KVT – Intellectually Energized

Intellectually Energized

What a great weekend with the highlight for me seeing some John Pilger documentaries at the Cinematheque on Saturday, and, more especially, listening to him answer and parry questions and comments in his concise and intellectual manner.
John Richard Pilger is a journalist, author and documentary maker who is usually based in London, and who, like any controversial commentator, has his detractors and critics. He has twice won Britain’s Journalist of the Year Award, and his questioning documentaries have won major awards.

Noam Chomsky says this of Pilger in an introduction to one of his insightful and controversial books: “John Pilger’s work has been a beacon of light in often dark times. The realities he has brought to light have been a revelation, over and over again, and his courage and insight a constant inspiration.”

To lift a piece straight out of Wikepedia: ‘In Breaking the Silence: The Television Reporting of John Pilger, his appraisal of the journalist’s documentaries, Anthony Haywood, wrote, “For more than a generation, he has been an ever stronger voice for those without a voice and a thorn in the side of authority, the Establishment. His work, particularly his television documentaries, has also made him rare in being a journalist who is universally known, a champion of those for whom he fights and the scourge of politicians and others whose actions he exposes.”

Every country has its exceptional human rights activists and socially just beacons and if I was Australian, Pilger would be one of those people who would make me proud to belong to that country.

Of course, like any controversial commentator, he has his detractors and critics (in this case usually the neo-conservatively minded or/and those who want history depicted from their own carefully constructed viewpoints). His audiences that I’ve been part of over the years have usually had a lot of people in them who are already in agreement with his views but even for these he puts forth arguments that often questions their consensual, complacent or outraged positions. It is always stimulating to hear him thrust and parry with those from opposing corners.

It’s just as good to hear people discuss and argue over pilgerized statements in the days following.

But enough of Pilger! I’m far too biased in his favor so let’s talk about the Cinematheque!

Recently I read comments in that other good blog, the New Hanoian, by a few disgruntled Cinematheque patrons about payment practices at that Cinema Club. Apparently the disgruntled ones think that once they’ve paid the 200,000 VND annual membership fee (a hefty US$10) then they should not be obliged to donate a suggested amount to attend a film or that they should be able to donate whatever small note – if any – they consider suits their status as stingy* expats.

How my blood used to boil when I stood in line behind the stingy*ones when they put 5 or 10 thousand into the donation box (sometimes for up to four people).

To explain the functioning ethos of the Cinematheque would be like pouring water on a duck’s back to this select few so we’ll just let them continue to complain and show themselves up as the stingiest* of the stingy*. Meanwhile the rest of us thankful ones will gladly add 50,000 – and often more – to the little see-through donation box that sits in front of the cashier’s window- to help the club pay staff wages, rental, discrete costs etc etc.The Pilger evenings, for example, cost the Cinematheque $2 500

I’m far too biased in favor of the Cinematheque and Gerry, its philanthropic mentor, to continue to preach to the converted and the stingy* unconverted should just wait until the films come out on pirated DVD’s and then complain about the price of those…and especially the parts where a lot go all fuzzy or stuttery.

*: not generous or liberal: sparing or scant in using, giving, or spending