Sunday, February 24, 2008

And the winner is....


Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake has a bit about one of tonight's winners at the 80th Academy Awards.
Tonight Taxi to the Dark Side won the Oscar for best documentary. The film had a hard time of it -- the Discovery Channel and the MPAA both threw up obstacles in the way of the story of a young Afghan cab driver who was suspected of being a Taliban fighter and was tortured to death. It was deemed "too controversial."

Nothing can right the shameful wrong of his death, or erase the enduring black mark on the legacy of the nation responsible for torturing him and others. But kudos to the filmmakers for making sure that the story did get told, and that includes former FDL contributor Sidney Blumenthal and friend o' the blog Rob Johnson, both of whom served as Executive Producers.
Here's a video to go with:



Nice to see an award go for standing up and proclaiming the truth.

2 comments:

Jane R said...

Oh Paul. Oh my.

Good for the Academy.

(Yes, I am up late. This job is, well, I won't say killing me, under the circumstances...)

susan s. said...

Yes, I saw that. They do something good sometimes.

And I loved the fact that the co-writer of the winning song got to come back and say her piece! Good for whoever did that...

In case you missed my brilliant statement about fashion over at Padre Mickey's, I quote myself..."Speaking of fashion...how unfortunate that Mrs. Daniel Day Lewis was talked into that dress and the jewellery to go with it! UGH!!!!!"