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Silver City: Truth-telling a tough row to hoe in new John Sayles film

By Eamon Martin

Kingston, New York, Oct. 6 (AGR) — An unidentified cadaver is fished out of a lake by a half-wit senator’s son running for governor. So begins Silver City, a new movie by critically acclaimed writer/director John Sayles and his independent production company, Anarchists Convention.

Some advance reviews quickly dismissed Sayles’ latest film as mere pre-election, leftist exploitation seeking to satirically showcase a bumbling, disingenuous Bush impostor.

Far from it. Like the best of this cinematic maverick’s work (such as Matewan, Men With Guns, and Lone Star), Silver City is primarily a complex orchestration of diverse characters interwoven through a microcosmic tapestry of rich socio-cultural analysis and political commentary. But rather than beat you over the head with such high-minded intellectualism, Sayles subversively threads his main themes into a story of sophisticated detective noir.

Chris Cooper plays Colorado gubernatorial candidate Dickie Pilager. Though his face has been at the forefront of the film’s promotions, Cooper’s character is hardly the point of the plot’s emphasis. And like its deceptive packaging, the movie itself is much more than a murder mystery. Sayles takes the detective genre and uses it as a canvas to ambitiously illustrate the multi-dimensional, interlocking social dynamics of real exploitation in today’s media, government, and corporations. Along the way, the viewer is exposed to a rare treatment of race, labor, class, and environmental issues.

“The seed for Silver City came when we were filming Sunshine State” in Florida, says Sayles. “It was in response to the one-sided political conversation we were getting right after the 2000 election. People around us were asking, ‘What’s up with mainstream media?’”

Many Floridians were confused and dismayed by how the election controversy was being framed in the news, Sayles explains. He says many people disagreed, arguing that it “was about African-Americans not getting to vote,” not for the reasons being discussed at the time.

Inspired by this mystery as an example of what the director saw as a troubling trend, Sayles decided to put the clues together cinematically in parable form.

After Pilager accidentally hooks the corpse while shooting a commercial, his paranoid campaign manager (Richard Dreyfuss) hires another wash-up — a crusading journalist now employed as a gumshoe private dick — to intimidate people he suspects might have deliberately tried to scandalize his candidate.

As private investigator Danny O’Brien (Danny Huston) gradually solves the crime, he uncovers an allegory for what’s at play in the arena of corporate political access. As he gets deeper, he rediscovers what’s at stake: average US citizen’s impoverished access to critical information and its impact not only on how they are governed and kept in line, but consequentially the environment they inhabit and who wins and who loses in the social hierarchy of the status quo. And just how do those pesky ethics of “selling out” to a lifestyle of corporate professionalism effect us?

Silver City is very much an exploration of the social role of a journalist. In the film, the ones who have the story are those that have been pushed furthest to the margins. O’Brien enlists the aid of his old editor Mitch Paine (Tim Roth), a nervously exhausted news hound kicked even further down the media social totem pole after the two of them stepped on too many toes at their old activist newspaper. With their paper transformed soon after into a showcase for innocuous “Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe” features, the staunchly radical Paine and a rag-tag group of young volunteer web activists now compile all the dirt on corporate/government corruption, but work in squalor. Even though their watchdog work is thankless, and their Limbaughesque rival enjoys a modern office apparatus, Paine’s group “accumulates the facts until a story screams out,” in the hopes of “making it impossible to ignore.” Then, after sitting on it for awhile, corporate reporters, Paine explains, use “our legwork and get the Pulitzers,” but nevertheless, “somebody has to plant the seed.”

Paine’s character is partially based on “Greg Palast,” says Sayles, “[a journalist] who has been run out of this country.”

Sayles says the movie’s news media theme was also written in response to “the whole concept of being embedded,” and the severe limitations that relationship places on reporters’ journalistic integrity. If you are embedded, or a police reporter, for example, the director says, “The minute you report something they don’t like, there’ll be a limit on the kind of story you’ll get. It’ll be enormously one-sided.”

To make his point, Sayles told AGR, “We just found out today that all the sources for [reports on] civilian casualties in Iraq have been shut off,” by the country’s US-appointed administration.

Sayles says Silver City is his way of asking: “What do we want and expect from our politicians and getting? What do we want and expect from mainstream media and what are we getting? What is a reporter supposed to do?”

“We used to just call them ‘reporters.’ Then they became ‘investigative reporters’. Finally there was a move to intimidate reporters by calling them ‘advocacy journalists.’” These days, the director says, “if you really want the story, you’ve got to dig.”

The social and class consequences of being an independent journalist are hammered into the entire film with the message that if you want to get ahead, keep your mouth shut. Open it, and invite personal demoralization. Behind Pilager is the omni-evil corporate tycoon Wes Benteen (Kris Kristofferson). In one sublime moment of foreshadowing, a suspicious Benteen asks O’Brien if he’s a “winner.” After the not-too-confident detective offers that he’d like to think so, Benteen patronizes him with “Good boy.” By film’s end, after firing him for being a journalist doing too good a job, Pilager’s campaign manager admonishes O’Brien by saying, “You’re a loser. Be a good one.”

Nora Allardyce (Maria Bello) is also a journalist, as well as O’Brien’s ex’ and someone he now refers to as a “corporate mouthpiece.” Much to O’Brien’s dismay, his social-climbing ex-girlfriend is considering marrying an icy and manipulative corporate lobbyist because it’s “the mature thing to do.” But even her ambition isn’t immune to the harsher realities of corporate life when her would-be fiancee — who describes himself as a defender of “the underdog” in society — dumps her over a “conflict in interests.” And if that weren’t enough, after dogging Pilager’s drunken trail, Allardyce’s newspaper is ultimately purchased by Benteen . “My paper has been co-opted,” she pouts.

“The film is about looking at the shiny surface” like good reporters do, says Sayles, “and seeing what’s underneath — a trail that seems to circle back and point at your own employers.”

In the film’s finale, O’Brien is handed his severance pay, leaving the story’s untold secrets with Paine, which lead him literally to hit a fresh brick wall.

But, says Sayles, “you have to hope that Tim Roth’s character will continue doing what he does.”

As the final credit rolls, Steve Earle can be heard singing the film’s last audible words from his song “Amerika vs. 6.0”: “Is this the best we can do...?”

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HIV-positive movers and shakers

By Mercedes Sayagues

Kampala, Uganda, Oct. 4 (IPS) — The fragrance of ginger and paw paws from market stalls floats into the tiny room where Musisi Josephus Gavah shows visitors a thick ledger — the register of members of the Mukono District Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS.

The 650 members of the network (which is also referred to as Mudinet) are organized into support groups in 16 of the 28 sub-counties of the district — which is located in south-eastern Uganda, close to the capital, Kampala. Gavah is the coordinator of Mudinet.

Much has been said about Uganda’s success in the fight against AIDS — and the extent to which this can be ascribed to the open and unembarrassed stance on HIV adopted by its government.

However, the involvement of people who have already contracted the virus has also been crucial to the anti-AIDS effort. HIV prevalence among Uganda’s population of almost 25 million has dropped from over 20 percent in 1992, to about 6 percent — this according to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

In the case of the ten-year-old Mudinet, for example, members attend workshops on AIDS prevention, human rights — and ways in which they can continue to lead fulfilling lives. Thanks to the network, thirty groups have obtained funds for income-generating projects.

Mudinet activists hand out condoms — and distribute school uniforms, other clothes and bedding to orphans. In addition, they assist with malaria control in villages, handing out mosquito nets.

Uganda is also home to the first non-governmental organization (NGO) formed by Africans to address the needs of those infected and affected by AIDS.

The AIDS Support Organization (TASO), set up in 1987, has now established branches in various parts of Uganda to provide a variety of services. These include the dispensing of anti-retroviral treatment (ART).

The importance of the contribution made by HIV-positive persons has been acknowledged by the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC), established by government in 1992 to coordinate the national response to the HIV pandemic.

Between 2001 and 2002, the commission reviewed Uganda’s AIDS strategy, placing HIV-positive people in positions where they could influence AIDS policies. Inge Tack, UNAIDS technical adviser in Kampala, calls this approach “revolutionary.”

UNAIDS country program adviser Ruben del Prado agrees: “It’s very exciting to see people with AIDS maximizing their presence at the top.”

Last year, Mudinet joined forces with about 800 similar networks and associations to form the National Forum of People Living with HIV/AIDS Networks.

Previous attempts to set up an umbrella organization had failed due to rivalries between AIDS associations and their leaders — particularly the National Guidance and Empowerment Network (NGEN+) and the National Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda (NACWOLA).

“The scramble for resources led to fragmentation and competition,” says Rubamira Ruranga, head of NGEN+.

Ruranga, who tested positive in 1989, was one of the first Ugandans to declare publicly that he had contracted the virus — along with a popular musician and an Anglican priest.

Adds Richard Serunkuuma, of the Positive Men’s Union: “We were disorganized and contradicted ourselves. Our messages were not getting across clearly. But if we act together, we carry more weight.”

The process of reconciling differences was given a helping hand by the UAC during its 2001/2002 review, which resulted in a strategy dubbed the “AIDS Partnership.”

Under this plan, each of a dozen sectors that play a key role in fighting AIDS — ministries, donors, NGOs, churches and the like — had to find common positions on their approach to the pandemic. The sectors were also required to elect representatives to interact with the AIDS Partnership.

As a result, Uganda’s many associations of HIV-positive people were obliged to develop a joint plan on combating HIV and dealing with its consequences — a process that took a year of meetings, retreats and discussions. UNAIDS provided $17,000 to finance the discussions, and in May 2003 the National Forum of People Living with HIV/AIDS Networks was born.

“The forum will help us avoid duplication and coordinate services and lobbying,” says NACWOLA’s Annete Biyetega.

Forum representatives advise the UAC on policy, implementation and funding proposals submitted to international donors. They are also trained in leadership skills and resource management.

“We want a strategic move into policy. No more staying in the background,” says Flavia Kyomukama, from the AIDS telephone hotline — SALT.

The next step is for the forum to become a formal partner of the Ministry of Health in the provision of ART.

At present, about 25,000 Ugandans are receiving this medication. Officials plan to have 60,000 people — or about half of those in need — on ART by the end of 2005.

People living with AIDS, some of whom have years of ART experience, can help patients and their families understand what treatment entails — and the importance of sticking to it. This is especially valuable in districts where health facilities and personnel are scarce.

“When we deal with people with AIDS, we handle with care,” says Gavah. “Others handle with fear.”

His eyes fill with tears as he recalls the treatment his late wife received at a local hospital. She had acute herpes zoster, a condition more commonly known as shingles. This causes someone to development a painful rash, followed by blisters.

“The staff ignored her, talking about her in English without realizing she was a teacher, giving her jabs without explaining why,” says Gavah, adding “No patient should be treated like this.”

A burly man with an easy smile and a chronic dry cough, Gavah discovered he was HIV-positive in 1992 when he applied for teacher training in Libya. “AIDS is like a pregnancy; you can’t hide it for long,” he notes. “I went public because I wanted to do something for my district. So did my wife.”

The couple had one child and fostered 10 orphans. When AIDS-related illnesses set in, Gavah left his job and opened a private nursery school. Among the 160 pupils, 40 are orphans who attend for free.

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Control Room :The mirage of objectivity

By Greg White

Asheville, North Carolina, Oct. 6 (AGR) — As footage of maimed, sobbing Iraqi children flashes across the screen, Sameer Khader, senior producer of the Al Jazeera television network, explains the reasoning behind airing such graphic images of the war in Iraq: “It’s true journalism. The only true journalism.”

The film then quickly cuts to footage of the bombing of the network’s Baghdad offices, the coordinates of which had been sent to the US military prior to the start of the war. This, it seems, was the US response to the network that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has called the “mouthpiece of Osama bin Laden.” Official word from Washington called it a mistake, somewhat ironically considering the fact that Al Jazeera’s Afghan offices had been bombed by US warplanes in 2001.

Control Room chronicles the inner workings of the Arab network’s coverage of the war in Iraq. It examines the crucial issues of objectivity and bias in journalism and also touches on the machinations of wartime propaganda. After one scene containing footage of bombed-out buildings and civilian casualties, the film cuts to Rumsfeld saying that Al Jazeera actually brought injured children to the site of the destruction.

The Qatar-based network has presented a serious problem for the Department of Defense’s “hearts and minds” campaign, from the war in Iraq to the Arab/Israeli conflict. Al Jazeera now reaches an estimated 40 million viewers, not a small feat in a region mostly dominated by state-run news outlets. Since its inception in 1996, the network’s hard-hitting coverage hasn’t earned it many friends in the region or abroad. Qatar was reportedly not invited to this year’s G8 summit because it was unwilling to “rein in” the network.

During much of “Control Room” director Jehane Noujaim focuses on the chain-smoking producer Khader. Charismatic and convincing, Khader shares his views on the war and the topic of propaganda with refreshing candor. One scene shows him angrily admonishing a journalist in the newsroom for broadcasting an interview with a US dissident critical of the war. “He was talking about his own country,” responds the stunned journalist; Khader replies: “That was not analysis, that was hallucination.”

The issue of objectivity pops in and out of the film, most poignantly when a US reporter asks her Arab counterpart about the subject of Al Jazeera’s apparent bias. The journalist’s response encapsulates a key theme in the film, that during a war, “the word ‘objectivity’ becomes a mirage.”

Interwoven throughout the film is a running dialogue between Al Jazeera journalist Hassan Ibrahim and Lt. Josh Rushing, a US military press officer. Their conversations take place at the US Central Command center in Qatar, amidst the center’s daily press briefings. Against this backdrop, their discourse outlines stark differences in opinion about the war as well as Al Jazeera’s coverage of it.

Despite their differences, both remain respectful of each other throughout. Perhaps it was this element of respect that caused the Pentagon to order Rushing, who has since announced plans to leave the military, not to speak about the film.

The film’s cinema verite style lets the viewer decide as to whether or not Al Jazeera is the rabid anti-US propaganda machine that its US critics claim it to be. Nevertheless, it definitely paints a sympathetic portrait of the network.

“Control Room” approaches Al Jazeera and the war in Iraq on a very basic human level; its footage of the network’s journalists mourning the death of their colleague killed by US bombs or videos of civilian casualties could not elicit anything other than sympathy. This makes the film all the more refreshing, especially living in a country where much of the television coverage of Iraq has been stripped of the grim reality that is modern warfare.