Attn, DC Reasonoids: See Reason.tv's Drew Carey Project on the Big Screen, Saturday, October 4, at 3.30pm

reason.tv is proud to be participating in this year's American Film Renaissance Film Festival, which runs in D.C.-area theaters from Wednesday, October 1 through Saturday, October 4.

On Saturday at 3.30pm, at the Goethe-Institut (812 Seventh St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001), selections from The Drew Carey Project will anchor the festival's shorts block.

Go here for more information and to buy tickets ($8.00 for that viewing).

Other highlights of the festival include:

Wednesday night: The Dukes. When a group of down-on-their-luck friends try to launch a comeback for their nostalgia group, The Dukes, creative juices flow, as do the risks of ending up on the wrong side of the law. Starring Robert Davi (License to Kill, Profiler), Chazz Palminteri (Analyze This, The Usual Suspects) and Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Mask). Run time: 94 min.  Rated PG-13 for brief sexuality and drug references.  Introduction and Q&A with Director, Robert Davi. Playing at 7pm at AMC Loews Georgetown 14 (3111 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20007).

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Film screening ticket $10. After party with actor/director, Robert Davi, at Sequoia Restaurant located in Washington Harbour, within walking distance of the theater. You must purchase the $40.00 ticket to gain entrance to after party.

Thursday Night: Do As I Say. With the 2008 election cycle in full swing, it's hard to turn on the television or open a newspaper without finding politicians, pop stars and pundits blaming capitalism and private enterprise for the world's problems. But how sincere are they about their beliefs? How do they live? The answers will shock you. In Do As I Say, a documentary that will forever change how we see America and its leaders, filmmakers Nicholas Tucker and Lucas Abel take us on an unforgettable journey through a political landscape filled with hypocrites and humbugs. Along the way, they reveal a disturbing national truth: that the two-faced mantra "do as I say, not as I do" has become the unwritten golden rule of modern liberalism. Based on Peter Schweitzer's New York Times bestselling book Do As I Say (Not As I Do) . Run time: 90 min. Not Rated. Introduction and Q&A with director, Nick Tucker. Playing at 7pm at The Carnegie Institution (1530 P St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20005).

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Film screeing ticket $10. Purchase the $30.00 ticket to attend an after-party with director Nick Tucker in the Carnegie Institution's rotunda.

Friday Night: An American Carol. The American spirit is celebrated in the outrageous and totally irreverent comedy An American Carol from David Zucker, the master of movie satire (Airplane!, The Naked Gun, Scary Movie 3 and 4). In An American Carol, a cynical anti-American "Hollywood" filmmaker sets out on a crusade to abolish the 4th of July holiday. He is visited by three spirits who take him on a hilarious journey in an attempt to show him the true meaning of America. An all-star cast featuring Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, Leslie Nielsen, Dennis Hopper, James Woods, Robert Davi, Trace Adkins and Kevin Farley. Run Time: Approx. 90 min.  Rated PG-13 for irreverent content, language and brief drug references. Playing at 7pm at Regal Ballston Common 12 (671 N. Glebe Road, Arlington VA 22203).

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Film screening ticket $10. Immediately following the screening, a Pub Crawl will take place within walking distance of the theater.  You must purchase the $15.00 to participate in the Pub Crawl.

Saturday Night: U.N. Me. In this striking documentary, filmmaker Ami Horowitz illustrates how the United Nations, the world's foremost humanitarian organization created to ennoble mankind, has become so ravaged by corruption that it actually enables evil and creates global chaos.  By examining failures in Rwanda and Darfur, and the Oil for Food scandal, Horowitz shows how the UN has become the pacifier of dictators, thugs and tyrants.  Using a unique blend of the informational qualities of a traditional documentary and the entertainment value of a narrative film, U.N. Me is irreverent, humorous and intense.  Filmed in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the US.  Run Time: Approx 90 min.  Not rated.  Introduction and Q&A with director, Ami Horowitz. Playing at 8pm at the Goethe Institut (812 Seventh St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001).

$15 for screening ticket and admission to wine and cheese reception immediately following.

For a full listing of all films on display, go here. Advance online ticket purchases are highly recommended. For more info on that and venues, go here.

Comments

[Fluffy]

Promoting An American Carol?

Once again, the untenability of right-wing fusion is demonstrated. An American Carol followed by The Drew Carey Project? Why not just have a bill combining The Battleship Potemkin with the John Adams miniseries?

[Episiarch]

You guys totally failed by not screening REC instead, as a little object lesson in what the government does to you when the shit hits the fan.

[not that jb]

Friday Night: An American Carol. ... Rated PG-13 for irreverent content,

Are they handing out PG-13 ratings for irreverent content these days? Jesus Fucking Christ!

[Orange Line Special]

Friday Night: The Legacy of Ayn Rand. Rated PG-13 for irreverent content, language and a brief double anal.

[Guy Montag]

The Time Cops just killed a Dave Weigel stroy about the House voting down the bailout bill!

[R. Totale]

Friday Night: The Legacy of Ayn Rand. Rated PG-13 for irreverent content, language and a brief double anal.

Lonewacko's first intentionally funny comment! Sir, I salute you.

[R C Dean]

Why not just have a bill combining The Battleship Potemkin with the John Adams miniseries?

Actually, that sounds pretty good.

[tgb1000]

A movie all about how Michael Moore is fat. Awesome! And then when it tanks, we can blame the liberal media. A real twofer.

[Bill Rutherford, Princeton Adm]

"Zucker is plainly not worried about offending anyone. David Alan Grier plays a slave in a scene designed to show Malone what might have happened if the United States had not fought the Civil War. As Patton explains to a dumbfounded Malone that the plantation they are visiting is his own, Grier thanks the documentarian for being such a humane owner. As they leave, another slave, played by Gary Coleman, finishes polishing a car and yells "Hey, Barack!" before tossing the sponge to someone off-camera."

Wow, that's almost as funny as fucking Red Eye.

[David]

I can't decide what might be more painful. Watching An American Carol? or sticking my dick in jar of pureed habaneros?

[Chamomiles Davis]

From the look of it, I think An American Carol is poised to make million of dollars. Truly it could become the Delta Farce of political satire.

[BDB]

The only way I'd ever watch a Michael Moore Movie is if a gun were put to my head and it was between watching a Michael Moore movie, watching An American Carol, or getting my head blown off.

[dhex]

what america needs is a film that makes michael moore seem subtle and nuanced.

[BDB]

Who the fuck thinks slavery would have survived longer than 1900 or thereabouts even without the Civil War?

[BDB]

And isn't Michael Moore from Michigan?

Are they saying Michigan would have joined the Confederacy and/or become a slave state?

That makes no sense. Gah!

[Chamomiles Davis]

"Who the fuck thinks slavery would have survived longer than 1900 or thereabouts even without the Civil War?"

David Zucker, apparently.

David Alan Grier: I could see Gary Coleman (or Jon Voigt) stooping this low to earn a paycheck, but you? Really?

[Kolohe]

Who the fuck thinks slavery would have survived longer than 1900 or thereabouts even without the Civil War?

[slowly raises his hand]

[BDB]

Kolohe-

It died in Brazil and Cuba (the last places to have it in the western world) by the 1890s. I doubt the south would be anymore backward than them.

Now, would there have been South African-style apartheid that would probably still exit to this day in the South w/out the Civil War? You betcha! But slavery? That's a stretch.

[Seward]

BDB,

It died in Brazil and Cuba (the last places to have it in the western world) by the 1890s.

It died in Cuba in part because of the civil war fought there (1878-1888) and in part because of the pressure by Britain, etc. to end the slave trade, not because it suddenly became unprofitable to have slaves (indeed, Cuban slave owners adapted quite quickly to the changing markets for their goods by adopting new technologies, etc.). Violence was also a significant factor in the end of slavery in Brazil.

Anyway, comparing to Brazil or Cuba to the antebellum South is somewhat like comparing apples to oranges, since the slave societies in the former were quite different from that in the latter. Consider, for example, the role of free blacks in Brazil, where they were numerous, to those in the South (where they were nearly non-existant in most states).

[Elemenope]

[slowly raises his hand]

It was being out-competed by the free marketers; low wage workers you don't have to beat are, it turns out, more efficient.

Which would have likely inevitably ended up in a civil war anyway, as those married to the failing economic system would turn to arms to recoup their losses.

Oh wait, that's basically what happened the first time.

[JMR]

Any violence from the end of slavery in Brazil, when compared to our Civil War, would practically define "de minimis." Same with any money cost.

[BG]

Who the fuck thinks slavery would have survived longer than 1900 or thereabouts even without the Civil War?

Do you mean "if the south had been allowed to peacefully secede" or "if the south had not tried to secede"?

I think the former would have taken a lot longer than the later to yield the end of slavery. By 1860, views on slavery had become highly polarized by region. The institution had very little support in non-slave states of the north and west. In the Southeast, few people supported abolition - even though most white southerners didn't own slaves. When the confederacy wrote its constitution, it included language explicitly endorsing slavery as a permanent aspect of the new country. It would have taken a while to convince a society where a majority of people were committed to slavery - as a matter of principle - to give it up.

If the south had not seceded, it might still have been possible to eventually abolish it through peaceful political progress. But that would probably require a constitutional amendment, which would mean many more free states, and not too many slave states would have to be admitted. That process still could have taken a while.

[Jim Walsh]

I look forward to seeing all these flicks, particularly Do As I Say. I'm not so much anti-liberal as I am anti-hypocrite...

[Elemenope]

I'm not so much anti-liberal as I am anti-hypocrite...

I have come to believe that hypocrisy is the only universal human attribute.

[MAX HATS]

Wow, uh, great movies there. Shame I might have to miss the, uh, festival.

[Surely you don\'t mean that si]

I have come to believe that hypocrisy is the only universal human attribute.

[And in case anywon thinks that]

...joe's law is de rigor.

[XX]

Fifteen dollars for a dumbass movie?! I hope the wine and cheese didn't suck balls.

[tarran]

Slavery depends on one very crucial condition: the ease with which slaveowners can keep slaves from escaping.

If you have to keep the slaves trapped in a walled compound, then there are very few profitable activities they can be used for.

If on the other hand, you can ensure that even if they escape their work area, that long term escape is quite improbable or even impossible, then you don't have to keep them locked behind walls. You can allow them more tools. You can allow them some measure of latitude. They can be far more productive.

The most stable slave societies have been ones where an escaped slave was trapped by geography near his master, either by impassable terrain, bodies of water, impassable borders or by long distances.

Once slaves can easily escape, the system becomes unprofitable, and slavery collapses.

While attitudes were hardening in the South, the enforcement of the fugitive Slaves laws were, I think, the keystone protecting slavery. An underground railroad that ended in Pennsylvania or Ohio would have been devastating to Virginan and Maryland slave holders. Then, as the institution of slavery collapsed in those regions, absent wholescale deportation of black people, which would be highly unlikely anyway, the terminus of the Underground Railroad would ahve moved even farther south.

In my mind, a policy of repealing the Federal Fugitive Slave laws would have gone a long way to killing slavery in the U.S. Other things would have also helped, a repudiation of Dredd Scott, for example.

One thing that I'm glad did not happen is the ratification of that constitutional amendment Abraham Lincoln championed that would have forbidden the U.S. Federal Govt from interfering with slavery. No doubt that would have been used as justification for making the fugitive slave laws a permanent part of the U.S. code, and slavery would have lasted much later into the 20th century.