By Jason Apuzzo. A film from the recent LA Film Festival that we loved was Disco & Atomic War. Disco is an extraordinary new Estonian documentary about the so-called ’soft power’ influence of American and Western culture on the minds of Soviet citizens living in Estonia during the Cold War, who were able through clever means to watch Finnish television broadcasts emanating from just over the border. As Disco informs us (in amusing detail), American popular culture – especially in the form of glamorous TV shows like “Dallas,” or movies like Star Wars and even Emmanuelle – was deeply feared by Soviet authorities due to the ideas and expectations such programming planted in the minds of Soviet citizens. This led to amusing co-optings, such as the Soviets creating their own officially sanctioned disco instruction course for TV(!).
This is documentary filmmaking at its finest, and easily one of the best – and most drily amusing – films I’ve seen this past year. We want to thank the folks at SnagFilms for making the full-length film available for everyone to see, for free. Also: special thanks to SnagFilms for following Libertas on Twitter!
By Joe Bendel. Euphemisms can be terrible instruments of evil. For instance, when former Khmer Rouge cadres speak of “solving problems” what they really refer to is the systematic torture and execution of roughly two million Cambodians, whose only crime was to be deemed insufficiently Communist. Thet Sambath understands this all too well. After losing his parents and brother to the Khmer Rouge reign of terror, he spent years interviewing former cadres to understand why they killed their countrymen. His self-funded investigation ultimately resulted in Enemies of the People (trailer above), a truly newsworthy documentary co-directed by Rob Lemkin, which opens in New York this Friday and in Los Angeles next week.
A newspaper journalist in Phnom Penh, Sambath’s quiet, unassuming demeanor is perfectly suited to winning the confidences of his interview subjects. However, he does not advertize his tragic family history, especially not with the big fish, Nuon Chea, a.k.a. Brother Number Two, the Khmer Rouge’s chief theoretician – second only to Pol Pot (Brother Number One). For years, the largely silent Chea has maintained his ignorance of the Killing Fields, but Sambath wore down his reticence. With Chea facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, what he says on Sambath’s tapes is extraordinarily timely.
Depicts the ideologically-driven crimes of the Khmer Rouge.
Beyond its potential relevance in the Cambodian Tribunal, Enemies is highly significant as a pioneering Cambodian documentary inquiry into the Khmer Rouge’s crimes. Providing historical context that will likely be instructive for western audiences as well, Sambath explains that the Khmer Rouge directly looked to China as their revolutionary inspiration. Indeed, one can argue the Killing Fields were an indirect product of the Cultural Revolution.
The former low level cadres interviewed on camera also confirm their victims were brutalized and murdered out of ideological zeal. They were capitalist or counter-revolutionary “problems” to “fix.” The matter-of-factness of their videotaped statements is quite chilling, lending credence to Hannah Arendt’s concept of the banality of evil. While some express remorse, decades after the fact, for the most part, it seems like Sambath is not tapping into feelings of guilt so much as a Dostoevskian compulsion to confess. Obviously suffering from his own survivor’s guilt, Sambath also has his own stories to tell. However, he appears to attain a measure of closure through his ambitious undercover research project.
In Enemies, Sambath puts to shame most western journalists who simply preen in front of cameras and regurgitate talking points. At no small risk to himself, he set out to get the truth, succeeding rather spectacularly given his modest resources. Frankly, the ignorance and misunderstanding of the Khmer Rouge borders on the criminal in the west, but Sambath and Lemkin bring their genocidal crimes into sharp focus. Yes, the American bombings are mentioned in Enemies, but only briefly – never suggesting they excuse or rationalize the crimes of the Khmer Rouge in any way. Truly, Sambath understands who the killers really are, and he got them on tape. Thoughtful and legitimately bold, it opens this Friday (7/30) in New York at the Quad and next Friday (8/6) in Los Angeles at Laemmle’s Music Hall, Beverly Hills.
By Jason Apuzzo. • The big story right now is that Leonardo DiCaprio is apparently dropping out of Mel Gibson’s forthcoming Viking epic due to Mel’s recent … do I need to tell you? As I said when this story first broke about Gibson’s ranting and physical abuse, he wasn’t going to survive this scandal. And now we’re seeing it. For what it’s worth, I think DiCaprio has made the right decision.
• In the wake of the recent debate here at LFM over alien-themed projects, Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel has a new screenwriter, who also happens to be the guy working on both the new Star Trek films and also Cowboys & Aliens. Should the same guy be doing all this? Incidentally, Ridley Scott is also apparently circling around Gucci, which may star Angelina Jolie as Patrizia Reggiani – who was sentenced to 29 years in prison after being convicted of plotting the murder of her ex-husband Maurizio Gucci, after he’d taken control of the family’s fashion empire. It would be an alluring femme fatale role for Jolie – and I’m sure the opportunity to be around Gucci products has absolutely nothing to do with her interest in this project.
• Another very big alien project just got announced: Guillermo del Toro is set to direct and James Cameron produce a 3D adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s famous novel, At the Mountains of Madness. I would love to see this, even given my current intense displeasure with Cameron. At the Mountains of Madness is one of my favorite novels, and is one of the most influential science fiction novels of all time. You could say, in a sense, that it already has been adapted by way of such films as The Thing and Alien … but it would be wonderful to see a new take on the original material, provided everybody is respectful toward Lovecraft’s novel (which I assume they would be). Del Toro seems to have the right florid sensibility for this.
• Did you know that Paul Giamatti will be playing Nikita Krushchev, in a new HBO movie? The title of the movie is K Blows His Top, about Krushchev’s famous visit to the United States – during which he blew his top in public after his Disneyland trip was cancelled. Tom Hanks is producing on this one. Hanks recently blew his top when The Pacific was released.
• Carla Bruni just started shooting Woody Allen’s next film … and she blew her first scene! Apparently she looked into the camera. Maybe that’ll end up on the DVD.
• In the annals of overhyped bloggers, nobody quite takes the cake like Olivia Munn. Today she had this elegant, insightful remark to make about Wonder Woman’s new costume: “She doesn’t need to wear a f**king star to be a f**king patriot.” Thank you, Olivia. You and your fanboy compatriots certainly elevate everything we do on the internet.
Author/celebrity Katie Price.
• In the wake of Oliver Stone’s recent impolitic musings on the Jewish people (ahem), Haim Saban wants Stone’s 10-part series “A Secret History of America” to be pulled from Showtime. Ari Emanuel is apparently joining him in this effort. I actually think Les Moonves might cave here. Saban is one the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, and heads will roll if Stone’s show airs … as they should.
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … in America we have Snooki, Kim Kardashian, Heidi Montag, etc. In Britain all these women are more or less rolled into one as Katie Price, who has a new novel out right now called Paradise. Price’s last novel Sapphire hit #1 in the UK, and she’s already written about 6 children’s books and 3 autobiographies – while still only in her 30s. One thing’s for certain: the woman is building up a substantial body of work. So to speak.
And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood.
By Jason Apuzzo. A film from the recent LA Film Festival that we loved was Disco & Atomic War. Disco is an extraordinary new Estonian documentary about the so-called ’soft power’ influence of American and Western culture on the minds of Soviet citizens living in Estonia during the Cold War, who were able through clever means to watch Finnish television broadcasts emanating from just over the border. As Disco informs us (in amusing detail), American popular culture – especially in the form of glamorous TV shows like “Dallas,” or movies like Star Wars and even Emmanuelle – was deeply feared by Soviet authorities due to the ideas and expectations such programming planted in the minds of Soviet citizens. This led to amusing co-optings, such as the Soviets creating their own officially sanctioned disco instruction course for TV(!).
