If, during the past several months, I had a nickel for everyone who has asked me what I thought of Mel Gibson’s new film “The Passion of the Christ,” now out on DVD, I’d be as wealthy as the rich young man in the Gospels. People automatically assume that I’ve seen Mel’s movie, since I am one who regularly attends those twin story-telling shrines of 21st century American life: the church sanctuary and the movie theater. But, the truth is, I haven’t seen it. And I probably won’t, either.

Now don’t get me wrong. I defend Mel Gibson’s (or anyone’s) right to make a movie about Jesus’ last hours, and I defend anyone’s right to go see the film. But, as one who has been a practicing progressive Christian since my youth, I am troubled by the film. Regardless of how you feel about Christianity, there is no question that Jesus’ life and death represents a pivotal moment in world history. And for Christians, of course, Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection are central to an understanding of the great mystery that lies at the heart of the Christian faith – Jesus, both fully God and fully man (depending on which of the 80 Gospels you believe), died for our sins, and thus redeemed us if only we would pick up our cross and follow.

Putting this story this on film, however, raises big red flags for me. As a student of media, I have learned that film has a unique power to captivate – once moving images enter our heads (and hearts), they can’t be removed, short of lobotomy. Precisely, some of my faith-oriented friends say, and this is good because Jesus’ remarkable suffering – the whipping, the flaying, the nailing, etc. – is filmically impressed on us for all time. And besides, we read and vocalize the Passion in church anyway. What’s the difference?

Plenty. Books and film work on us in completely different ways, and film, I’ve learned, has a unique staying power, one that tends to shut down our own imaginative alternatives. When we watch “The Passion,” we are getting one man’s viewpoint on Jesus’ death, one which elevates excruciating scenes of suffering above all else (or so I’ve been told), paints a controversial picture of those surrounding Jesus in the hours before his death, and gives short shrift to The Resurrection – the abiding conundrum of the post-Cross experience. Do I want Mel’s interpretation forever in my head? I do not.

And then there is the film’s crass commercialism, evident to those of us who read “Advertising Age,” where the movie is discussed as a money-making bonanza by those marketing it. “The biggest thing we did was get pastors behind this movie,” says one excited marketing exec. “In turn, they gave away so much free publicity.” “The image of the resurrection hasn’t been used in the marketing,” states another PR guy specializing in film trailer construction. “I could see using that as a way to speak to people who’ve been hesitant to commit to such a challenging movie.”

For those memorabilia collectors, meanwhile, go to web sites and order your $50 Sterling Silver Passion Nail pendant, $8 dishwasher-safe Passion coffee mugs, and even an album called “Songs Inspired by the Passion of the Christ,” featuring ditties by Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, and other songs that “came” to Gibson after making the film.

And it is the “Passion of the Christ’s” marketing, perhaps, that raises the strangest of paradoxes for me. The Jesus I fell in love with proved a true spiritual radical, one who threw the money-changers from the temple, challenged the rich young man to give away all he owned, and suggested that the wealthy trying to enter heaven had much in common with camels going through needles’ eyes. Now, the radical story has been packaged as a gruesomely violent (I hear) two-hour plus spectacle for commercial consumption, with ongoing debates about whether or not the film was Anti-Semitic. What of Jesus’ message of hope and humility, of turning the other cheek, of living simply and lovingly, and of redemption in the midst of a broken and sinful world?

I guess we’ll have to wait for “The Passion-Reloaded” to explore these questions. But, then again, I probably won’t see it.

“How come I’ve never heard of you?
Are you the lead singer?
Why’d they name the band after you?
Is this your first tour?”
Ember Swift – from “F.A.Q.”/Disarming

I first heard (and heard of) Toronto-based Ember Swift at Poultney, Vermont’s summer 2003 Solar Fest. On a hot, still summer afternoon, they rocked the expanse of grass meadow full of a few hundred of us, and rocked hard. Prior to them taking the stage, most of us were lazily tossing Frisbees and lying, sprawled out, on multicolored blankets and towels – just another Green Mountain July afternoon. By the end of Ember Swift’s energetic set, everyone (and I mean everyone) was shouting, singing, and dancing. This band is hot, I remember thinking. Heck, even my dad was tapping one of his feet, albeit reluctantly.

“This generation has great big wide eyes to see
and we will keep them open
This generation understands voting circuitry
We know you’ll soon be up for re-election
This is natural selection
We’re going to call in the inspections”
Ember Swift – from “Tapped & Wired”/Disarming

My second Ember encounter was an entirely different experience. From the back of Waitsfield’s Eclipse theater, I listened as Ember charmed the audience with stories and songs at once humorous (like the hilariously bizarre “I boinked the bride”), political, and poignant. Not only can this band thump the tub - they’ve got something to say. And not only with words; there is powerful passion in the music itself – the arrangements, the instrumentation, and the dialogue between band members. Chief vocalist and acoustic guitarist Ember Swift is complemented nicely by bass/violin-stroking spoken-word poetess Lyndell Montgomery, and, depending on the night, one of at least two different percussionists.

“She is 14 and fiery
Wide-eyed and aware
Soulful delivery, cute dreadlocked hair
And a voice that channels historical stages
And songs that hang loose in the air…she is contagious
Ember Swift – from “14 and Fiery”/Disarming

Now, Ember Swift is back with “Disarming,” a powerful new CD collection of in-your-face tunes just in time for the U.S. election season. To be candid – this bunch of Canadian progressives makes Michael Moore sound like a GOP Madison Square Garden moderate. No subject is too controversial or untouchable: deforestation, gay rights, imperial foreign policy, fossil fuel SUV politics, domestic violence, and one of the most important issues you’ll never hear about during this 2004 election season – the U.S. media monopoly. In a new song called “All In The Family,” Ember sings of the “hijacking of the airwaves,” and Big Media corporations who have “bought up all the primetime property from under our very noses.”

“The media form our mental and cultural environment
we own it, we are the public
oh yes, we own it, we are the public
so won’t you stop directing the flow of this information traffic?
I am not just a demographic”
Ember Swift – from “All in the Family”/Disarming

This is rather radical stuff for Americans weaned on vapid love songs, those of us who assume that music by its very nature must strive to be apolitical or devoid of the debate-able. But, of course, the best music always carries within it the essence of the human experience with all of its ambiguities and tensions. Ember Swift just choose to wear all of these musically controversial unmentionables on their well-traveled sleeves.

“The land of the brave and the home of the free
We’re still robbing the ghetto
And we’re branding it and selling it
To the suburbs for $85.93…
I’m afraid that the west has an agenda
To start world war three”
Lyndell Montgomery – from “Sucker Punched”/Disarming

And there is an undeniably intimate and charming side to this band, too. Listen to “Boise,” about finding one’s place in the middle of a rocky road tour, or “Splinter,” which traces the dilemmas of a love unfolding, and you’ll feel yourself at home in the universality of deeply-felt human emotions.

The Mad River Valley is lucky enough to host Ember Swift this coming Friday night, September 24. If you seek a refreshing musical change, are searching for an engaging night of tune-smithing, or hanker for a political brawl, you’ll find your needs met.

Visit Ember Swift’s web site at http://www.emberswift.com.

Something remarkable unfolded in U.S. art houses, homes, and multiplexes this past year. Politically-minded movies have exploded into the public consciousness, fueled by frustrated citizens’ desire to discover deeper truths about the state of the world. Tired of the “Foxification” of our corporately-owned news culture, and fed up with the nonsense cranked out daily by commercial “shout shows” and “reality television” (an oxymoron if ever there was one), people have turned to independent films to satisfy their need to know.

Look no further than this past summer. The most talked-about movies of the season were not “Van Helsing,” “Spiderman,” or other mindless Hollywood action thrillers, as is usually the case. Instead, the movie that buzzed loudest proved to be Michael Moore’s Bush-bashing “Fahrenheit 911,” an extended ad hominem attack on the White House’s current occupant. While the highest grossing documentary of all time, though, Moore’s film was not the most important film of the year. Instead, that honor can be divided among the following seven “must see” films as we approach this election season. While all of these movies stand on their own, all tie together the big questions of our time: corporate power, war and empire, media consolidation, elites’ the ownership of our cultural storytelling process, and election year politics.

1. Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War (www.truthuncovered.com)

Directed by Robert Greenwald, this sixty minute documentary features interviews with more than twenty experts, including former U.S. ambassador Joe Wilson, weapons inspectors Scott Ritter and David Albright, anti-terrorism expert Rand Beers, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, former CIA operative Robert Baer, and Nation Washington editor David Corn. What makes this film so remarkable is the almost complete absence of sound-bitten shouting and partisan rhetoric (See, for example, Chris “Hardball” Matthews’ or Bill “Shut Up!” O’Reilly). Instead, in methodical fashion, the film’s talking heads systematically dismantle the Bush administration’s entire series of rationales (some would say “lies”) for waging war in Iraq. These “talking heads” are not knee-jerk left-wingers flipping the bird at the Establishment. Instead, the interviewees ARE the Establishment, and their case against the Bush administration is damning. “Uncovered” does not tell the viewer the WHOLE truth about the Iraqi War. But the film does chronicle, in a reasoned and authoritative manner, gross abuses of power by the Bush administration, providing a valuable corrective to the fallacious fluff served up nightly by our corporately-owned news media.

2. Control Room
(www.controlroommovie.com)

Jehane Noujaim’s “Control Room” is billed as a documentary about Al-Jazeera, the controversial Arab television news outlet that began broadcasting in 1996. But Noujaim, who is half Egyptian and half American, is more interested in trying to pin down one of the most controversial questions of the past year: What is the truth about the Iraq War? The three characters she tracks in her film all struggle with this dilemma. Al-Jazeera journalist Hassan Ibrahim, an ex-BBC’er, ardent Arab nationalist, former classmate of Osama Bin Laden, and big fan of the U.S. Constitution, possesses enough wit, anger, and intensity to drive the film forward. “The US is the most powerful country in the world,” he explains. “You can crush everyone, but don’t ask us to love it, as well.” Then there is Al-Jazeera senior producer Samir Khader, whose cigarette-smoking cynicism and wry humor anchor the film. Highly critical of the Bush administration’s occupation, he also is fond of the United States, explaining that he plans to send his children to U.S. colleges to “exchange the Arab nightmare for the American dream.” Noujaim’s most compelling character is U.S. Lieutenant Josh Rushing, who is in charge of presenting the U.S. case for Iraqi occupation to global media outlets. Young and likeable, Rushing speaks honestly about his experience – “I’ve met so many great Arabs since I’ve been here!” – while thoughtfully fending off critiques of U.S. policy by Hassim and other journalists. After being asked his opinion about Al-Jazeera’s decision to air footage of captured U.S. soldiers killed by the enemy, he movingly details his new-found distaste for war by humanizing Arab civilian casualties. It is a remarkable moment, in a film full of them.

3. Super Size Me
(www.supersizeme.com)

This ground-breaking film, already history’s 4th highest grossing documentary, features director Morgan Spurlock literally putting his body on the line, eating nothing but three square McDonald’s meals for one month. Every time a Golden Arches employee asks him if he wants to “super size” his portion, he decides he must agree. The likeable Spurlock hires three different doctors and a nutritionist to track his deteriorating health, makes his vegan chef girlfriend more than a little worried about their sex life, and chronicles the numerous ways one of the world’s most powerful corporations has seeped it’s way into our culture and our bodies. One of the most innovative meditations on corporate power and personal choice I’ve seen in years. Right after the film’s fantastically popular Sundance release, McD’s yanked “super size” portions from its menus. Coincidence? You decide.

4. The Corporation
(www.thecorporation.com)

Canadian co-directors Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott (who gave us a filmic version of Chomsky and Hermann’s “Manufacturing Consent” a decade ago) team up with law professor and social activist Joel Bakan to deliver this epic meditation on the “pathological” power of corporations. The documentary’s great genius (and biggest weakness, perhaps) is to conflate clinical definitions of individual psychopathology with definitions of “corporate personhood.” While the legal and history lessons are useful, the conclusions are too simplistic. Alongside the usual heroes (Zinn, Moore, Shiva and Chomsky) and predictable foils (Milton Friedman and Peter Drucker), we meet some fresh new voices, including author/activist Susan Linn, and hear from reformed CEOs, including a memorable Ray Anderson who chides his corporate comrades for being too greedy. For audiences new to the debates surrounding corporate power, this wide-ranging film is an eye-opener.

5. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War On Journalism (www.outfoxed.org)

In its few short years of existence, the highly profitable Fox News Network has dramatically debased the already sorry state of U.S. television journalism, beginning with some of the catchiest, most effective, and most misleading slogans – “We Report. You Decide.” - ever to grace Americans’ living rooms. Robert Greenwald’s latest film rips the lid off of Fox’s absurd claims to be “fair and balanced” (as if any corporately-owned news network could lay claim to these two ideals with a straight face), though the documentary is hardly a nonpartisan look at the work of Rupert’s minions, with comedian/activist Al Franken and other right-wing bashers weighing in. Still, the film is remarkably important for anyone who has never seen Fox News in action. Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly come off as little more than loud-mouthed and bullying right wing toadys simply by being themselves on camera, and Greenwald is smart enough, most of the time, to get out of the way and let them do the talking.

6. Orwell Rolls In His Grave
(www.orwellrollsinhisgrave.com)

Unlike “Outfoxed” or Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911,” director Robert Kane Pappas doesn’t target a particular news channel or public figure. Instead, he goes after Big Picture problems created by Big Media. The hero of Pappas’ film is former “60 Minutes” producer Charles Lewis, who founded the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity years ago after growing disillusioned with the sad state of U.S. journalism. Lewis, who broke the Clinton Lincoln Bedroom Scandal, observes that getting press coverage for political malfeasance is a breeze. It’s when there are corporate wrongdoings to be investigated that the Fourth Estate runs the other direction, or simply refuses to show up to press conferences. Pappas ranges widely here – from the Fairness Doctrine’s 1987 repeal under Reagan, to 200 Election corruption, to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, arguing, somewhat simplistically, perhaps, that Orwell’s vision for a mediated future of mind control grows more real by the day.

1. Hijacking Catastrophe: 911, Fear, And the Selling of American Empire
(www.hijackingcatastrophe.org)

The Media Education Foundation’s Sut Jhally has directed and produced dozens of films during the past decade. This may be his best. More scholarly than “Fahrenheit 911,” more passionately argued than “Uncovered,” more focused than both “The Corporation” and “Orwell Rolls In His Grave,” Jhally’s film explores the ways in which Bush administration neoconservatives have leveraged the 911 tragedy to justify their own unilateral empire-building agenda. While many other independent films have attempted to tell this story, Jhally manages to fit all the pieces together in remarkably convincing fashion, without appeals to Bush-bashing or cheap humor (though there is an authentic “Bush as high school cheerleader” photo that alone is worth the price of admission).

All seven of these films provide a unique and courageous look at a world gone wrong, while offering some direction for feeling our way to a more just, sustainable, and democratic future. See and discuss them, bring them to your local theater or living room, and, of course, get off the couch afterwards and get involved in the struggle.

“9/11, Fear, And The Selling of American Empire”

What’s the most important dilemma U.S. citizens confront as we enter the 2004 presidential election season? Here’s a short list of possibles. Some say poverty: the Census Bureau tells us that almost 40 million Americans live at or below the poverty line. Others say the ailing health care system: more than 45 million Americans are now uninsured, and the cost of health insurance is rising by 15-20% per year. The U.S. deficit? Now at $375 billion and growing, the highest it has ever been, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The U.S. debt, meanwhile, is ballooning to a projected record-breaking level of $7 trillion. Or what about quality jobs? The U.S. unemployment rate hovers around 5.6 percent, while median household income remains stagnant at $43,000.

All of these dilemmas are critical to debates about this country’s prospects, but one issue looms larger than all others: the future direction of U.S. Empire. We are citizens of the richest and most powerful empire in world history. As countless poets and pundits have pointed out, the 9/11 tragedy three years ago proved a “wake up call” for many Americans. Now, three years later, it is critical that we make our imperial foreign policy the subject of intense scrutiny during the presidential debates leading up to the election.

And there is no better film to serve as a springboard than the Media Education Foundation’s new hour-long documentary “Hijacking Catastrophe.” Produced by MEF Executive Director Sut Jhally and Jeremy Earp, narrated by veteran activist Julian Bond, and featuring more than two dozen interviews, “Hijacking” argues that a small but influential group of fringe Republican ideologues – Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and “National Review” editor William Kristol among them – have leveraged the national trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to revamp U.S. foreign policy based on a pre-existing neoconservative blueprint, while simultaneously rolling back social programs and civil liberties here at home.

Other filmmakers have gone down this road, most notably “Fahrenheit 9/11’s” Michael Moore. His film suffers from a number of flaws, however, including a frustrating focus on Bush-bashing to the exclusion of any larger sustained structural argument about the nature, direction, and key players involved in shaping post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy.

Not so with “Hijacking Catastrophe.” Jhally and Earp wisely keep their unwavering gaze focused on the decades-long ideological debates that have played out within elite foreign policy circles underneath the corporately-owned U.S. news media’s radar, debates that culminated in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, when neoconservatives moved quickly to solidify their strategic plans for unilateral U.S. global dominance.

And if you are tempted to think that all of this has little to do with the mundane realities of existence, think again. “Hijacking Catastrophe” also lays bare the opportunity costs inherent in the neocons’ plans. The invasion and occupation of Iraq has cost U.S. taxpayers close to $150 billion dollars. (That’s you and me – more than half of U.S.–based corporations simply don’t pay taxes any more). These financial resources could be used to address all of the pressing problems – education, health care, job re-training – that so many Americans are concerned about, not to mention strengthening the chronically under-funded Department of Homeland Security or strengthening programs designed to find and stop ACTUAL terrorist networks who mean U.S. citizens harm. (Where are those pesky Iraqi WMDs or those proven links between Saddam and al Qaeda, anyway?

More sobering, perhaps, is the cost in human lives. Close to 1,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, courageously fighting and dying in the Middle Eastern desert to support the D.C.-based neo-cons’ grand vision (almost all of whom avoided military service during Vietnam). 6,000 more U.S. soldiers have been injured, many losing arms, legs, or their eyesight in combat. Between 10,000 and 13,000 Iraqis have been killed – we don’t know exact numbers, because the Pentagon has refused to count the Iraqi dead.

Simply stated, “Hijacking Catastrophe” offers the most provocative exploration of post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy to date. It may be the most important documentary film of this presidential election season. Don’t miss it.