I don’t think I would want to watch a true documentary, the plain unvarnished as it happened truth because it would be just too plain depressing…

Hell, I do. Let’s get that information out there. More fact and less opinion.

I did not watch the CBC doco-thingy “Path to 9/11″ because it was “representational”. BTW local reviews seem to indicate that I did not waste my time watching the other rubbish over those two evenings.

I don’t think I would want to watch a true documentary, the plain unvarnished as it happened truth because it would be just too plain depressing…

Gore Vidal (whom I find to be totally insane in almost every context) does a fine job of this in many of his novels, especially Lincoln. The proof is in the pudding, and the reader (or viewer) must judge whether the writer is bringing things to life or merely inventing them. There is good historical fiction, bad historical fiction, and my historical fiction.

Unfortunately, you might not get the chance to make this judgment, because it sounds like ABC will bow to criticism and censor the film. The good news is that it will only take 15 minutes to watch it.

Fahrenheit 9/11 was not presented to be a factual documentary with accompanying books for classrooms.

But of course you are aware, if you have noticed several recent controversies, that this film has been shown in many schools. Michael Moore has a TEACHER’S GUIDE for it on his website, which you can download in PDF format. Put on your hazard gear and go look for yourself.

The lessons and activities in this TEACHER’S GUIDE are designed to help students develop a critical analytical ability, historical perspective, and applied math skills that will open their minds beyond the current issues covered in Fahrenheit 9/11.

The individual units may easily be adapted to many levels and taught across the curriculum – Social Science, [History, Civics, Psychology, Sociology, Political Science, Economics] Language Arts, Humanities, Drama/Theatre, Film, ESL, Media/Journalism, Speech/Communications, Mathematics…

You can review the guide page by page on the website, download a PDF of each section or the whole guide.

So, go do that magic we call education! And, be sure to share, share, share! We would love to hear from you. Send your feedback or ideas to share with other educators to: teacher@michaelmoore.com

Anybody have a problem with this? I don’t. It’s a free country.

“Fake, but accurate”, however, is not a high enough standard.

Sorry, but Franks is off base here. “Fake, etc.” is not a good enough standard for journalism or history or science. It is a totally meaningless standard when applied to fiction.

Take, for example, Gore Vidal’s fine novels Lincoln and Burr. You can learn a lot of sound history from these books, but much of what is in them – especially the conversations and the who-said-what – is totally contrived. That’s because it’s fiction, and the reader is expected to understand that.

As for showing this series in schools, if ABC doesn’t cancel it and burn all the tapes, it absolutely will be shown in schools. Almost everything of this type is, in some school or another. Regardless of its merits or demerits, this series will probably be kept out of a lot of schools because principals, school boards, or parents will object to it for political reasons. Others will allow it, just as they might allow Fahrenheit 9/11 or The Da Vinci Code to be shown to students. It will be up to the teacher to apply appropriate disclaimers. Some will, some won’t.

No one has seen this thing yet, and so far we have the objections of Sandy Berger and Madelaine Albright. Sandy Berger stole documents on this very subject from the National Archives, so perhaps that makes him a sort of expert. It certainly makes him an expert on what he can get away with claiming, without being contradicted by documentary evidence. You have to be a true believer to take people like Berger at their word.

As for Albright, someone warned Pakistan about the Afghanistan strike, according to the 9/11 Commission. The film makes it out to be Albright, but she says it wasn’t her. So what? If the Clinton adminstration veterans would fess up about what happened, we would know who did it, assuming it’s even important. Since they haven’t and never will, the writer of fiction who dramatizes this event must choose a culprit, and this writer chose Albright. (She should feel honored that they didn’t just leave her out of the film.) To say that the film is therefore fake or full of lies is, as I pointed out above, meaningless.

This is ABC, purporting to present a historical drama. The thing about the classroom books I did not know about. That takes this one step further. Another reason you should all turn off your televisions!

http://www.thoughttheater.com

Truth, with or without a capital T, shouldn’t be messed with. You can argue for the compression of characters perhaps, but then the resulting amalgam should not bear the name of a real person.

And there is no excuse whatsoever for false attributions in an educational piece.