thenationofartists.com

Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2009 Sundance Film Festival)

Directed by: Liz Garbus
Starring: Martin Garbus, Kenneth Starr, Jack M. Sleeth, Eric Foner, Josh Wolf, Donna Lieberman, Richard Posner, Ward Churchill, David Horowitz, Debbie Almontaser, Daniel Pipes, Floyd Abrams, Tyler Chase Harper, Kevin Theriot

Shouting Fire uses a handful of post-9/11 events to elucidate the current state of the right to free speech. While the title “Stories from the Edge of Free Speech” suggests there is more than just an edge remaining, Liz Garbus’s efforts in this documentary – anchored by her father, Martin Garbus – largely paint a picture that the strip of rights remaining intact following the Bush administration might be just an edge, indeed.

Martin Garbus is a worthy advocate, a believer that the very cornerstone of free speech – the ability to think anything, say anything and create anything – is, in itself, a miracle. The filmmaker postulates that the post-9/11 effect, as evidenced by the Patriot Act and the unwarranted or extraneous press attention on anyone who tried to explain away the 9/11 acts of terror as anything other than senselessness, resembled a new form of McCarthyism and an affirmation that in eras of uncertainty trumped up excuses punish the unpopular exercise of the first amendment.

Director Garbus cuts between left- (mostly) and right-wing ideologues to explain their positions on distinct cases where the First Amendment was in play – for example, Ward Churchill’s firing from the University of Colorado, Debbie Almontaser’s resignation from the Khalil Gibran International Academy in NYC, and Tyler Chase Harper’s “Homosexuality is Shameful” T-shirt in Poway. Garbus also utilizes film references with impressive effect, providing popular cultural support for her premises with the use of clips from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Animal Farm, HBO’s “John Adams,” Torn Curtain, All the President’s Men and The Big Lebowski.

Produced by Moxie Firecracker Films’ filmmaker Rory Kennedy, who premiered The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib here at Sundance a couple of years ago, it is no misconception that the film comes with liberal leanings. But with Daniel Pipes, Kevin Theriot and David Horowitz in tow to represent the case of the right, the documentary delivers what feels like a demonstrable and deserved debate of the duality of the issues.

While people continue to flee to the U.S. to escape regimes of political oppression, the questions raised by Garbus’s documentary remain relevant: Is lawful protest the safety valve against terrorism or other more extreme forms of expression? Is it necessary to sacrifice civil liberties for the safety of our citizens? In order to defend free speech, do we have to defend the rights of people we hate? Or is the freedom of speech also the freedom to keep quiet and go unrecognized, unidentified and unbothered?

CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES. (Free speech clause of the First Amendment, U.S. Bill of Rights)

And, to paraphrase Stanley Kubrick, we will continue to defend to the death your right to be misinformed (Full Metal Jacket). -MPM