At a time when freedom of speech has never been more important, Sundance Channel presents films from THE FIRST AMENDMENT PROJECT, a highly innovative and wildly entertaining anthology from a group of award-winning indie filmmakers.  Join Mario Van Peebles, Chris Hegedus & Nick Doob, and John Walter as they explore First Amendment rights through the headline grabbing moments when our constitution’s integrity has been tested.

Would our government deliberately try to undermine our First Amendment rights?  Would the assault come from Republicans?  From Democrats?  Depending on who you ask, both sides would do just that to advance their own agendas.  The First Amendment Project is an anthology series designed to examine instances where that undermining has been the most blatant.  For those who think an erosion of civil liberties is a media myth, here are three recent examples to the contrary.

You might remember a lawsuit from a few years ago that involved Al Franken and the Fox News Channel.  Franken was releasing a book called Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look At the Right.  The cover of the book featured some of societies more well known liars, one of which being Fox’s very own Bill O’Reilly (in a very unflattering picture, by the way).  Fox promptly filed a low suit against Franken, demanding that he take O’Reilly’s picture off.  Aside from the obvious irony in a media company coming out against free speech, Fox would have had to prove that O’Reilly wasn’t a liar.

Told trough Archival footage of Franken at a speaking event, clips of The O’Reilly Factor, and interviews with the principal players, this is no doubt the funniest of the three films.  The actions of Fox News were absurd, to say the least, and O’Reilly, through his own actions, comes out looking ridiculous.  He can be seen screaming at Franken to SHUT UP!!!, and acting all the blowhard that he is on his television show.  Legally, Fox had to know they never had a case.  Everyone from Franken’s attorney to District Court judge Denny Chin says as much.  Perhaps Fox thought they could intimidate Franken into changing his book, the thought of which is worse than the lawsuit itself.  How interesting it is that people from the same side of the political spectrum that so opposes “frivolous lawsuits” filed one of the most absurd.

In the aftermath of the case, Franken went on to host a show on Air America Radio originally called “The O’Franken Factor,” titled specifically “to annoy and bait Bill O’Reilly.”  O’Reilly went back to Fox News and his classic low blow style of journalism.  “I don’t know if you know this,” says Judge Denny Chin, “but Fox News did a piece on me.”  Fox covered another case Chin was judging, and they went out of their way to make the judge look sympathetic to child pornography.  As Chin himself says, the very amendment they were trying to impede allowed them to get away with it.  (23:00)

Amiri Baraka was the Poet Laureate of the State of New Jersey when he wrote and performed a poem called “Somebody Blew Up America,” a piece about 9/11 and its aftermath.  The poem was seen as provocative, inflammatory, and it asked questions that many people saw as inappropriate for a representative of the state to be asking.  Poetic License asks the most interesting question of all three films: do artists that receive government funding owe anything to the body that funds them?  Should they censor themselves and tow the party line, or do they remain free to speak their minds?  The left and the right both would suppress the First Amendment to meet their ends.

In Baraka’s case, the outcry was instant.  Calls for his immediate resignation were loud and demanding (he refused).  Much of the outcry was over a passage in the poem that insinuated that Israelis were warned of the 9/11 attacks ahead of time and told to stay home.  Baraka asks, who told them?  He was painted as anti-Semitic.  A long, detailed passage in the film illustrates how problematic it would be to have a state poet coming out against Israel, how that might upset religious alliances made by the U.S. government and that of Israel.  Van Peebles is too smart a filmmaker to try and lend credence to the allegation about the Israelis were told ahead of time about 9/11, but he shows clearly how saying it would pose a problem for those in power.

Of course, rational thinking people never saw Baraka’s poem as anti-Semitic, and if it was critical of anything, it was Israel, not Judaism.  Jeremy Glick, a Jewish activist whose father was killed on 9/11, supports him.  We might remember Glick from his own dust-up with Bill O’Reilly, where he reduced the man to yelling at him, until finally saying, “Out of respect for your father, I’m not going to dress you down anymore.”  Glick outlines the reasons why Baraka’s mere mention of Israel would provoke the ire of the government.  Aside from Glick, we hear from a Jewish journalist, as well as media figures black and white.

Should public funding influence art?  Rudolph Guiliani tried to shut down the Brooklyn Museum over a controversial painting, and comparisons are made to Nazi Germany, where so-called undesirable works of art, works that were considered bad for society, were rounded up and put on display, just to show the Germans what was wrong (all the more interesting considering Hitler was an artist himself early in his life.)

Interestingly, the Governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey, was lying himself.  Not long after the Baraka incident, he came acknowledged carrying on a homosexual love affair while he was governor.  He resigned.  The other man was on McGreevey’s staff, and an Israeli.

As for Baraka, he never resigned.  He never had to.  The State of New Jersey eliminated the position of poet laureate amid the controversy.  (24:00)

At the Republican National Convention in 2004, half a million people took to the streets to protest the right wing agenda and reelection of George W. Bush.  Media coverage of the event was scant at best, and most of it was pretty vapid.  Yeah, the protesters were out there, but there weren’t that many people, and they weren’t causing much of a disturbance.

Photographs and home video footage from the street paints quite a different picture, and not just of the RNC protest.  The First Amendment guarantees the right to peaceful assembly, and the founding fathers saw that as crucial to the democratic process.  At a rally leading up to the invasion of Iraq, we see home video footage of rampant police abuse.  Many of the protestors in the film were at both events, and we are given a peek into their lives, which are about as normal as anyone else’s.  These people, most of them middle aged, are no doubt some of the least threatening people on the face of the planet.  Much of the film focuses on their preparations for the RNC protest.

The video footage and photographs speak for themselves.  Police on horseback stormed into crowds of protestors like Gestapo, and people were beaten without warning or explanation.  Likewise, the NYPD would wade into the crowd and pen people in, separating them from the rest of the crowd.  There were 1800 hundred arrests, the detainees held until the end of the convention.

Perhaps worse than the police abuse was the fact that the media largely ignored the protest, and the police action was mysteriously absent from newscasts.  There were half a million people in the streets, the largest protest ever at a political convention, and it was virtually ignored.  One of the women, a classical musician, tells us how she talked to a friend in another state about what they were doing, and how the friend was unaware there even was a protest.  The undermining of the first amendment here, the targeting of its practitioners, is appalling.  More appalling is the lack of outcry.  If half a million people stage a protest, and no one knows about it, is there really dissent?  The between the lines Orwellian implications of this piece are startling.  (23:00)

The examples in this film, all recent and told in a straightforward manner, free of any sensationalism, are a stunning look at what our government is willing to do to advance its agenda.  Each segment approaches the First Amendment from a different angle, but the questions posed here are complicated and vital.

The First Amendment Project is presented in the original fullscreen format.  The transfer is solid, retaining much of the original quality.  Much of the film is taken from news footage and on-the-fly video photography, so there is a limit to how good it can look, but this disc does as well as it can.

This DVD is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo.  The presentation is solid, and all channels come through sharply.  This is not the kind of film with a complicated soundtrack, but the presentation is well done and free of defects.

Fox vs. Franken Comic Strips: A DVD-Rom feature that offers a PDF version of comic strips that were deleted from the film due to length.  These are pretty funny.

Mario Van Peebles Outtakes: An extended version of Mario’s introduction, where he talks more in depth about Baraka and the First Amendment.  (4:56)

Somebody Blew Up America: The poem that got Baraka in trouble, here we have the compete performance, seen in pieces in the film.  (12:35)

Locked Up For A Poem: Baraka talks about a prison term he did in 1967 over a poem he wrote and performed called “Black People.”  (2:00)

You Gotta Vote: Baraka talks about the importance of voting.  (2:37)

Amiri Baraka Official Statement: Another DVD-Rom feature, this one a PDF version of the statement he made when asked to resign over the “Somebody Blew Up America” controversy.

Deleted Scene: Profile of a Protestor: Gregg, a typical New Yorker, a white collar worker with children, talks about his political activities including protest.  (2:00)

Photo Gallery: Photos from the Republican National Convention.  Oddly, these didn’t make most of the papers.

Filmmakers Bios: Text biographies of all the filmmakers involved in this project.

The First Amendment Project is a must-see.  The same would be true in any time, but in light of the current political climate, the questions posed here are especially vital.  The films are supplemented by bonus material that is detailed and interesting.  Everyone should see this disc.