Friday, September 01, 2006

Let's Go To Toronto!


UK director Gabriel Range will be screening a controversial new film at the Toronto International Film Festival. D.O.A.P. uses archive footage, actors and computer effects to portray the assassination of George Bush and the effects of the War on Terror on the US.

The 90-minute film shows Mr Bush being targeted by a sniper during anti-war rally in Chicago in 2007.

He is confronted by a demonstration when he arrives in the city to deliver a speech to business leaders and is shot as he leaves the venue.

The ensuing investigation focuses on a Syrian-born man.

As you might imagine, the White House is not happy, nor is the Republican Party of Texas.
But Gretchen Essell, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Texas, called for it not to be screened.

"I cannot support a video that would dramatise the assassination of our president, real or imagined," she told the Press Association news agency.

"The greater reality is that terrorism still exists in our world. It is obvious that the war on terror is not over.

"I find this shocking, I find it disturbing. I don't know if there are many people in America who would want to watch something like that."

And there are those who foolishly worry it might encourage someone to take action.
John Beyer of UK TV pressure group MediaWatch said the film was "irresponsible".

He said it could even trigger a real assassination attempt and told the Daily Mirror: "There's a lot of feeling against President Bush and this may well put ideas into people's heads."
Does anyone think such ideas aren't already in people's heads? Anyone remember the last assassination attempt on a U.S. president?

The head of UK broadcaster More4 describes the film as a "thought-provoking critique" of contemporary US society.
"It's an extraordinarily gripping and powerful piece of work, a drama constructed like a documentary that looks back at the assassination of George Bush as the starting point for a very gripping detective story.

"It's a pointed political examination of what the War on Terror did to the American body politic.

"I'm sure that there will be people who will be upset by it but when you watch it you realise what a sophisticated piece of work it is.

"It's not sensationalist or simplistic but a very thought-provoking, powerful drama. I hope people will see that the intention behind it is good."

The film's producers of the film hope to sell the broadcast rights to the US. Perhaps it will be screened at the Moxie.