Docs and a docudrama.

Patricia Foulkrod's The Ground Truth is "a genuinely upsetting call to action that remains apolitical in its message," writes Tim Greirson, who talks with Foulkrod for the LA Weekly. "Foulkrod uses Iraq as a leaping-off point for a larger conversation about the consequences of America's military mindset - how prospective soldiers naively romanticize the notion of combat heroism, and how the same civilians who buy patriotic decals to 'support' the troops refuse to help them once their service ends."

In Slant, Ed Gonzalez writes that the film "is barely a work of art, visually unseemly and struggling for a significant throughline, but as a polemic it has the urgency of stray sniper fire."

Updated.

"Democrats looking for another way to nationalize the midterm elections need look no further than their movie multiplexes and DVD players," writes Arianna Huffington at her Post. "Robert Greenwald's latest film, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (coming soon to a theater - and a living room - near you) is a devastating expose of how the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress have allowed private corporations free reign in Iraq, leading to billions of dollars in profits at the expense of American troops, American taxpayers, and the people of Iraq."

And she's not even part of the Media Consortium running pieces on or related to the doc today. Do see these: Joshua Holland at Alternet, Tara McKelvey in the American Prospect, Pratap Chatterjee in ColorLines, Bill Scher for In These Times and Martha Burk for Ms.

...So Goes the Nation is "the story of macro-level political strategy," as observed specifically during the Bush vs Kerry face-off of 2004, and, as the film's makers, James D Stern and Adam Del Deo, write at Toronto's Doc Blog, "brings to mind a looming question: what new strategizing has each party done to win or retain seats?"

"A right-wing film timed to make the Democrats look weak on security in an election year? You don't say," sighs Ryan Wu. More from Dan Glaister in the Guardian and, via Craig Phillips, Media Matters.

"With great relief and keen anticipation, I can finally write about the machinations involved in getting 51 Birch Street to a theater near you," announces Doug Block, who's going Truly Indie. "If you're going to Toronto, you'll get the chance to hear all about it on a panel devoted to a case study of 51 Birch Street, called, appropriately enough, 'The Long Road to Distribution.'"

The Trials of Darryl Hunt screens in Austin this coming Wednesday. In the Austin Chronicle, Anne S Lewis introduces a statement from directors Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg.

Update: For Harper's, Ken Silverstein talks with writer and filmmaker Robert Young Pelton "about the growing use of private contractors by the armed forces of the United States and other nations."

Posted by dwhudson at September 7, 2006 10:07 AM