2011 Oscar Nominations Announced

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards. The King's Speech has "won" the most nominations, with 12. Co-hosting the ceremony will be Hollywood darlings James Franco and Anne Hathaway (the first time for each). The gala is slated for Sunday, February 27, 2011 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.

The nominees are:

Documentary (Feature)

• Exit through the Gift Shop Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz
• Gasland Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
• Inside Job Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
• Restrepo Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
• Waste Land Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley

Documentary (Short Subject)

• Killing in the Name Jed Rothstein
• Poster Girl Sara Nesson and Mitchell W. Block
• Strangers No More Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
• Sun Come Up Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
• The Warriors of Qiugang Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

Jesus Camp

Directors: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
(2006)

One could argue that there is nothing more reprehensible than entrepreneurs profiting off of individuals under the guise of offering guaranteed salvation. Jesus Camp offers a look into a world in which greed hounds profit from a business that essentially brainwashes young, innocent children into believing that they are soldiers of the faith. Becky Fisher, who runs the camp, describes:

I can go into a playground of kids that don't know anything about Christianity, lead them to the Lord in a matter of, just no time at all, and just moments later they can be seeing visions and hearing the voice of God, because they're so open. They are so usable in Christianity.

In a most un-Kierkegaardian custom, belief in God is not a choice for the children in this community. They are indoctrinated to “just have faith” from a young age. Anyone who questions that belief is seen as a pariah, which would be as if anyone who questioned the government was dubbed unpatriotic (obviously a very dangerous proposition).

Not learning how to engage in a debate. (via Cinema de Merde)

It seems as though that is how the Evangelical community engages in politics. It is not difficult to comprehend why they are behind certain Right Wing principles, such as anti-choice, anti-stem cell research, and anti-evolution. While those positions may seem reprehensible, it’s what they believe in. Yet they accept, and even embrace, the entire Right Wing package, regardless of how unchristian it is; hawkish foreign policy, pro death penalty, and unrestricted gun rights. The reason for that lack of skepticism may be based in the fact that from a young age they are taught to just accept whatever those in power tell them.

This is particularly troubling considering Ted Haggard, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who evidently used to speak with George W. Bush and his advisers on a weekly basis. Mr. Haggard comes off as a cocksure believer in Jesus Camp (refer to video below). Considering the frequency that he spoke with the former commander-in-chief, he probably had considerable influence over our nation’s policy. However, in a testament to the fact that this way of life noxiously drives repression, shortly after the release of Jesus Camp, former gay prostitute Mike Jones alleged that “Pastor Ted” paid him for sex at regular intervals over a three-year period and had also purchased and used crystal meth.


Skepticism is a vital mechanism for developing a healthy intellect. There’s no telling what kind of effect this indoctrination will have on these children. It certainly isn’t helping them to value, let alone develop, any sense of critical thought. It’s bad enough that these children are subject to such blatant brainwashing, but the fact that they are also mainly homeschooled should be downright criminal.

The filmmakers offer a dissenting voice in the form of Mike Papantonio, a talkshow host on the Air America radio network. However, his perspective is not even necessary. The Evangelical protagonists featured in the film come across in a negative light by virtue of their own words, despite the fact that the filmmakers claim that Jesus Camp does not have any agenda.

Becky Fischer doesn’t even let these kids read about that evil pagan warlock Harry Potter! I hope they at least think for themselves on that front.

official film site

Trivial Tidbits:

• Fischer shut down the camp in 2006, citing vandalism and safety concerns
  
• Lost to An Inconvenient Truth for best doc at the 79th Academy Awards

Epilogue:

• Bill Maher on Jesus Camp

Food, Inc.

Director: Robert Kenner

(2009)

What may be a more terrifying movie than the darkest of horror films is the documentary Food, Inc. - a portrait of the system of food production in America that has been shrouded in mystery. We have somehow become incredibly distant and unaware of something as imperative as the food we eat. Kenner did a great job bringing this dark issue to light without alienating his audience.

It’s unsettling to know how much has changed in the food production industry in the past 30 years alone. Today, we’re consuming corn that has been genetically modified and we’re eating meat from cloned animals. It's unclear what kind of long-term effect this will have on our health. If food producers continue to modify the way we have eaten for millennia, eventually we may not be able to turn back to the way things used to be. Massive conglomerates are controlling much of production, and they are manufacturing food in facilities that resemble factories more than farms. The conditions are inhumane for both the animals and workers. The fact that these companies refused the chance to appear on camera to stand up for themselves is a sure-sign that the film should be watched.

These massive corporations are not going to decide to change overnight. Change needs to happen on the federal level. While it may seem impossible to bring change to such a powerhouse of an industry, Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, points to the battle against tobacco as a model of how change can be accomplished.

If you follow the food chain back from those shrink wrapped packages of meat, you find a very different reality. The reality is a factory. It's not a farm - it's a factory. That meat is being processed by huge, multi-national corporations that have very little to do with ranches and farmers.

The one thing that everyone in this world has in common is that they have to eat, and this film challenges the eating habits of virtually all Americans. The fact that I was so apprehensive to watch this film is a testament to how powerful a message it holds. Before I watched it, I knew that it would have an effect on me. I thought it was a lose-lose situation; it was either going to push me to spend more money on organic meats or just make me feel terribly guilty every time I purchased a pound of ground beef at the Food Emporium. In the end, it left me inspired enough to get involved and it made me really eager for the fresh, independently-produced goods from the farmers’ market this summer.



official film site

Trivial Tidbits:

• McDonald’s is the nation's largest purchaser of beef, pork, potatoes, and apples
• 30% of the land in the US is used for planting corn
• Every day, 32,000 hog are killed in Smithfield Hog Processing Plant in Tar Heel, N.C (the largest slaughterhouse in the world)

2010 Oscar Nominations Announced

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced this year's Oscar nominations in the annual predawn ceremony in Los Angeles. Presumably much of the buzz will be focused on Meryl Streep's record 16th Oscar nomination for Julie & Julia, or AMPAS's decision to nominate ten films for Best Picture (they really couldn't pare that list down any further?!?). However, Doczine is focused on the following two categories;

Documentary Feature:
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Documentary Short:
China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit à la Berlin

Hollywood legends Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are slated to host the March 7, 2010 ceremony.

Trivial Tidbits:

• The only song from a documentary film to win an Original Song Oscar is “I Need to Wake Up” by Melissa Etheridge from the film An Inconvenient Truth in 2006 (the film itself also won in the Documentary Feature category).

Spellbound

Director: Jeffrey Blitz
(2002)

A gripping account of eight teenagers and their quest to win the 1999 National Spelling Bee, Spellbound is so so good that it could've been written by the Guest/Levy mockumentary machine.

Spelling bees attract the biggest, most extreme nerds in all their eccentric nerdy glory from across the country - setting up the stage for an enticing character piece. These kids are all brilliant, and their preparation for the Bee is persistent and intensive.

The spellers' parents play almost as big a role in the film. Their relationship with their children is fascinating - though sometimes painful - to watch. One highlight was one contestant's mother used the unword "irregardless" (and not in an ironic kind of way) moments after her son was eliminated on what his father called an "easy word."

Spellbound is no hellebore. Watch it!



Trivial Tidbits:

• Lost to Bowling For Columbine at the 75th Academy Awards
• The final/winning word from the 1999 Bee was "logorrhea"