Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Catholic League is after Ron Howard

So this is why we no longer have educated frank, interesting films which don't equilize or victemize women. The Catholic League is throwing their weight around and are trying to paint an image of Ron Howard's film Angels & Demons as Anti-Catholic. I can think of alot more things that are Anti-Catholic than a bad Dan Brown story. (To be fair, I just think Dan Brown is just not that good of a writer). I enjoyed DaVinci Code, but this stuff is not exactly great literatrue.
But if we only made movies out of great literature than books that make great movies, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, I recently went to a film festival and saw some serious Anti-Catholic behavior! Here is a description of the short film.
Our Lady Queen of Harlem by Trinidad Rodriguez (17:00)On a crumbling sidewalk in the heart of Spanish Harlem, a small but impassioned group of women are fighting for their community. When the Archdiocese of New York locked the doors of the church where many of them spent their entire lives worshiping, this determined family of parishioners decided to resist the ministerial decision and take matters into their own hands. A portrait of faith and disobedience, Our Lady Queen of Harlem is an exploration of activism and the very definition of church.

Anyway, call me crazy but kicking people out of their parish is a little more Anti-Catholic.

To me, all this boils down to power. Religion is going to have a rough go of it now. Nobody has complete power over their image anymore with the advent of blogs, twitter, youtube, etc. My advice is to watch The Godlesss Girl and let it offend you and inspire you.

To Mr. Ron Howard, I saw the DaVinci Code and as much as I hated the book, I liked your movie. I thought it thought provoking to all sides involved. I have no idea how someone who is Catholic would be offended by that. If anything it was very pro-Catholic.
But what was important to me about your film as is with the Godless Girl is that it creates a discussion and forces people to ask questions about history. Why that is not important is beyond me. I mean if Frost Nixon gives us an opportunity to take another look at our power culture I don't understand why none of this applies to the questioning of the religious culture.
Also, Mr. Howard, if you are still reading that would be so cool, but anyway more importantly it brings to light again the Catholic Leauge and what damage they did in the 30's through their power and censorship. So much has been lost from film due to this. And from a woman's perspective, I don't think women in film have ever fully recovered. It is a tragedy that Norma Sheer and her contemporaries were once so powerful and now Hanna Montana is what we have to look up to. It is a tragedy. Thank you for pushing them Mr. Howard. Maybe someone will start talking about the damage they did.

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