Anthem Film Festival: Three Short Film Jewels About Dreams, Trauma, and Mules
(First published on blogcritics.org) Three short films at the Anthem Film Festival, part of FreedomFest, billed as the world’s largest gathering of free minds, July 13-16, in Las Vegas, deserve special mention. All less than fifteen minutes long, they each shed light on what it means to be an individual and how we experience the […]
Anthem Film Festival: Police are Coming to Take Your Stuff and Kill You Dog
‘Seized’, winner of Anthem’s Best Short Documentary award, explores a police practice called civil asset forfeiture. ‘Of Dogs and Men’, winner of Best Libertarian Documentary Feature tries to explain why 10,000 pet dogs are killed by police every year.
Anthem Film Festival: ‘Deep Web’ Explores Silk Road, Looking for the Dread Pirate Roberts
Ross Ulbricht received two consecutive life sentences plus 40 years. He must have done something terrible, right? The film Deep Web, which explores his crime, capture and prosecution screened at the libertarian themed Anthem Film Festival, part of FreedomFest, July 13-16 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.
Anthem Film Festival: Laughing Though the Pain
Lord Byron said, “Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” If that’s true, then attendees of the Anthem Film Festival, part of FreedomFest, July 13-16 at Planet Hollywood, left Las Vegas well medicated.
Anthem Film Festival: Lenny Bruce, Gilbert Gottfried, and Penn Jillette vs. The Outrage Mob
In the 1960s, cops arrested Lenny Bruce for word crimes, but today the policed have become the police.
Anthem Film Festival: Do Right-Wingers Have a Sense of Humor?
Do right-wingers (meaning conservatives, libertarians and anyone who would not be caught dead wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt) have a sense of humor? You might not think so, if your main sources of news have been John Stewart and Lena Dunham piped into your safe space on a politically correct campus. I have, however, seen right-wing humor in the wild, often at previous iterations of the Anthem Film Festival, and I have laughed and survived.
Anthem FilmFest: Top 10 Libertarian Films Rock with Jennifer Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman
“When I grow up, I want to be Dr. Manhattan,” was one of the responses Anthem Film Festival organizer Jo Ann Skousen received during the “Top 10 Films Every Libertarian Should Know” panel. Sometimes you get more than you ask for. After the audience joined the panel in suggesting films, well, there were a lot more than 10.
Anthem Film Fest: County Charges Farmer $15,000 for Hosting a Birthday Party
Eight little girls at a birthday party on their neighbor’s farm; what could be more innocent than that?
Anthem FilmFest: Plato, Revolting, and Mendocino – All in a Cave
Ancient Greek philosopher Plato put in a couple of appearances at the Anthem Film Festival in Las Vegas, July 8-11. Two of the short films showed influence, if not direct inspiration, by Plato’s tale of the cave, written 2,500 years ago. The films, ‘The Cage’ and ‘Helio’ both deserve praise for supporting the human quest for freedom and individualism. Cinematically, ‘Helio’ was a winner and ‘The Cage’ was not.
Interview: Jo Ann Skousen, Anthem Film Festival Founder
Chatting with Jo Ann Skousen, founder of the Anthem Film Festival, a venue for filmmakers who care about individuality and libertarian ideals
Anthem Film Fest: Countryside vs. City – Two Wars
An attack on Vietnam veterans – I suddenly felt like I was back at UCLA in 1971. Beyond Courage: Surviving Vietnam as a POW brought back questions, controversies, and anger from a war which was the model for the Chinese Communist vision of the peasants in the countryside rising up and overcoming the city. Empire State Divide brought viewers into the world of today and a war by the city on the countryside.
Anthem Film Fest – ‘The Conversation’ in the Bag
(First published on blogcritics.org) This is my second year at the Anthem Film Festival; when I registered I received the typical conference bag of goodies. To my delight, this bag include a DVD of The Conversation, the film that stood out most in my mind from year one. The Conversation, by Korchula Productions, does what most people might […]
Anthem Film Fest: Two for the Culture
(First published on blogcritics.org) There no shortage of either documentaries or polemics at the Anthem Film Festival, and they serve their role to advance the cause of Libertarian thought. But, and I heard this message last year and even more this year, before you can have an impact on the political system, you must change […]
Anthem Film Festival – Gutsy Truth and Economic Truth
(First published on blogcritics.org) Two approaches to serving up the truth were offered on Thursday, July 11, at the Anthem Film Festival: the gutsy, gritty, in-your-face truth of main stream media vitriol in Hating Breitbart, and the complex, subtle and intellectual economic truth of I, Pencil. Hating Breitbart Filmmaker Andrew Marcus began filming Andrew Breitbart’s life two days […]
Anthem Film Festival – ‘The Last Week’ on the First Day
(First published on blogcritics.org) You don’t have to do anything wrong to be destroyed by litigation. That is the message of The Last Week, a documentary which screened the first day of the Anthem Film Festival, in Las Vegas. It chronicles the last week of Blitz USA, a company that manufactured gas cans and provided jobs […]
‘Atlas Shrugged Part 1’ – The 40-Year Wait is Over
(Originally published on blogcritics.org) Producer John Aglialoro obtained the rights to Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged 18 years ago. Several attempts to move forward with the film failed. In April 2010, he called Harmon Kaslow and told him he had three months to start filming or the rights world revert to Ayn Rand’s literary estate. By June, the […]
