Forgive me, but the cinetrix has the election fever something fierce. To that end, I decided to get thematic with this semester's documentary unit. Which is how I ended up programming two films I first saw at Full Frames past that have since been gathered under the whydemocracy.org umbrella: Please Vote for Me a week ago Monday and Taxi to the Dark Side this past Monday.
Before we go any further, yes, I know that Saint Sheila Nevins of the true HBO cross has scheduled Taxi to air like crazy before next month's election, but the cinetrix can't afford premium cable and was willing to hazard that most of her students can't either. Not and put gas in the tank. Or if they can, there's no way they'd voluntarily opt to watch this title over, say, "The Hills."
With good reason. For those of you who haven't seen it yet [you should], Gibney's Taxi is brutal in its examination of U.S. torture policy, and it carries with it a definite agenda. I was nervous about how the students might react. But one of the greatest aspects of teaching undergraduates is that there isn't any demographic cohort more finely attuned to issues of justice and fairness than late adolescents, so in the end I decided to risk it.
Damn am I glad I did. To provide a little context, I assigned the students some articles detailing the doc's bumpy road through promotion, distribution, and theatrical and cable television exhibition. I also asked them to write two-page response papers after the screening, suspecting that it might help them digest the dense, intense array of data the film marshals. Reading the results last night, I can safely say that I've never had a prouder pedogogical moment. Their passion, outrage, disgust, and shock truly gave me hope. Some of the papers made me cry. And one broke my heart.
...In all honesty, this film just made me want to quit being an American and just go to Switzerland where I could just be neutral. It was just humiliating and wrong on so many levels that crossed the lines of all morality, which really made me question what are we doing over there. Is this really what this "war on terrorism" has come to? How could we let this happen, and why has no one realized that something was wrong?
...What happened to that country that was built on the values and perceptions that each man has certain unalienable rights that no man can take away? Where is the America of Washington and Jefferson? Whatever happened to the belief of justice and equality, or do these rights only belong to those living on the shores of this "great" land we call home?
I have no answers for her. But I wanted to let you know that the kids, they are all right.