liberation

Lessons and images from the Hobbit dispute

The unusual dispute between actors and the producers of the Hobbit film production has been the biggest political issue of the year in New Zealand. Following on from the previous blog post entitled ‘We are not for the Hobbit workers, and we are not against them’ – Labour Party, I’ve been attempting to write a further post that looks at the political lessons of the event, especially in terms of the policy making process, the power of business, the state of the media, and the influence of nationalism on domestic politics. But obviously images are often more powerful than words, and so the following blog post omits my analysis in favour of all the satirical cartoons that I’ve been collecting – the good, the bad, and the silly – in the hope that they better convey the lessons of the dispute.

Dunedin free film screening: The Hollow Men

Nicky Hager’s book the Hollow Men has been brilliantly converted into a stage production, and has now been turned into a documentary film. The director, Alister Barry, is in Dunedin for the Film Festival (where the documentary had it’s premier in the weekend) and has very kindly agreed to screen the film for free on campus for anyone who’s interested. [Read more below]

No heresy here – the Golden Compass reviewed

Imagine the cinematic release of The Golden Compass being accompanied by a direct marketing strategy to sell the film to critically minded, libertarian-loving atheists. Picture meeting halls of humanist, rationalists and anti-authoritarian activists lapping up well selected snippets from this fantasy movie. [Read more of John Moore’s guest film review below]

TV Review: Gallipoli - an antidote to the liberal-nationalist reworking of the ANZAC story

Last night Maori TV screened the Gallipoli film that did the cinema rounds here last year. This epic reconstruction was produced and directed by award-winning Turkish director Tolga Ornek, and narrated by Jeremy Irons and Sam Neill. Guest blogger Philip Ferguson says that this powerful film, although not terribly political, is a good antidote to the new liberal-imperialist nationalism and its reworking of the Gallipoli story. [Read more below]

SiCKO - arguing for a society based on need not profit

Michael Moore is having another go at the US Government and ruling class with his new film SiCKO. This time he’s shinning the light on the profit-driven health system in the US. From the sound of reviews, Moore has built a clear, powerful and disturbing critique of privatised health. Ultimately Moore says he’s arguing for a health system where care ‘doesn't depend on your premiums, it depends on your needs’, which is nicely reminiscent of Marx’s ideal of a society which is structured along the lines of ‘From each according to their means, to each according to their needs’. Hopefully Moore has this sort of thing in mind too. As he says himself to Reuters, the film ‘was more about the US government and society at large than it was about health’, and 'I only use healthcare as the vehicle through which to explore a much larger issue.' He also points out that 'It is not a Democrat film…. They have been bought too.' From reading early reviews it sounds like the film has Moore’s usual sarcasm, humour and witty commentary. But where is NZ’s Michael Moore? Will NZers see this film and realise that our own health system has shifted year-by-year under Labour and National towards this sickening model.
You can view the promo posters for the film: This might hurt a little and What seems to be the problem?
See the Guardian first review of the film: Moore's Sicko stunt is brilliant and Oh yes, he's got an agenda. Also see: Moore defies US ban threat and Moore film attacks US health care

What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom

Political journalism is just about dead. In New Zealand we have very little informative and critical journalism to help us see what lies below the world of surface appearances (especially with the ongoing cuts in journalism). That's why it worth trying to see the fascinating documentary series entitled The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom by Adam Curtis, which has just screened on the BBC in the UK. This three-party series explores the dominant anti-collective ideology that views human beings as selfish, mistrustful, isolated individuals and which has been incredibly influential on politics and general life in the west since the end of the cold war. [Read more below].

The Politics of Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte was America's first black superstar and a pioneer in movies and film. Because he's just turned 80, the Guardian has a profile on him. Belafonte has clearly always committed to political activism, and has put the fight for civil rights ahead of his career. Unfortunately his radicalism was often blunted by working with people like Martin Luther King and the Kennedy's, but its sounds like he might be more radical these days. He denounces America's war in Iraq and has branded George Bush 'the world's greatest terrorist'. Today he has little time for the sham of political consensus, and likes to see himself as working 'outside the box' of conventional politics.

Communist manifestoon

Check out this application of new politics to spread the ideas of Karl Marx: the Communist Manifestoon - which is Marx and Engel's manifesto being read out over the splicing and editing together of retro Disney et al's children's cartoons. Quite effective and funny.

Karl Marx: the Movie

Dialectical Cinematerialism! There's talk in Hollywood and London of making a film of the life of Karl Marx - possibly starring Johnny Depp as Marx and Vannessa Paradis as his wife Jenny. The film would be based on Francis Wheen's excellent 1999 biography. The Guardian has mocked up a photo of what Depp might look like as Marx, and there's discussion about who else could play the character.

Political animals

The Guardian has run an amusing and interesting brief that decodes the political subtext of 11 feature-length cartoons [url]. This comes about because 'Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto thinks Happy Feet, this season's blockbuster animation, contains "far-left" propaganda.'
Below is a summary of the decoding:

The politics of John Lennon

I've always been fascinated by the intersection between music and politics. And because I'm a fan of John Lennon, I look forward to the new documentary The US versus John Lennon. Although I'm a bit embarrassed to say that the first time I started to listen to Lennon seriously, was after I misheard my older sister when she had just started university say that 'the only person who truly understood Marxism was Lenin'. Anyhow, the new film will be interesting, and there's a review of it in the New Statesman which says that although Lennon saw himself as a radical, was anti-authority, and he loved to stir things up, he was no political animal. But they provide some good Lennon quotes - such as: 'Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives' - which I tend to agree with. And pondering Lennon's supposed influence on getting the US out of Vietnam, the review asks a good question: 'now we have another hated president and a pointless war, and it certainly makes one wonder: which living pop stars with radical leanings or strong spiritual values will lead us out of Iraq? Billy Bragg? Sting? Cliff Richard?'

Collapse of socialist dream

A film review of The Last Mitterrand

The history of the left is littered with so-called ‘socialist’ leaders who have disappointed and betrayed their supporters. From Kier Hardie and Ken Livingstone through to Robert Mugabe and Joseph Stalin, the left constantly has to grapple with explaining the errors, compromises and sell-outs of left politicians. So how do we explain their transformations from sometimes inspiring left leaders to wayward and authoritarian rulers? Unfortunately, the answer will not be found in Robert Guédiguian’s new docu-drama, The last Mitterrand, which deals with that peculiarly French reformist figure François Mitterrand, who became the Fifth Republic’s first Socialist Party prime minister and dashed the hopes of millions of leftists by effectively joining rather than challenging the establishment.