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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day

· Slogans & Quotations

One last thought: Fahrenheit 9/11 is many things, but for pity’s sake let’s not call it a documentary.
– Ty Burr, Boston Globe

June 24th, 2004 |

14 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • nnyhav
    June 24, 2004 at 1:22 pm

    “Just to put your minds all at ease, I have four words for you that I know will relieve you greatly,” Kerry told the [Aspen] fund-raiser. “How does this sound — Vice President Hunter Thompson.”
    http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&u=/ap/20040621/ap_on_el_pr/kerry_11&printer=1

  • Samizdata Admin
    June 24, 2004 at 1:30 pm

    Amusing, nnyhav, but completely off topic. We are taking a somewhat harder line on this now.

  • sean
    June 24, 2004 at 3:12 pm

    MOCKUMENTRY, is the word you are looking for

  • R C Dean
    June 24, 2004 at 3:46 pm

    Actually, sean, I think the word is “crapumentary.” A mockumentary has intentional humor in it, which by all accounts is absent from F 911 (howevermany chuckles it might provoke).

  • S. Weasel
    June 24, 2004 at 6:33 pm

    And this remark came at the end of a positive review, so it’s not just another crabby righty having a go at Moore.

  • Guy Herbert
    June 24, 2004 at 7:56 pm

    Prospect‘s Mark Cousins also in the course of a positive piece, says something interesting:

    “As I write, the trade press are announcing that Moore’s film will be the first theatrical feature to be released in the middle east. There have been many great non-fiction fims about this region–Borhane alaouie’s outstanding Kafr Kassem (Lebanon, 1974), which depicts an Isrraeli massacre of Arabs in 1956, is the first that comes to mind; but these are never shown in cinemas there.” [My emphasis]

    I suppose it is understandable (though it had never occured to me before and I’ve never heard it mentioned by any commentator) that independent documentary films would be too dangerously political–whatever their actual content–to be permitted in the Arab World. What puts me to wonder is: in that context, will Moore be able to get a guarantee that his movie is shown entire and not subject to state censorship? Or is it only domestic commercial “censorship” he cares about?

  • Ben
    June 25, 2004 at 8:58 am

    Moore will have no problem with state censorship in the middle east. Especially in Syria, Iran, and most of Saudi Arabia. There is nothing in it to upset jihadi censors. Heck it is something they would produce themselves if they only had the technical capabilities of doing it.

    Besides, with Hezbollah support for his movie, do you really think the various Arab governments are going to cross them?

  • Guy Herbert
    June 25, 2004 at 9:56 am

    Have you seen the movie, Ben? And have you that much experience of the arbitrary habits of censors in three-plus countries, in at least one of which American Vogue can’t be sold uncut, that you can positively say they’ll leave it alone?

    The point is, interior policy in dictatorships doesn’t work on the enemy-of-my-enemy is my friend basis. Moore will be recut, inevitably, if there’s anything in the work that cuts across official thinking. However, protesting againt censorship there would just ensure the film wasn’t shown, rather than build the paying audience. Official showings will boost the ego and the pocketbook in a way that samizdat video would not.

  • Pete (Detroit)
    June 25, 2004 at 7:22 pm

    I’d love to see the ‘distribution fees’ Hamas pays him…
    and what they charge to bring it to yoru theater.
    (and don’t even THINK of not playing it..)

  • Chuck Olsen
    June 29, 2004 at 12:31 am

    Sorry, but it certainly is a documentary.

  • Perry de Havilland
    June 29, 2004 at 12:36 am

    Sorry Chuck, but to be a documentary it would have to not be a work of fiction.

  • Aussie-American
    June 29, 2004 at 3:37 am

    Michael Moore HATES America and Americans. Period. Stop giving him free publicity. Just stop paying attention to him (well, it’s kind of hard to not notice that fat f*ck, all 400lbs of blubber, but try…..)

  • Nick Robinson
    July 1, 2004 at 1:10 pm

    Fahrenheit absolutely is a documentary. Here’s two helpful links about it – One being a brief synopsis over the history of documentary film, including a quote by the originator of the term “Documentary is a creative treatment of actuality” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film and an article about Moore’s impact on documentary – http://protoculturefilms.com/weblog/2004/06/24.html#a46

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