Matt Drudge is linking to an Irish Times report on a documentary called Not Evil Just Wrong, which Irish filmmakers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer claim “is the film Al Gore and Hollywood don’t want you to see.” The film purports to reveal “how extreme environmentalism is damaging the lives of ordinary people,” and the filmmakers have set up a PayPal account in the hopes of raising money for distribution. As the copy reads on their website, they’re “asking ordinary Americans to be part of cinematic history by making sure a documentary that finally tells the truth about their lives is shown across the nation.”
The trailer, embedded above, suggests that the Not Evil is typical reactionary propaganda, full of ominous music, quickly edited collapses in logic (such as when one man’s concern over the potential closing of an unidentified factory is followed up by an expert warning that “100s of millions of people would die”), and provocative but unfounded statements like, “They want to go back to the Dark Ages and the Black Plague!” But you know … that’s fine. Everyone should be allowed to make over-the-top, aggressively partisan cinema if it that makes them and their friends feel better about what they believe, right?
But it’s the PayPal campaign rankles, if only because of the extreme amount of cash involved. …Read more
Celia Maysles, daughter of David Maysles (who, with his brother Albert, directed such landmark documentaries as Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens), has directed a film about her attempts to get to know her late father called Wild Blue Yonder. When the film had its world premiere at IDFA last fall, Albert Maysles (who is seen in the film denying Celia access to her father’s archives, on the grounds that her film might conflict with his own autobiographical doc) told indieWIRE that he had so far not been allowed to see his niece’s movie. But he apparently caught up with it at some point, because at an event celebrating his own The Gates last night, Albert offered The Reeler a review:
Terrible…Unnecessarily, I come off badly. I wanted to cooperate with her, but I was — and am — making my own autobiographical film at the same time. I couldn’t just let her pick whatever she wanted. I wanted the two of us to cooperate in that process. She took that as an offense. And as you see in the film, I come off as the bad guy.
Maysles concedes that Yonder is actually “fairly well-made,” but cites what he claims are numerous inaccuracies, and ultimately writes off the whole endeavor as “unnecessary.” Sour grapes or solid critique? We’ll find out when Wild Blue Yonder has its US premiere at the SXSW Film Festival next month.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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Celia Maysles, daughter of David Maysles (who, with his brother Albert, directed such landmark documentaries as Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens), has directed a film about her attempts to get to know her late father called Wild Blue Yonder. When the film had its world premiere at IDFA last fall, Albert Maysles (who is seen in the film denying Celia access to her father’s archives, on the grounds that her film might conflict with his own autobiographical doc) told indieWIRE that he had so far not been allowed to see his niece’s movie. But he apparently caught up with it at some point, because at an event celebrating his own The Gates last night, Albert offered The Reeler a review:
