Persistence of Vision

Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley have been working for six years on The Battle of Brooklyn, a hardhitting documentary about the saga of eminent domain abuse and political corruption that has come to define the hugely controversial Atlantic Yards project in New York City. But the filmmakers need another $25,000 to finish the film -- and they hope to raise this amount before December 1st using the fundraising site Kickstarter.com.

You can help. Visit the Battle of Brooklyn page on Kickstarter.com today, watch the videos, read the filmmakers' description of their project, and make a donation. Just $10 will get you a digital download of the film when it becomes available. Donate $25 and you'll get a digital download and a signed DVD. For $50, you get all of the above, plus a signed DVD of the filmmakers' 2002 documentary Horns and Halos. A $100 donation gets you all the above, plus a Rumur T-shirt and the opportunity to be listed as a "patron" in the film credits.

If you want to go behind the scenes, a donation of $500 or more gets you access to rough-cut screeners, plus the opportunity to give your personal input on the final cut. Finally, anyone who pledges $2,500 or more will receive an associate producer credit on the film.

Almost $4,000 has been raised so far, with 28 days remaining. Go over to the Kickstarter page now, and help make sure that this vital film gets finished and seen!

November 9, 1989.

Matthew Groff and Ami Horowitz's doc "U.N. Me," which had its world premiere here this weekend in the festival's First Appearance Competition, is a full-scale indictment of the world body's rampant corruption, ineptitude and downright perversity.

I have to admit, when I first read the film's description, I was skeptical.

Hating the U.N. has long been a pet enemy of the far right in the United States and flashbacks to tired old diatribes about "creeping internationalism," "loss of sovereignty," "international socialism," and those mysterious "black helicopters" instantly came to mind. I have heard about corruption at the U.N., and although any corruption is never acceptable, I assumed its extent was wildly exaggerated by American right-wingers who seem to think any engagement with the world community beyond the U.S. simply dictating the rules is tantamount to traitorship.

I have to say, this is one of those rare moments when a film seriously has challenged my personal view.