The Ground Truth

As I took my seat in the cinema on Thursday night, I thought just how far I’ve come politically in the past couple of years. I have gotten to the point where I have absolutely no desire to be sitting in a room full of liberal oddballs. Unremarkable? Well, you should understand that just a few years ago I was a dyed in the wool college activist type, and at that point, a roomful of liberal nutjobs was my bread and butter, the sort of place that felt like home.

On Thursday, after filmmaker Patricia Foulkrod introduced her new documentary The Ground Truth, she let a pro-Kerry filmmaker speak for a moment about the film Going Upriver, screening in the cinema next door. The audience was asked if there were any questions. When a woman popped up and asked a confrontational question about whether people really ought to be supporting Kerry, I had my revelation: these are no longer my people. When it was announced that there would be a song performed at the end of the screening, my friend gripped my leg: “oh please, no songs,” he hissed. I couldn’t answer; I was too busy hoping the evening wouldn’t come to token ethnic minority dancers demonstrating their commitment to diversity with a touching, if not strictly relevant, indigenous floor-show. Please, God don’t let them trot out the dancers, I thought to myself. I can’t tell you how many left-wing fetes I’ve attended where the audience has been made to endure tenuously related dance routines.

But alas, my fears were unfounded: the angry woman who seemed insistent on making a scene about Kerry was very much in the minority, and the rest of the audience members who asked questions were thoughtful, intelligent, and far less belligerent - which I always find to be a good tone at an anti-war event. The song, sneakily placed before the panel discussion so as to make early departure impossible, was not half as crunchy as it might have been, and thankfully, there were no dancers. The film was moving and well put-together.

Article Author: MattP

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