Category Archives: Culture

Henry Giroux – American Nightmare: Facing the Challenge of Fascism

In this edition of Forthright Radio, originally broadcast on June 6, 2018, our guest is McMaster University Professor, Henry Giroux, who has been our guest numerous times over the years. His latest book, which just came out from City Lights Publishing, is American Nightmare: Facing the Challenge of Fascism. It is A far-ranging critique of the rise of authoritarianism and white nationalism in the US, and the consequences for democracy.

Henry A. Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest. He is a prolific writer of books, sometimes more than one a year, and articles which appear in numerous online and print publications, as well as scholarly journals. His books include: AMERICA AT WAR WITH ITSELF; DISPOSABLE FUTURES: VIOLENCE IN THE AGE OF SPECTACLE; Hearts of Darkness: Torturing Children in the War on Terror (Paradigm, 2010); Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism, THE VIOLENCE OF ORGANIZED FORGETTING and many, many others.

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” Hannah Arendt

Christi Cooper: YOUTH V GOV

In this edition of Radio Goes to the Movies, we speak with Bozeman resident, Christi Cooper, about her years of work documenting the increasingly powerful movement of young people, who are challenging the U.S. Government and the fossil fuel industry for violation of their Constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment to Life, Liberty and Property.

Her film, a work in progress, YOUTH V. GOV, screens at the BZN International Film Festival on June 9 at the Willson Auditorium at 7:45 p.m. Victoria Barrett, a 19-year-old college student from White Plains, NY, who is one of 21 youth plaintiffs suing the U.S. government in the landmark constitutional climate change lawsuit, will also be attending for a discussion afterwards.

In this groundbreaking civil rights lawsuit, guided by Julia Olson, their lead attorney, 21 American youth take the US government and the fossil fuel industry to court for creating a climate emergency that threatens the future of the youngest generations.

This is not the typical climate change film. YOUTH V GOV brings a new perspective not yet explored. And in the end, YOUTH V GOV will activate youth, millennials, and adults to engage as citizens and to lean heavily on the pillars of democracy that we rely on for the future of our country and the world.

Signe Taylor: IT’S CRIMINAL

In this edition of Radio Goes to the Movies, we interview Signe Taylor about her documentary, IT’S CRIMINAL. It will be screened at the BZN International Film Festival in the Hager Auditorium at the Museum of the Rockies on Saturday, June 9 at 2:45 pm. There will be a discussion afterwards with some of the women – both student & inmate – as well as Patti Hernandez and Signe Taylor.

In IT’S CRIMINAL, Signe documents Sophomore Dartmouth College students in Ivy Schweitzer’s Women and Gender Studies class, who interact with women inmates at the Sullivan County Correctional Facility.

With the astute guidance of Patti Hernandez, the students and the inmates discover their common humanity, learn empathy and work together to create and perform a play.

Jennifer Townsend: Catching Sight of Thelma & Louise

In in this edition of Radio Goes to the Movies, our guest is Jennifer Townsend. We speak about her film, CATCHING SIGHT OF THELMA AND LOUISE. It is screening at the BZN International Film Festival on Fri. June 8 | 2:15 PM Reynolds Auditorium | MSU Campus.

After first seeing the film in 1991, Jennifer Townsend’s life was changed forever. She wondered if others were also as affected by it. She created a survey, sought participants, got thoughtful replies, but left the project uncompleted for 2 decades.

CATCHING SIGHT OF THELMA AND LOUISE is the story of reconnecting and completing that project.

After the screening, there will be a discussion with Haven. Domestic violence has a long history of being seen as a private family matter, rather than the public health epidemic we know it is today. End the Silence, HAVEN’s survivor speakers’ bureau, shines a light on the darkness surrounding domestic and sexual violence. This group of empowered survivors is speaking publicly about their experiences with violence in order to educate others through the first person narrative. They are actively breaking the stigma around being a survivor and mobilizing our community to end domestic violence together.

Gale Anne Hurd MANKILLER

In this edition of Radio Goes to the Movies, Gale Anne Hurd tells us about her feature length film, MANKILLER, which recounts the life of Wilma Mankiller, who overcame rampant sexism and personal challenges to emerge as the Cherokee Nation’s first woman Principal Chief in 1985.

It is the story of an American hero. One who stands tall amongst the likes of Robert Kennedy, Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King, Jr. Someone who humbly defied the odds and overcame insurmountable obstacles to fight injustice and gave a voice to the voiceless. And yet few people know her name.

Although beset with numerous health problems over many years, Wilma Mankiller persevered in breaking the cycle of poverty among her people and forged a new economic model to bring health and prosperity to the Cherokee Nation.

She was the embodiment of the Cherokee principle of Gadugi – in a positive manner that benefits the entire community.

MANKILLER Centerpiece Screening at the Bozeman International Film Festival

WHEN: Saturday June 9th, 8:15pm

WHERE: The Crawford Theater at the Emerson Center for Arts and Culture; 111 South Grand Avenue, Bozeman, MT 59715

A Q&A with Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd and Director/Producer Valerie Red-Horse Mohl to follow.

Discounted individual ticket offer here: https://bit.ly/2IAdRfB

Jill Momaday Return to Rainy Mountain

In this edition of Radio Goes to the Movies, we speak with Jill Momaday about her documentary short film, RETURN TO RAINY MOUNTAIN.

Based on the life of her father, Pulitzer Prize winning author, N. Scott Momaday, they retrace the route of his bestselling book, The Way to Rainy Mountain, visiting sacred Kiowa ancestral sites that inform the ancient myths, legends and oral traditions of their people.
It will be screening Friday morning, June 8 at 10:00 in the Hager Auditorium in the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT, as part of the BZN International Film Festival.

Kimberly Reed: Dark Money

We continue our annual Radio Goes to the Movies series featuring films screening at the 18th annual Mendocino Film Festival. In this segment we speak with Kimberly Reed, who is the director, and co-producer, writer of DARK MONEY. It’s a political thriller, which examines one of the greatest present threats to American democracy: the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections and elected officials. The film takes viewers to Montana—a frontline in the fight to preserve fair elections nationwide—and follows an intrepid local journalist, working to expose the real-life impacts of the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.

Kimberly Reed’s work has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, NPR. One of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” she directed/produced the film, PRODIGAL SONS, and was recognized as one of OUT Magazine’s “Out 100.” Her other films include PAUL GOODMAN CHANGED MY LIFE and THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON, which listeners can actually view now on Netflix.

Billings Republican candidate, Debra Bonogofsky, became suspicious when her election was thwarted by last minute inaccurate, malicious ads and mailings, the source(s) of which could not be traced. She filed suit with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices.

Powerful Republican Representative Art Wittich’s name, along with eight other 2010 Republican candidates, first appeared on documents found in three boxes discovered in Colorado. Based on this and other information, Wittich was included in the investigation on the complaint filed with the commissioner of political practices by Debra Bonogofsky against Dan Kennedy and unnamed “others.”

Underfunded and understaffed, Jonathan Motl, MT Commissioner of Political Practices doggedly followed slim leads, ultimately filing indictments.

Gene Jarussi (foreground) was appointed Special Attorney General. He served pro-bono and spent thousands of hours preparing the case. From left to right: Art Wittich, his attorney from Missouri, Lucinda Luetkemeyer, with Jonathan Motl behind Jarussi.

Tenacious investigative journalist, John Adams, persevered after his job with Lee family paper, Great Falls Tribune, was eliminated. He then founded the MT Free Press, and was crucial in finding the truth about Dark Money in MT.

Rodents of Unusual Size

Quinn Costello, editor & co-producer of the documentary, RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE, share his thoughts & experiences in creating this joyful exploration of the “Giant Swamp Rats Are Literally Eating Louisiana”.

Hard headed Louisiana fisherman Thomas Gonzales doesn’t know what will hit him next. After decades of hurricanes and oil spills he faces a new threat – hordes of monstrous 20 pound swamp rats. Known as “nutria”, these invasive South American rodents breed faster than the roving squads of hunters can control them. And with their orange teeth and voracious appetite they are eating up the coastal wetlands that protects Thomas and his town of Delacroix Island from hurricanes. But the people who have lived here for generations are not the type of folks who will give up without a fight. Thomas and a pack of lively bounty hunters are hellbent on saving Louisiana before it dissolves beneath their feet. It is man vs. rodent. May the best mammal win.

Award winning non-fiction filmmakers Quinn Costello, Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer have traveled to many corners of the world in search of unique stories highlighting the important environmental, scientific and cultural issues of contemporary society. With the success of documentary projects as varied as PLAGUES & PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA, THE NEW ENVIRONMENTALISTS and EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE they have gone on to screen their work at SXSW and Tribeca along with national TV broadcasts on PBS and the Sundance Channel. Along the way they have continued to pursue other sub-cultural documentary subjects, including: rogue economists, lucha libre wrestlers, ganja-preneurs and evangelical Christian surfers.
The filmmakers of RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE grew up in different parts of the country, but a passion for the swamp sealed their pact. Cajun Reeboks were donned and the journey began in search of the notorious “nutria rat”. Four years after first setting sail for Louisiana they emerged from the bayou covered in mosquito bites and an unwavering love for a place at the “End of the World” that is bursting with joy.

One person’s pest is another person’s pet.

Native to South America, nuria were introduced to the Bayou to be farmed for fur production during the Great Depression. Some escaped, and with no natural predators, they out-populated the native muskrats. Their numbers were kept somewhat in check until the anti-fur movement of the 1980s wiped out the fur market.

The population soon sky-rocketed to more than 25 million, literally eating the wetlands & causing tremendous environmental destruction. The state of Louisiana instituted the Nutria Control Program, which pays $5/tail.

Righteous Furs, a collective of fashion designers, prides themselves in utilizing nutria pelts. Their motto is “Save Our Wetlands. Wear more nutria.”

Efforts to create a nutria cuisine have been less successful.

Burned: Are Trees the New Coal?

BURNED: ARE TREES THE NEW COAL? tells the little-known story of the accelerating destruction of our forests for fuel, and probes the policy loopholes, huge subsidies, and blatant green-washing of the burgeoning biomass power industry.

A dedicated group of forest activists, ecologists, carbon scientists, and concerned citizens fight to establish the enormous value of our forests, protect their communities, debunk this false solution to climate change, and alter energy policy both in the US and abroad. The directors/producers of BURNED, Alan Dater & Lisa Merton say, “It’s not too late.”

Alan Dater has decades long experience in many different aspects of film making, working on such films as “Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music”; Emmy Award winning TV medical series, as well as National Geographic Specials. He moved to Vermont in the 1970s, where he started Marlboro Productions.

Lisa Merton joined him in 1989. Together, she & Alan have co-directed/produced such films as HOME TO TIBET, about a Tibetan refugee’s return to his homeland, and TAKING ROOT: THE VISION OF WANGARI MAATHAI, founder of the Green Belt Movement of Kenya, & the first environmentalist, as well as African woman, to win the Nobel Peace Prize. It won numerous international awards. Since 1996, Lisa has been a member of New Day Films, a documentary film collective.

How spending billions on subsidizing an efficient coal-burning power station to burn wood is actually WORSE for the planet than before. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4255010/Idiocy-replacing-coal-power-stations-burning-wood.html)

Jenny Murray – ¡Las Sandinistas!

Jenny Murray’s film, ¡LAS SANDINISTAS! chronicles the crucial role of women combatants in Nicaragua’s successful revolution to overthrow the decades long dictatorship of the Somoza family.

Using stunning archival footage from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, and contemporary interviews with women who had survived resistance to the brutal repression, poverty, disease, economic inequality and social injustice, the film focuses on the major Sandinista General, Dora María Téllez, as well as four of her revolutionary allies. Fully 30% of the FSLN – The Nicaraguan Sandinista Liberation Front – were women.

General Dora María Téllez entering Léon after leading the assault of Nicaragua’s second largest city. It was a major turning point.

After the success of the revolution, women filled crucial ministerial roles in health and culture, achieving historic success before the Reagan administration’s blockade and backing of the Contras diverted the all-too-scarce resources needed to continue their programs. Dora María was Minister of Health from 1985 – 1990, succeeding Lea Guido.

Now, 35 years later, amidst staggering levels of gender violence in Nicaragua, and while their own stories are being erased from the history books, these same women brave the streets once again to lead the popular movements for equality and democracy.

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Poet, Daisy Zamorra, became Minister of Culture after serving as an FSLN combatant and the voice/program director of the clandestine Radio Sandino. In spite of her dramatic success, she was “fired” after refusing the unwanted advances of a member of The (all male, 9 member) Directorate. She is now a professor in San Francisco.

Monica Baltodano “La Jefa” was a Sandanista general, who led the crucial assault on Masaya. She worked in the movement for several decades, and after experiencing the corruption and authoritarianism, she left in 2005 to form the Movement to Reclaim Sandinismo, known as El Rescate.

Dora María Téllez founded the MRS (Sandinista Renovation Movement) for democratic reforms in 1994. The struggle continues – as do the women.