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Events
The Camera Cinema Club events are the most unique cinematic experiences offered in the Bay Area. Special guests and celebrities who have talked with audiences about their films include actors John Malkovich and Peter Mullan, and a host of independent filmmakers who have gone on to celebrated careers. One of the all-time highlights for members was when Jessica Yu, Academy Award®-winning director of "Breathing Lessons: The Life And Works of Mark O'Brien", passed her Oscar around the audience during the Club's inaugural 1997-98 season.
For an overview of Club events from its inaugural season to the present, check out our CLUB HISTORY
Club Screens Oscar Nominated Doc 'The Most Dangerous Man in America'
On Sunday, February 14 the Camera Cinema Club screened the Academy Award
nominated (Best Documentary Feature 2009) THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA:
DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS (http://www.mostdangerousman.org/).
In attendance was the film's co-writer, producer and director Judith
Ehrlich.
THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS
opens this Friday, February 19 in the Bay Area with a one-week exclusive run
at the Camera 12 Cinemas in downtown San Jose.
The Woody Harrelson You Tube video Judith made mention of in her Q&As:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G1SaatIp0w&feature=PlayList&p=38A2BF1463001111&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=88
See you all on March 14!
Cheers,
Tim
Director Camera Cinema Club
The Place To Talk Film
THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: A-
In a key segment of this gut-punching, superbly edited documentary, we hear
that Daniel Ellsberg's defense team made sure that few if any middle-aged
people would serve on the jury to hear government charges against the man.
The reason? Many, probably most of these folks had probably ignored the
call of principles in order to advance their careers. Ellsberg was not of
this sort. He gave up career and friends, although not family, by blowing
the whistle on a whole set of lies that successive presidential
administrations had been telling the people. (The government lies? What a
surprise!)
Stop people on the street and ask them this: Suppose you found out that a
high government official, trusted by officials as high as the President and
given security clearance, stole top secret documents from a confidential
file. He then sent those documents to the press, particularly the country's
most influential newspaper, the New York Times, papers that he would never
have had access to had he not be given security clearance. What would you
think of the fellow? Doubtless the majority of people on the street would
tell you that such a guy is a traitor, a deceiver, a snake, someone who took
advantage of his privileged position to trash the very administration that
appointed him.
Hmmm. One wonders whether those who see this documentary would agree that
Daniel Ellsberg should have been jailed for a long time, particularly since
the high-level papers he released affected not only his own country but an
enemy nation with which the U.S. was involved in a major war. After seeing
"The Most Dangerous Man in America," I'm inclined to be not so sanguine
about making Ellsberg a hero: I wonder if that's your view as well. Please
get back to me on the forum with your commentary.
The story is this. Ellsberg, who had military credentials as a former first
lieutenant in the U.S. Marines where he spent the happiest years of his
life, was a brilliant man, a Ph.D. who had a position in the U.S.
administration as a war planner. While presidents from Eisenhower to
Kennedy, from Johnson to Nixon, repeatedly told the American people that the
Vietnam War was, first, one for which U.S. involvement would be limited to
an advisory capacity. Later Presidents Johnson and Nixon lied about the
illegal bombing of Cambodia and Laos and covered up the atrocities being
committed by our own side (of course the other side was at least as guilty,
but we're supposed to be above that sort of thing.)
Let me cite a parallel, imaginative situation. Let's say you are ardently
pro-Israel, a high official of that country's government with access to
confidential documents. You discover a paper indicating that the Prime
Minister and his cabinet have no intention whatever of giving Palestinians
an independent state ever, though the government repeatedly blames the other
side for the lack of progress. Would you be a hero or a traitor for turning
a shekel?
Hey! It's to the enormous credit of this film that such questions can be
evoked in the audience!
So when you watch this picture, think of that overriding question. Meanwhile
Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, who direct this wonderful doc, make clear
their view that Ellsberg is a hero, though Henry Kissinger dubbed him "the
most dangerous man in America." During the early seventies while the
Vietnam was hot and heavy with over half a million American soldiers in that
godforsaken country, Ellsberg stole secret documents that indicated a
cover-up of atrocities with wildly overoptimistic statements about American
progress. He Xeroxed 7000 pages-and remember that Xerography was in an
infant stage in the early seventies-delivered the docs to the NYTimes which
printed the report until the newspaper was enjoined by the court. The
papers were delivered to one paper after another, one step ahead of
injunctions, until the whole country knew that the war was lost. Nixon, who
compulsively and self-destructively taped all his conversations in the oval
office, let loose with obscenities about both Dr. Ellsberg and the New York
Times-and Vietnam as well-all this information leading to humorous segments
of the film.
In addition to the talking heads that include his wife Patricia and son
Robert, journalist Tom Oliphant, historian Howard Zinn, Washington bureau
chief for the NY Times Max Frankel and Republic Congressman Pete McCloskey,
considerable time is spent on archival films, including graphic detail on
the saturation bombing of that small country, the atrocities on the ground,
a few funny animations when archival work was not available. We're told in
the epilogue that two million Vietnamese and fifty-eight thousand Americans
were killed in this unnecessary war.
So why is this film, seemingly dated with facts know by everyone middle-aged
and above, shown now? Obvious parallels with the Iraq War exist. 'nuff
said. Good show.
Unrated. 93 minutes. © 2010 by Harvey Karten Member: New York Film
Critics Online
February 14th - THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA
The Camera Cinema Club screened the Academy Award nominated (Best Documentary Feature 2009) The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, profiling the high-level Pentagon official and Vietnam War strategist, who in 1971 leaked 7,000 pages of top secret documents to The New York Times, making headlines around the world. In attendance was the film's co-writer, producer and director Judith Ehrlich.
January 17th - THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE
The Camera Cinema Club screened The September Issue, an intimate, funny and surprising behind-the-scenes look into the world of fashion, and "Vogue's" legendary editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and her team of larger-than-life editors, as they create the September issue of
"Vogue"--the must-have Bible of fashion. Director RJ Cutler discussed the film and took questions from the audience at both screenings.
November 22 - ME AND ORSON WELLES
The Camera Cinema Club screened Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles, exploring the famed filmmaker's theatrical work in the days before he changed movies forever with "Citizen Kane." "High School Musical" star Zack Efron portrays a young New York actor who is offered a role in Welles's soon-to-be-legendary 1937 Mercury Theater production of "Julius Caesar". In attendance was Bay Area film critic ("Box Office Magazine"; San Francisco Chronicle) Pam Grady.
October 18 - THE MESSENGER
The Camera Cinema Club inaugurated its 14th Season with two screenings of The Messenger, a drama about two Iraq war veterans (Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson), united by the task of informing next of kin that their loved ones have been killed in action. Following the screenings members were treated to a brief interview/greeting from writer/director Oren Moverman and actor Woody Harrelson, followed by a lively discussion.
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