Karina on SpoutBlog

Ben Affleck. Photo by Karina Longworth. The film related-events surrounding the 2008 Democratic Convention reached their zenith on Wednesday with a pair of sessions devoted to The People Speak, Project Greenlight/Good Will Hunting producer Chris Moore’s theatrical documentary inspired by the writings of Howard Zinn, which has its official premiere next week at the Toronto International Film Festival. The afternoon began with a panel on progressive media, featuring Moore, actor Josh Brolin (who commented extensively on his recent experience playing George W. Bush for filmmaker Oliver Stone), artist Shepherd Fairey (the man responsible for that screenprinted Barack Obama “Hope” poster, as well as a subject of the doc Beautiful Losers) and former Clinton operative Mike Lux. Then, after a brief intermission, Brolin and Moore were joined by a host of boldfaced names, including Ben Affleck, Rosario Dawson, Taye Diggs and Kerry Washington, for a live presentation of the historical readings that make up the bulk of the film. Moore began both sessions by showing a trailer for his doc, which is essentially a concert film comprised of footage captured at events where Moore’s celebrity friends dramatically read the words of historical thinkers, .rebels and rabblerousers, from from Frederick Douglas to Emma Goldman to Muhammed Ali. The trailer features money shots from these readings cut up with illustrations and archival photos and footage (Fairey, who showed up in a Sex Pistols shirt, namedropped Heidegger and casually slipped a Public Image Limited lyric into the discourse, says he’s working on “graphic treatments, illustrations that will basically come to life in the film.”) Some of said money shots are, well, priceless. Marisa Tomei throws her voice up to My Cousin Vinny register to take on the role of Cindy Sheehan; Hill Harper gives the poetry reading to treatment to the lyrics to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”; John Legend is surprisingly credible as Muhammed Ali. It all has a variety show feel, and with Zinn seemingly functioning like as the elder-statesman master of ceremonies, it almost plays like a Prairie Home Companion for a new generation of old-school-style, aggro lefties. On the panel, Lux expressed concern that today’s Democrats are––at the risk of putting too fine a point on it––lacking in balls in comparison to previous generations of leftists. “Caution kills,” he warned. “Caution kills anything significant or historic.” An hour later, Moore took the stage to inform the crowd that the live performances were getting off to a late start because 6,000 Iraq veterans were outside protesting the war, causing a security lock-down around the perimeter of the Convention that even movie stars couldn’t get through. Though Moore apologized for the fact that some of the expected performers would be tardy or absent altogether (Affleck snuck in as Brolin was taking the stage for the first reading), of the protesters, Moore said, “I’m very happy for them.” Maybe fittingly considering the climate just outside the room, the most explosive performance of the afternoon involved an outpouring of anger over this war and the way it’s been fought. Kerry Washington’s rendition of the Cindy Sheehan speech read by Tomei in the film brought reluctant but undeniable tears to this dispassionate reporter’s eyes. The black, 30-something Washington absolutely disappeared into the character of Sheehan, the white, middle-aged, slightly batty mom who became an early icon of the modern day anti-war movement when her son’s death prompted her to camp out outside George W. Bush’s vacation ranch. If Washington’s performance yesterday is any indication of the sheer commitment of these actors to bringing the radical voices of the past and present to vibrant life, then The People Speak is going to be one hell of an experience.