when I called my parents to demand to know whether they had known anything about this, I encountered silence–the same silence that these children of clergy abuse suffer throughout their lives. I also tried talking to my brother (whose best childhood friend was a victim of clergy rape), who also shrugged me off. "Yea, I guess I should get around to watching that, but I don't know... maybe." Unfortunately, for me, the only source of consolation was internet chat boards.

Discussion boards are particularly important for this documentary because the issue it's tackling is born and bred in secrecy. The boards that I found, particularly on IMDB, are still active, with discussions as recent as yesterday, even four years after the film's release. Active discussions keep the problem above the rug and get the community questioning and challenging the motives and methods of the Catholic church. Internet boards may also give abuse victims the anonymity they need to feel safe when venturing into revealing their own truths.

I was happy to find that Deliver Us From Evil can be watched free online. To me, this is a sign of sincere intentions by the filmmakers. They want people to see the film so that the truth will be known. This is a wise approach to distribution because the more people that watch a film, the more its content will be spread. What a shame that a movie like An Inconvenient Truth is protected so aggressively that it is impossible to find a free stream of it online. The point of documentary film is not to create a blockbuster, it is to reveal the truth so that the public may be informed. If the makers of An Inconvenient Truth are concerned about illegal downloading, then they are spending their time protecting the wrong venture–I thought they wanted to save the earth, not their intellectual property.

In my opinion, documentary cinema has not only the authority but the responsibility to release their content. Sure, film have to make back the money that was spent on production, but how much would it really hurt Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim to let people stream their glossy PowerPoint presentation? They've already made $23,808,111 in the US alone. Amy Berg and Disarming Films are taking the high road, but with the low dollar figure. With a meek $196,585 gross, the film is still highly distinguished, earning an Academy Award nomination and five other award wins, but it gives back to the community that it is trying to serve. Also, with more people watching the film, surely it will be easier for Berg to get funding for future documentaries of equal importance.

Deliver us from Evil

The great thing about Documentaries is that it aims to represent the truth or a side of truth to any story. It also sometimes focuses on actual human experiences, wether they are tragic, hopeful or just plain fun. But there are films like Deliver Us From Evil that really touches on a very sensitive subject and after watching the film, I believe that the filmmakers really made a great job in showing all aspects of this experience without sensationalizing the issue. I don't think there is anyting negative in using any form of platform to illicit views or opinions from anyone, wether is through vlogs, blogs or any online medium.

I Hate Facebook..."like" am I a social nitwit?

This is not an assigned topic for our class.  But, from the very beginning of this term, there has been a quiet little chant running through my head 'I hate Facebook.'  With total respect to our Instructor, Wendy Levy, WHY Facebook?  I don't want 600 close and personal friends.  I don't want a 'wall'.  I don't "like" Facebook.

This week the film, 'Social Network' opened in movie theatres EVERYWHERE!  The official website,  http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/ is surprisingly dull.  In one of those moments of cosmic follie, I realized just how much I hate Facebook.  The thought of screenagers on their 4G iphones in the movies, updating their status with Facebook friends,

who are also watching Facebook, posting faux-ever clever and ironic dialogue is just all too fabulous.  It's hard to imagine any studio investing money & celebrity on a movie version of the founding of IMDb.com!

Before you accuse me of being a digital Luddite, Please hear me out.  Facebook has already begun to move to redefine itself as a fully functioning platform; a site to be used for everything from chatting to watching movies to another E-channel.  Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook), forever plotting revenge for imagined slights, betrayer of BFF's, & Harvard drop-out, has a new strategy to transform the entire WEB into an extension of Facebook.  He has introduced the new "open graph" initiative, which allows Facebook users to "like" content outside of Facebook's website; even if they are not logged in to Facebook.  This ability to register your "like" will provide Facebook with comprehensive data on user behavior which will be sold to advertisers.  Makes Baidu, look so twentieth century by comparison. 

Will Facebook morph into a WEB-utility, like Google or Wikipedia, that we cannot live without?

Or is Facebook the next evil empire?   Am I alone in loathing Facebook, it's entire shtick, and it's creator Zuckerberg?  I read a fellow classmates polite posting on Forum declining the invitation to join our Cine19 group on Facebook. Well, this spring, more than 31,000 users deleted their Facebook profiles in protest.  Another group of users organized a "Quit Facebook Day" event to lobby against the changes being made to the security settings on the site. At some point Facebook's growth like AOL, like Yahoo, has to level off.  Ben Mezrich http://benmezrich.com/ , author of 'The Accidental Billionaires' is quoted as agreeing, "because, let's face it, there are only a limited amount of people on the Internet"  Or are there?  I'm sure everyone will be watching 'Social Network' the Facebook movie in Imax, ipod,iphone and eye-yi-yi-lucy schlock & awe.   

I  love the filmography of this class.  The mysterious little trail of thematic bread crumbs we follow from week to week leads to the discovery of the digital terra incognita of New Media.  Facebook is marked on my map with a warning of 'there be monsters'.  I will continue posting my class assignments on Insight, imail, forum, this blog, YouTube, and more but NOT Facebook. 
Google Search results 1 - 10 of about 6,360,000 for facebook sucks

F**K the Smart Games

Good got your attention
Log out and Wake Up!
So now you know there are about a million web sites for 'smart games'.  I really think they are the ultimate oxymoron. You want to change the environment?  You want to impact the death march of corporate greed, misinformation, sloth and evangelical ignorance?  Don't play a game and hope for the world to change.
I might as well play Grand Theft Auto and plan on driving a Lamborghini to class.



Turn OFF your computer! 
   And strap on a solar bra!   The Japanese claim it will generate enough energy to run your ipod! 

TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER!  Stop playing Energyville or http://www.electrocity.co.nz/.

Grab a friend and go down to Ocean Beach - PICK UP SOME TRASH!  Maybe you'll start to change the amount of plastic in the Pacific Ocean!  http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm 

 Join the Surfrider Foundation

http://www.surfrider.org/and re stencil all the storm drains in SF warning us NOT to dump motor oil into the ocean...Too low tech?

Fine!  Join Greenpeace and put your ass on the line in arctic oil fields.                           

  

Film it and believe me you will qualify as making a political documentary. 
Too eXtreme?   Still want to play a game? Fine...http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/multimedia/multimedia-archive/fungames/animations/la-hague-block-that-pipe/

Al Gore manged to parlay humiliation, highway robbery and the parental control stickers from Tipper into a slide show with the usual palaver on a paid lecture circuit that awaits politicians, authors and degree laden experts.  Al Gore could just be the most under rated American since Jimmy Carter started banging nails at Habitat for Peace. 
Al Gore with a little help, manged to turn your well made industrial PowerPoint presentation into a film that put a stake into the vampire like resilience of republican, evangelical & corporate misdirection.  And yes the EPA has a game too...http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/fids/games/index.html. 

Even better,NASA 
has a real doozie of a game http://www.globalwarminginteractive.com/ 

Is all of this just too serious and tragically hip? Eat a veg burger & poke fun at McDonald's at http://mcvideogame.com/game-eng.html.  But please, enough of the Ben & Jerry's game.  Dairy herds are such an efficient use of land and resources...NOT. And that's the problem, we love Ice Cream, & real Cheeseburgers that are not contaminated with ecoli-bacteria.  I keep asking, 'is any smart game enough to actually alter cultural behavior AND opinions?'  Have 40 years of world hunger and a cheating scandel slowed the popularity of McDonald's fries &  their Monopoly game pieces...no purchase necessary to win?

Not serious enough? 
Play with food  http://www.wfp.org/how-to-help/individuals/food-force
while the WFP is actually FEEDING PEOPLE NOT SIMS  oh yea this is really NEW & cutting edge.
(Maybe this is the same Sim George W and FEMA were playing while the dead and bloated bodies floating in the flood waters of New Orleans were eaten by crocodiles or alligators or caymans or sharks; just the 'Nature of the Beast'...but let's save that little thought for next week.)

Media is a noun not a verb.  PEOPLE are galvanized; not an electronic sync pulse, or solar flare susceptible satellite relay. 

This weeks question "Can 'New Media' Change the world?" 
This weeks answer; PEOPLE change the world.

And even though Becky up in North Dakota and Evangelical creationists might disagree, we can be such a bunch of cheeky little monkeys.