Comments on: Lake of Fire

By: James McNally

James McNally — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 04:26:16 +0000

Ah, Sundance. I wish! No, it will be March in Austin for me again. I’m staying a whole week, so hopefully we can run into each other a few times.

By: agnes

agnes — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 04:01:02 +0000

I’ve seen Unborn in the USA – to me, that is much more about the lunatics. I felt a lot of empathy for the people in Lake of Fire. I guess it’s all perception? Sundance by any chance James, or must I wait until SXSW to run into you?

By: James McNally

James McNally — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:29:46 +0000

I thought Lake of Fire was a landmark in coverage of this important issue, though I did think he spent a bit too much time on the “lunatic fringe” of the pro-life movement. As I said in my review (http://www.torontoscreenshots.com/2006/09/17/lake-offire/), there are plenty of regular folks with pro-life views that deserve to be heard. I have a copy of Unborn in the USA, in which the filmmakers explore the pro-life movement in more depth, and will look forward to comparing the two films when I get some time to watch it.

By: agnes

agnes — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:11:37 +0000

No need to apologize, I respect your opinion Danielle. I hope I don’t come across as surely. I only feel that there are several points of view on this and I was trying to flesh out why I don’t whole-heartedly agree with AJs and your posts.

By: dandig

dandig — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 10:38:07 +0000

Hi Agnes,
I completely understand you taking issue with my blanket statement about the Academy; perhaps I was too unclear in the fact that I was making a generalization and do recognize that the Academy DOES sometimes recognize open-ended works of art (which is why I started with an example of them doing just that, in the form of Eroll Morris’ FOG OF WAR win). I did write, if you look at the sentence above, that the Academy “sometimes recoganizes that documentary is not limited to reconstructions.” The fact is “Capturing the Friedmans,” a film that questions access to and representions of objective truth, was nominated. I have not seen “Lake of Fire,” and I have heard it is an incredible experience. I apologize if my above statement made it seem as though I am picking on all of the short-listed directors.