We’ve noted before that the right-wing of this country doesn’t know how to make documentary films - at least that anyone wants to watch. They do seem competent at making infomercials, however. (FYI, Wiki defines informercials as "long-format television commercials,” also known as “paid programming” and which also are “sometimes used to refer to any presentation (often on video) which presents a significant amount of information in an actual, or perceived, attempt to promote a point of view.”)
Case in point: A production known as “Injustice”, which airs tonight on the Reelz channel. (I know, what’s the Reelz channel?) Let’s compare this to the incredibly successful and well-reviewed (by numerous mainstream political and entertainment outlets) documentary, Hot Coffee.
Injustice: Producer was paid by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s biggest corporate lobby group, to make the film.
Hot Coffee: Was funded “person by person, house party by house party. It was all donations. We also used the Independent Feature Project as a fiscal sponsor.”
Hot Coffee: Was accepted by numerous film festivals around the world, including the nation’s top festival, Sundance, and has won top awards, including the Grand Jury Prize as the Seattle International Film Festival
Injustice: Was accepted at, um as far as we can tell, no film festivals?
Hot Coffee: Was bought by HBO to air as part of their prestigious documentary film series.
Injustice: Is airing on the Reelz channel, a channel that most people haven’t heard of and whose single claim to fame is its airing of the mini-series The Kennedy’s after The History Channel rejected it (despite a $25 million investment) for fabricating facts.
Bonus question: Who paid whom to air Injustice? Reelz or the Chamber, and for how much money? Let us know what you think!
You have to know that this was sitting in the can awaiting the premiere of Hot Coffee. I for one will be awaiting the results of the fact checking on this piece of junk.
Posted by: Barry Doyle | July 12, 2011 at 06:05 PM
Something weird...
So, the official website - http://www.injusticethefilm.com - claims that this won the 2011 Peer Award for Best Documentary, which is from the "Television, Internet and Video Association of DC." However, if you go to their website, you cannot find the list of winners for 2011 (odd), and if you search for "Injustice" it does not yield this documentary as a result.
More lies from the Chamber??? Golly!
Posted by: Todd Tollefson | May 26, 2012 at 05:55 PM