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What we are witnessing now, both here on this ListServ with respondents to the original message and in the wider public discourse, is demonstrative of a larger issue, our nationwide refusal to engage with a serious media literacy that is commonplace worldwide. I don’t want to say this to sound like a self-righteous pedantic ass but it really is a serious issue. When even people with college education talk about cinema, we post movie reviews from pedestrian hacks like James Agee and Roger Ebert. If you were to contrast what the French said about a particular film from the Classical Hollywood Cinema era with a contemporaneous review from the States, you’d be embarrassed. We don’t discuss serious issues in our critique of cinema, we engage in shallow gossip. I have a BA in Film Studies (want fries with that?) and it’s an all-encompassing vacuum of nonsense impersonating journalism in the mainstream. GONE WITH THE WIND, BIRTH OF A NATION, and TRIUMPH OF THE WILL are tremendously important texts for both their craftsmanship and because, perhaps more importantly, they succeeded in pushing the viewing public to embrace a genocidal politics. To shove them down the memory hole in the name of a nihilistic impulse is to actually engage with the maintenance of those hateful ideologies -precisely- because it prevents the public from seeing demonstrations of that which we otherwise have enough critical distance from in order to recognize their hatefulness. The success of the genocide is predicated upon hiding from public view that which is unpalatable. Look at the current uprising against police brutality for such an example. It’s not that the police started being maniacs just in the past decade, it was because everyone has a powerful video camera and internet platform in their pocket that the broad public was awakened from its ignorance and forced to see that Rodney King-like events were not the exception but rather the rule. So I agree with the preservation of cinema that is socially grounded in mature politics and historical exegesis. Is TCM up to the challenge? I honestly cannot comment, I have never been a subscriber and I have been tuned out of cable for years. I like what the Criterion Channel does, which actually is mature and coherent film scholarship. Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Message: 1 Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2020 12:12:42 -0700 From: John A Imani <johnaima...@gmail.com> To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition <marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> Subject: [Marxism] Gone With the Wind Message-ID: <CAGcfvoPKv=va_ryjht2saajyuro997qnu1wvkhfnofqznv4...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Comrades, I am black. 72 years old. An anarcho-Marxian. And, as an adult, have logged 50+ years of participation in many many movements always to be found in the same place: on the front line. I make those statements because I have never sought nor accepted the privileges of race, age, my grasp of politico-economics and/or the braggadocio resulting from "Jaws"-like comparisons of battle scars. And because of these experiences and this disposition I invite criticism as I have never feared being wrong only of being incorrect. And, on this, especially at this special time. "GWTW" is beautifully filmed, finely acted, magnificently scored, if historically inaccurate, depiction of the ante-, inter- and post-bellum South. It is a work of art even if also an agent of racism. It--like statues and monuments klan outfittings and speeches--belongs with those brethren in a museum. And alongside these mementos explanations and criticisms giving these their proper contexts. In this case that museum's name is TCM. I recently saw for the first time Hattie McDaniels' acceptance speech <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7t4pTNZshA> for winning the Acad Award for Best Supporting Actor. It was as magnificent as it was short, emotional and uplifting. It was as grand as her portrayal of 'Mammy' in the film wherein I have never seen an actor so embody the conscious as well as the subconsciousness of the character portrayed. Do we burn that film as some have burned books? JAI _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
