Do the Right Thing

Thursday, May 1st: Spike Lee is not angry. But he thinks that “anger is good” and cathartic. The outspoken and controversial director of such independent films as Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Summer of Sam, and When the Levees Broke, was in Denver to talk to UC Denver film students. Interviewed on stage by NPR film critic Howard Movshovitz, Spike ironically got angry when Movshovitz mentioned that he films anger very well–on his way to a larger point about his lyricism–provoking this angry tirade: “It’s easier to paint Spike Lee as an angry black man that’s on a rage 24/7. That’s an easy thing to say… I’ve had many interviews and they’ve asked me ‘Why are you so angry?’ As if all my films—and it’s not just my films, it’s me as a human being—as if I stay in a constant state of anger and it’s not the case. On the other hand, blacks have a lot of things to be angry about. Any anger that we show is justified. Not that I think that we should be burning s**t down. Anger is good… We have one of the lowest life spans because of hypertension, diabetes: we’re catching hell. And a lot of this stuff is if you keep all this stuff in, you’re just gonna combust. So, I’d rather scream than have an ulcer or heart attack.” (more…)

The First Bill Clinton

Monday, March 26th: There was a bit of a dust-up. Two disparate visions of America baring their teeth and growling. Several left wing progressives disputed Gary Hart’s idea of America having the “moral authority” to lead the world, citing the imperial legacy of the U.S. push westward across the Continent, the support for right wing dictatorships during the Cold War, and the current war in Iraq. Frustrated but maintaining his cool, Hart held his own, arguing that America was a force for good in the world, despite having done many “bad things”. All in all, it was an interesting evening, an illuminating exchange between a liberal internationalist who supports the exercise of American power abroad and left wing skeptics who question American state power and its beneficence. Gary Hart, the former U.S. Senator from Colorado (1975-1987) and presidential candidate (1984 and 1988) whose ambitions for the Oval Office were sunk by his affair with Donna Rice, a former beauty queen, aboard the luxury yacht (the gods have a sense of humor!) Monkey Business in 1988, was in Denver to talk about his new book, Under the Eagle’s Wing, a detailed essay about U.S. National Security policy. (more…)

Mia Speaks Out On Darfur

Monday, March 17th: Mia Farrow, the star of Rosemary’s Baby, The Great Gatsby, and the Woody Allen films, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Purple Rose of Cairo, and Broadway Danny Rose, was in Denver to talk about her glamorous Hollywood childhood and career. Growing up in Beverly Hills to Hollywood parents, she had childhood friends like Liza Minnelli, her dog was the grandson of Lassie, she hung out with the Beatles in India while they wrote a song, “Dear Prudence”, about her sister, she eventually married Frank Sinatra, and then was with Woody Allen for many years until their ugly divorce in 1992. While she was happy to talk about her glamorous life, it was the issue of Darfur and her advocacy efforts to end the killings and violence there that really impassioned her. In the western region of Sudan, Darfur is where the Sudanese government, along with an allied Arab militia, the Janjaweed, have been accused of mass killings, lootings, and the systematic rape of the civilian population. Beginning in 2003, the conflict has caused an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 deaths. (more…)

Widow of the War On Terror

Monday, Feb 25th: Mariane Pearl, the wife of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was killed by Al Qaida in Pakistan in 2002, spoke before a packed audience at the Buell theatre in Denver as part of the Unique Lives lecture series. A French freelance journalist, Mariane is also a reporter and columnist for Glamour magazine. On Sept 12th, 2001, the Pearls traveled to Pakistan to cover the war on terror, where her husband was kidnapped and beheaded by Al Qaida, and specifically by men surrounding Omar Sheikh. She was six months pregnant at the time. She wrote a memoir about this terrible event, A Mighty Heart, which eventually became a movie starring Angelina Jolie and produced by Brad Pitt. (more…)

White Male Writer

Tuesday, Feb 12th: The last time I saw Russell Banks was 13 years ago. After the publication of his novel Rule of the Bone, I interviewed him for the University of Toronto newspaper, The Varsity. At that time, he was congenial and gracious, answering all of my inane questions about his groundbreaking story focused on homeless teenagers that had somehow fallen through the cracks of society. He is now older, with less hair, and more of it is gray, but he still looked great and is a prolific novelist at the top of his game. The Village Voice has referred to him as “the most important living white male American on the official literary map”. His major works include: Trailerpark, Continental Drift, Affliction, The Sweet Hereafter, Rule of the Bone, and his magnum opus on John Brown, Cloudsplitter. Both Affliction (starring Nick Nolte and James Coburn) and The Sweet Hereafter (directed by Canadian Atom Egoyan) were made into films. His 2004 novel, “The Darling” is going to be made into a Martin Scorsese film while he has written a screen adaptation of Kerouac’s On the Road for Francis Ford Coppola. He was in Denver recently to talk about his new offering, The Reserve, a tale of the class divided world of Depression-era America. (more…)