recent netflixes...

though "jesus camp" was in my netflix recommendations, i had no interest in it. while dani was visiting, we had some netflixes around the house, including "death in gaza". based off of that, dani recommended we watch "jesus camp". i then saw a review online of someone who watched both films back to back and thought i'd do the same. "jesus camp" was interesting. i have not been around christians like that in a long time. i never was like that exactly but i can relate from my experience going to a missionary school in japan. we weren't allowed to read tolkien or c.s. lewis because it was somehow satanic and blasphemous. in the film, there is a scene where the adults tell the kids they can't watch "harry potter" because witchcraft is wrong, just like when i was a kid. but i notice in one of the homes of these fundamental christians, they have a copy of "lord of the rings". i guess someone needs to tell them to burn it! anyway, it was weird. 'fundamental christians'...perhaps that might be the word for the missionary school i went to. i'm not into fad vocabulary though. let's just call it conservative. one thing i think is important about the movie is to listen to the adults and the children. listen to the statistics given in the film and ponder that. fundamentalism is on the rise in america. we must understand it as americans. their idea as conveyed in the film is that america is a christian nation that has been lost and they want to take it back. apparently they have not read american history nor law to understand there is freedom of religion and that it is separate from government. *sigh* it's too much to go into.

i netflixed "another gay movie" 'cos it had 4 stars or something like that. i thought it would be something like a gay version "not another teen movie", where they make fun of all the latest well-known gay films. it started off funny. maybe the first 5 minutes. but it just went downhill. i do not recommend.

i also netflixed "control room" as part of my self-appointed viewing series of documentaries on things related to the bush regime, the wars in the middle east we are engaging in, etc. this film is about the arab news network "al jazeera". i thought it was important to watch since the bush regime criticizes it whereas i have read it is actually a liberal source and gets criticized by conservative arabs, even banned. i thought the content was wonderful however the presentation was terrible. content good, editing or order of materials bad. overall the film can be looked at how the war in iraq is being covered, american view versus arab view. naturally there is censorship in all news, even america. the people are simply not aware. we never see bloody bodies on tv. we do not see what war is really like. this is one of the points addressed by the people in the documentary. they pointed out a time when some bodies were shown and america got mad, or at least the military pr person was upset. the argument then was that al jazeera is bad for showing bodies. i think this was a bit silly. if we see what war is really like, we won't support it? you know, often i have heard how other countries show things american news does not show and i'm not talking al jazeera, i'm talking bbc and other western countries our leaders are in bed with.

there were some very important points made and intellectual discussion in the film. i especially liked the part where one of the al jazeera employees, i think she works behind the scenes in the control room, i have already forgotten, talks about and criticizes herself as someone who is concerned but does nothing to help bring about change in the arab world. that something needs to be done and yes we go out into the street and protest, but that is it. we go back home and forget, do nothing more. i think this was a very important statement. this is applicable to just about everyone. it is so easy to complain, to even participate in a protest here or there. but who actually takes part in the process of change, in the revolution? of course, we need small steps like thinking, talking, and protest. eventually this will catalyst bigger changes. i also liked one of the heads of al jazeera (was it the manager, i forget so quickly) explaining the mission statement of al jazeera. that they are there to wake up the arab world and make them think. the most important thing is to present the news and make the people think. thank you for a film that made me think. (some of the reporters ask really hard hitting questions, even to the military pr man. good stuff.) what's really interesting too is a comment made by someone in the film to one of the al jazeera reporters, that if you work for the bbc you eventually work for al jazeera. that just goes to show you the diversity of the network or perhaps give it some credibility to those who think ill of it. unless you think their journalists are bbc dropouts, hehehe.