Politics
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Five Questions with Mark Lombardi: Death-Defying Acts of Art and Conspiracy Director Marieke Wegener
In the years since his death in 2000, the work of artist Mark Lombardi has seemed even more prescient and relevant than it had during his lifetime. Lombardi’s finely-etched drawings, filled with annotated lines, circles and squiggles, traced the flow of capital and political power between various government, private and underworld actors. His subjects were American foreign policy, crime, corruption and conspiracy, and his artwork consisted of not only his drawings but the investigative work required to create them. Lombardi’s drawings reference the drug wars, the BCCI scandal, Charles Keating and the savings and loan scandal, and Iran contra, but […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 13, 2012 -
PARSING POLITICAL DOC HIT “2016: OBAMA’S AMERICA”
Tuesday’s 10 a.m. showing of 2016: Obama’s America drew about 20 customers to the big AMC theater in Times Square. A modest turnout, to be sure, but part of a larger wave that’s turned this conservative documentary into one of the summer’s independent film success stories. After a small opening in July, the film expanded to almost 1,100 screens last weekend. Over three days, 2016—directed by Dinesh D’Souza and John Sullivan, and released by Rocky Mountain Pictures, a company that specializes in conservative movies—grossed a reported $6.2 million, with a per-screen average of almost $6,000, “the best of any film […]
by Kevin Canfield on Aug 28, 2012 -
PERSONAL DEMOCRACY
The Internet is transforming social life and the political landscape. The growing pallet of digital media content-production technologies and social networking distribution sites, like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, is redefining the meaning of “democracy” and an individual’s ability to participate in the political process. The annual Personal Democracy Forum (PDF) is a geek and political-wonk fest, a 21st century Woodstock – without the drugs, rain and rock ‘n’ roll – and this year’s gathering was no exception. This is a momentous election year, with a day of reckoning coming in November. The nation is living through what Nobel Prize-winning economist […]
by David Rosen on Jun 14, 2012 -
THE GOOD, THE BAD… AND MITT ROMNEY?
Talking Points Memo goes all Leone on Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, comparing Romney’s campaign strategy against the Texas governor to the final scene in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 14, 2011 -
PLEASE COMMODIFY ME
In a Brooklyn Rail piece titled “We Are All Scabs: Some Contradictions in U.S. Independent Film Culture,” Donal Foreman visits the IFP’s Independent Film Week and questions the debates over sustainability, marketing and audience-building that are rampant in our community. As we pursue DIY strategies, are we just implicitly and uncritically accepting the logic of the marketplace instead of conceptualizing more empowering, liberating structures? The key grafs: Whereas in previous times films were offered up to the distribution circuit to be either rejected or accepted as viable commodities, their makers are now being asked to lead that process of commodification […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 11, 2011 -
“NOBODY CAN PREDICT THE MOMENT OF REVOLUTION”
A well-shot, well-edited video documenting the New York Occupy Wall Street protests with participants explaining their goals and motives. (Click on the headline if you can’t see the video.) The film is made by Iva Radivajevic and Martyna Starosta. Iva’s website, Iva Asks: Documenting the Masses, offers a variety of short-form documentary work. From her bio: Iva Radivojevic spent her early years in Yugoslavia and Cyprus before settling in NYC to pursue her artistic goals over a decade ago. Iva’s films explore the theme of identity, migration and immigrants – focusing on how life experiences shape one’s character, identifications, decisions, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 2, 2011 -
AMERICAN PANOPTICON
There’s been much in the mainstream media this week about the New York Times reporting that Bush via executive order — and not judicial warrant — authorized the wiretapping of American citizens. The political blogosphere, such as Kevin Drum, is discussing the issue in greater detail, commenting on the obvious conclusion that the spying Bush authorized is probably part of some new data-mining system of surveillance, something quite different than garden-variety phone tapping. Forgive my lack of surprise, but isn’t this what the NSA has been in the business of doing for years? And yes, the focus on American citizens […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 20, 2005
