A Long, Gratifying, and Hearty Laugh

09/03/13 13:49

Written by Stephen Vittoria
(Los Angeles)

Back when the film “Titanic” came out, LA Times film critic Kenneth Turan wrote a negative review of James Cameron’s sweeping love story set aboard the great ocean liner that ended up at the bottom of the North Atlantic on its maiden run. Cameron was so incensed with Turan’s review that he contacted the Times’ editors and called for them to fire the critic. C’mon, Jim, really? Fire the dude because he didn’t like your movie? Can’t handle a little criticism? You let Kenny Turan get to you? Say it ain’t so, Jimmy. You have all that money, all that fame, statues galore, you’re on your what? Fifth wife? People quake in your presence. And Kenny Turan rankles your feathers? Really?

C’mon, Jim, he just reviewed my movie with another one of his lazy reviews… said I offered a “skewed view” of Mumia Abu-Jamal. He said that Mumia would be “the perfect subject for an investigative documentary that explored his life and thought with a calm and even hand. ‘Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary’ is not that film.” Reasonable people can disagree. Personally, I think Kenny’s full of shit because I’m very calm, blood pressure like 111 over 64… it’s just that the status quo gatekeepers like Kenny just ain’t used to people way over here on the anarchist, socialist, communist, Trotskyite, vegan left who aren’t afraid to actually pound their chest with alternatives and what the Kenny Turan’s of the world consider to be radical thought. It freaks the lily-white liberals out. They start doubling down on NPR, Rachel Maddow, and cases of chardonnay.

“Mumia” was #1 in Los Angeles for newly released documentaries on our first weekend and we earned a second week at Laemmle’s Music Hall, more shows in Pasadena and Claremont, and a date opening in the Republic of Santa Monica at Laemmle’s 4-Plex. The audiences have been so passionate, so engaged, so in touch with this film… and Kenny Turan’s review drifts into the digital mist and the hard copy fishwrap lines the bottom of garbage cans and cat litter boxes.

They say LA is where documentaries go to die - not this "Long Distance Revolutionary." When I told Mumia on the phone this week that his story was number one in the heart of the Empire’s myth-making machine and blocks away from Rodeo Drive – capitalism’s diamond ring – he had a long, gratifying, and hearty laugh. Audiences of all colors, shapes, and ages eschewed the mainstream naysayers and embraced an alternative narrative about their history and the current state of their country. That’s what gave Mumia so much joy – that his words are cutting through the embroidery of lies and myths that remain the foundation of America. His laugh echoed through the empty hallways of the American Empire.